Thank you, Mr. Speaker. With all the recent attention lately on 911 in the territory, this definitely opens up the debate on why the GNWT still does not have a system in place, nor has the appetite to initiate the framework of a 911 emergency call centre.
Admittedly, this 911 topic has been covered many times in the past by some of my colleagues here today. We have heard from the very same Municipal and Community Affairs Minister, even back on October 15, 2009, saying that 911 would not be considered in the NWT until cell phone service was available across the territory. Now, many, even back then, had a hard time understanding why mobile accessibility was a prerequisite for 911 services. Now that the majority of our communities have the capabilities of mobile use, it begs the question again, why is this government not in the mandate of public safety for its residents?
The residents of the NWT have many more questions. Why has this government dragged its heels on making sure that all 33 of our communities have updated and real-time access to emergency action plans which could incorporate a standardized 911 system? Why has this government not initiated a framework of an integrated 911 emergency community framework call centre? Why has this government not allowed the programming of 911 calls via dedicated circuits to a centralized public safety answering point somewhere in the NWT, thus allowing for potentially more jobs in our communities? If costs were such a factor, why has this government not worked with southern established 911 call centres, like in places like Edmonton, Alberta, to piggyback on what is currently an established and tested call centre?
Public safety is a mandate of public government. Just because this government provides money for community emergency services through capital funding and gas tax funding, it does not mean our responsibility to citizens gets passed on to community governments for such 911 emergency services. Sorry, but the power for such decisions is not for community governments to prioritize. It is for the responsibility of the territorial government to standardize such service for its people.
Now that devolution is well on its way, the Premier will be looking for a new issue to champion; therefore, I will have questions later today for the Premier for his commitment on the investigative framework of a 911 call centre for the residents of all our 33 communities across the Northwest Territories.
Thank you, Mr. Dolynny. The Member for Deh Cho, Mr. Nadli.
