Mr. Speaker, about a year ago I raised the issue of the N.W.T. licence plate and how its tagline says, “Explore Canada’s Arctic.” My concern at the time with the Minister of the day was the fact that it’s not truly reflective of our Northwest Territories in present times. The good Minister of the day had agreed with me, and it sounded like the department was moving forward full steam ahead on updating the licence plate with a suggestion I brought forward, “spectacular.ca.”
My question to the Minister of Transportation is: where is this project? Assuming that it’s still going forward, when can we see some work that’s been done on this project?
Mr. Speaker, the polar bear licence plate is internationally known and has played a significant role over the years in promoting the Northwest Territories. I’d like to thank the Member for being persistent on this issue and for the suggestion and working with this government in terms of changing our licence plate to “spectacular.” I’d like to advise the House and the Member that the N.W.T. Tourism group is working with the Department of ITI and the Department of Transportation in terms of promoting this licence plate, and it’s going through its process of establishing such a logo for the Northwest Territories.
I’m glad the Minister understands it clearly that I in no way am suggesting to change the shape of the licence plate; it’s only the tagline. My concern is that it’s not happening soon enough. The issue, I can clearly hear, has good buy-in, but it’s not moving fast enough.
My question really is: when can we see some results of this work? When can we expect to be able to see cars driving around the Northwest Territories that say “spectacular” on the back of them? When can we see that work?
I, too, would like to see the licence plate and the word “spectacular” on it. I will follow up on this issue with my department. I will ask the department to give me an update as to this, and I will pass it on to the Members of the House. If Mr. Hawkins would like further discussions, I’ll be happy to sit down with him. I’m also working closely with my colleague from ITI in terms of advancing this issue so that all people in the Northwest Territories can be proud to have this word on their licence plates.
Mr. Speaker, this only begs one more element to this combination. Obviously it’s nice to see a Minister working with a Member and hearing the cries from this side of the House — and hasn’t forgotten us, by the way. But I’d just like the reassurance from the Minister that he will include the N.W.T. Tourism Association in on this as well as, as he had mentioned, the Minister of ITI. Finally, would he make sure I’m included in some type of release when they do this? Thank you.
Mr. Speaker, I thank the Member for the spectacular question.
Laughter.
I would ask my colleague that he and I would work on this very closely. We are working directly with N.W.T. Tourism. We’re all working on this issue here. Hopefully, we would make the fact of the announcements in terms of when we could unroll this licence plate out to the people of the Northwest Territories.
