Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I spoke earlier about the people driving up in the Sahtu and we have the Sahtu winter roads. For example, from Wrigley to Fort Good Hope is 480-some-odd kilometres and from Tulita junction to Deline is about 105 kilometres. So there are a lot of roads in the Sahtu and people use a lot of this opportunity to go down south, drive to each community, get fish, caribou and to visit.
I want to ask the Minister, because of a constituent asking, how do we get the Sahtu winter road recognized as a public road like any other roads in the Northwest Territories?
Thank you, Mr. Yakeleya. Minister of Transportation, Mr. Beaulieu.
Mahsi cho, Mr. Speaker. The winter roads maintained by the GNWT are considered public roads. Thank you.
Just conversing with my colleague here, we were kind of having a little mini day here. So we want to ask the Minister how do we let the Ford dealership, the GMCs, the Toyotas, those car dealerships know that these are public roads and when we buy a brand new $50,000, $60,000, or $40,000 vehicle there’s roadside assistance? They’re saying right now that they cannot go because it’s an ice road or winter road. So how do we get that message through to the dealerships?
Mahsi cho. We’ve been in contact with two major roadside assistance organizations, the Alberta Motor Association and Ford Roadside Assistance, and both organizations indicate that they cover all public winter roads in the Northwest Territories maintained by the GNWT.
That’s very strange because I just had a tour of the Sahtu, a young lady came to me, bought a GMC, said I phoned for roadside assistance and GMC said we do not recognize that as a public road. So, somewhere there is a glitch. I want to ask the Minister – and I hope the Minister one day will come on the Sahtu winter roads to see what I’m talking about – how does this Minister, this department, this government phone the dealership, put an ad, whatever, so they’ll recognize the Sahtu winter roads, any winter roads in the Northwest Territories under a public system so that we can get service and not wait 16 days and take money out of our pockets to pay for a tow truck to bring our vehicles into a garage? Thank you.
All roadside assistance organizations are private and really have nothing to do with the GNWT, but we have contacted what we thought were the two major roadside assistance providers on the winter roads, those being the two I mentioned earlier. We have no issue contacting the organization that covers GMC or Chevy that provide roadside assistance in the same manner that we’ve contacted these organizations and have provided the concerns from the people of the Sahtu to them, and also people from Deh Cho.
Thank you, Mr. Beaulieu. Final, short supplementary, Mr. Yakeleya.
Thank you. I appreciate that from the Minister. I think the people from the Sahtu or any other winter road drivers who are listening would appreciate that. I think that’s what the people are asking. This constituent is shocked and surprised and saying how come I’m not getting any type of roadside assistance, and I need to call the dealership. I ask the Minister if he would do that as soon as possible, and I’m not even talking to see if there’s any type of how do we go about reimbursing him, but I would appreciate that. I would ask the Minister if he would send me a quick note saying these are the companies and the dealerships that I’ve contacted for the winter road roadside assistance.
On the two companies that we did contact, they indicated to us that there is a method if individuals that are not satisfied with the Alberta Motor Association for roadside assistance that they are to contact the provider, so we can provide that information to the Members, and also if there are vehicles outside of roadside assistance provided by those two organizations, we will also find out the information for the Member on those organizations as well.
Thank you, Mr. Beaulieu. The Member for Nahendeh, Mr. Menicoche.
