Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions today are for the Minister of Transportation. I’ve received complaints about the 2011 registration stickers that people put on their licence plates. I know living in the harsh climate that we do, that the stickers that go on licence plates have to be durable in nature. I have a constituent that was in the office the other day and one actually fell apart while he was in the process of getting his registration changed. The Department of Transportation replaced it. He took his sticker outside and it immediately folded up on itself and was not useable. So he phoned the department and they said it was going to cost $20 to get a new sticker.
I’d like to ask the Minister if we have changed the stickers for 2011 that we put on licence plates here in the Northwest Territories.
Thank you, Mr. Ramsay. The honourable Minister responsible for Transportation, Mr. Michael McLeod.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We’ve responded to a lot of different concerns that have been brought forward from the Members of this House, including licence plates and issuing of registration and having more transportation officers on the highways. This is not an issue that has been brought to my attention. This is the first I’m hearing of it. As far as I know, there has been no change to the quality or type of stickers that we’re using. I’d certainly have to follow up on that. It’s not an issue that I was aware of.
I’d like to ask the Minister if perhaps, and I’m not sure when the new licence plates are coming in, but maybe we’ve ordered new stickers for new licence plates and we’re trying to use new stickers on old licence plates. I’d like to ask the Minister if that might be the case.
We are planning to introduce new licence plates sometime this summer. They are pretty impressive, from what I’ve seen. I’m not aware that we have changed our type of stickers. It’s an issue that will be of concern, of course, as we are going to be issuing new licence plates starting this summer. I will certainly commit to the Member that we will follow it up and see what the concern is, if that’s the case with a lot of people, if that is coming back to us. I personally have not had any problems, but having said that, we’ll follow up with the concern.
If these new stickers are actually intended for the new licence plates and are different than the ones previously and are causing our residents issues when they go to put them on their old licence plates, I’m wondering if the Minister will commit to not charging residents $20 to get a new sticker if the one they get should be destroyed by trying to apply it to their plate.
I can see the cause for concern. If it is an issue that has been caused by ourselves as a department and we can find out what the root of it is, we will certainly try to make amends so that people are not burdened by something that is not their fault.
Thank you, Mr. McLeod. The honourable Member for Mackenzie Delta, Mr. Krutko.
