Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I have some questions for the Minister of Transportation as a follow-up to my statement earlier today. I mentioned a report that the department was working on and I understand that the department’s report has been finished and I think it has also gone to committee. I’d like to know from the Minister whether or not that’s accurate and if that’s the case, will this report be made available to the public and how soon. Thank you.
Thank you, Ms. Bisaro. I missed the Minister you were directing your question to, Ms. Bisaro. Can you clarify that?
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Minister of Transportation, please.
Thank you, Ms. Bisaro. The honourable Minister of Transportation, Mr. Michael McLeod.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. This is an issue that’s been raised by a number of Members in this House. We have committed to do some work in the area of what other jurisdictions are doing, what are some of the situations that we are facing here in the NWT. We’ve compiled some information and we have provided it to committee and we’ve written a letter to committee that requests to have some time to discuss this and get their comments and feedback. This will be a very public issue that will have a lot of discussion and we anticipate as we go forward all this information will be made public. Thank you.
Thanks to the Minister for that information, and I guess I’ll just have to wait for it to come in the fullness of time, as another Minister would say. I appreciate the fact that there’s going to be input from the public. I think that’s a good thing, but recently the NWT Association of Communities passed a resolution at their meeting in Hay River in which they said they urge the Members of the NWT Legislative Assembly to move forward with legislation prohibiting the use of cell phones and hand-held communication devices, excluding two-way radios, while operating a motor vehicle. I guess I’d like to know from the Minister whether or not the sort of input he is looking for is this kind of input from an organization that represents 27 of our 33 communities. Will he take this sort of information from our communities into advisement as well? Thank you.
I was at the NWT Association of Communities meeting. I didn’t vote on this issue. Mr. Speaker, I think we have compiled quite a bit of information. It’s fairly comprehensive. We want to have the ability to have that discussion with the EDI committee and we’re hoping we’ll have some time. In fact, maybe even during this session we’d be able to do that or in the next little while. If we’re going to do anything major, we’d need to have it at least into the House for discussion by next sitting. That’s something that we have been looking at. However, before I make that decision, before I make that commitment, I need to be able to have some feedback from committee and have that face-to-face discussion.
I don’t think I heard an answer to the questions, but that’s alright.
I did mention in my statement, I quoted a GNWT policy. I have a question for the Minister. I’d like to know whether or not he’s aware of this policy. The department has a public education campaign on distracted driving, I believe. I’d like know if the Minister will be publicizing and promoting this GNWT policy as part of the department’s distracted driving public education campaign. Thank you.
I believe I was the one that informed the Member of this clause that’s in our policies. It is public information already. I’m not sure how much more public she would like to make it, but if that’s not what she’s asking, I’d sure like to sit down with her and seek clarity on her quest.
Thank you, Mr. McLeod. Your final supplementary, Ms. Bisaro.
Thank you. I’m not sure if I got it from the Minister or from my assistant, but I got the information. I guess, having had difficulty getting another policy from the government recently, I’m a little sceptical about the public availability of our GNWT policies. Basically, what I’m looking for from the Minister is that we ensure that our employees are aware of this policy and that they adhere to the policy. So my last question to the Minister is whether he can tell me of efforts on the part of either the Department of Transportation, any other department within government or the government as a whole, what efforts are there to enforce this policy amongst our employees? Thank you.
Mr. Speaker, if the Members or our staff were not aware of this policy, we certainly would not be able to enforce it. Our supervisors and each department are responsible for providing that information and they’re also responsible for providing discipline in this area. That is public information that the Member’s referring to. It’s on the website, I believe. It’s a policy that is government-wide and it’s public. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. McLeod. The honourable Member for Nunakput, Mr. Jacobson.
