Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions today are for the Minister of Transportation. I, in my statement, thanked the Department of Transportation for their responsiveness to issues. The issue of icing, whether it be on airplanes, on highways, this is the time of year it would seem that there is a great potential, when the temperature is hovering around zero, for there to be icy conditions.
Mr. Speaker, between the NWT border and Enterprise is a very long stretch of highway which does not have good cell phone service. I know this because when we came upon this rolled truck last night at 8:40, and by the time we checked under it and around it to see if there were any victims at the site, until we got to report it to the RCMP over an hour had passed, Mr. Speaker. So I’m asking the Minister today if he thinks there would be merit in having an energized solar power-supplied sign at the border and one at Enterprise that could be remotely programmed to contain information about that long stretch of highway, so that if someone going over the road discovers an accident or discovers hazardous road conditions, if that could be programmed to send that message out to prevent someone else from getting in that accident. Even stopping on the highway to check out an accident creates another potential for vehicles to get into difficulty on black ice. Thank you.
Thank you, Mrs. Groenewegen. Honourable Minister responsible for Transportation, Mr. Michael McLeod.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The Member raises an important safety concern that we have on all our highways, especially the highways that have chipseal. We have been looking at a number of ways to try to deal with this issue, and then try to raise the awareness through the public and the people on the highway system during the times when we have challenges. We’ve incorporated a maintenance schedule that would allow us to have staff on the highway system seven days a week so that they can closely monitor, especially during the winter months, the events that are happening.
We’ve also brought on stream, over the last couple of years, a number of traffic signs, lit variable signs that we can use, and this year we’re going to have a number of new ones, with a total of eight signs that give a number of responses to the travelling public, including bison locations, speed limits, it will measure how fast you’re going, and we think it has merit. I think the Member’s suggestion is a good one. We can certainly take a look at it.
We are trying to do other things that would help us in this area, including we’ve installed a road weather information system that runs on solar energy and would provide information back to our maintenance camps so that we have information readily available. That may be something that we can incorporate on Highway No. 1 that would help us out with this issue of black ice. Thank you.
Mr. Speaker, I mentioned, as well, that when one has the unfortunate experience of coming upon an accident that’s already occurred, there are no shoulders on the road on that stretch of highway I’m talking about. So for an example, last night we had to basically stay right in the lane with our four-way flashers on, and someone coming around a curve, and they touch their brakes, you have the potential for another accident. So I guess I’d like to ask the Minister, in that particular stretch of highway, what are the plans for expanding the shoulder? There are no shoulders on that road now. They go to the edge of the pavement or the chipseal and it’s just a straight drop-off on the gravel. Thank you.
Mr. Speaker, we’ve incorporated a four-year plan to deal with the issue that the Member’s raising on Highway No. 1 from the border to Enterprise and further down towards Highway No. 3. The road width is, I think, eight metres and we are planning to expand and widen the road to a 12-metre roadway system that will allow us to park on the shoulders. We’re also looking at ways to incorporate a number of pull-offs that would assist people that are travelling and want to rest or stop for various reasons. Thank you.
Another feature that the Department of Transportation instituted at the ferry crossing was a live camera, a camera where people could go on line, go to the Department of Transportation website on the Internet and actually view what was happening with the ferry crossing. Is there any anticipation of the department expanding the webcam network so that more points on the highway system can be viewed by those who are thinking about venturing out and travelling? Thank you.
Mr. Speaker, as of now, the request for a camera at the ferry crossing has been something we were considering. We don’t have it built into our budget yet, but we certainly can take a look at it.
Yes, we continue to look at ways to expand our information collection through the intelligent systems that we have. If the Member had driven in, I am not sure if she drove into Yellowknife yesterday, but as she turned onto Highway No. 3, her vehicle would have been weighed, her speed recorded and the classification all documented. We have cameras on Highway No. 3. We have two cameras set up in Yellowknife that collect information. We have video collection units on two of the intersections here in the city that study traffic volumes, turning patterns and also vehicle classifications. There are a number of things that we have on the go. We would like to expand that to other road systems. At this point, some still are in the early testing stages. We will continue to monitor that. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. McLeod. Final supplementary, Mrs. Groenewegen.
When you go on the website and you type in the AMA, Alberta Motor Association, they have the list of the cameras and they go all the way down through all the highway systems in Alberta. Maybe we could talk to Alberta and see if we can be added onto that network without creating our own. It is just an idea. I don’t know if you can rename it something that people would know but, anyway, to go on and advise the travelling public of what kind of conditions the roads are in would be helpful. Thank you.
I certainly agree. Our budget of $126 million, compared to I think Alberta is $20 million for transportation, is a little bit not what we would like to see, but we continue to try to bring information. I appreciate the Member’s comments, because we need to be able to provide the travelling public on road conditions, black ice and bison location. We need to be able to enforce speed limits and any other concerns of safety on our highways, including the width and being able to stop in emergency situations. We will continue to move forward on that. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. McLeod. The honourable Member for Tu Nedhe, Mr. Beaulieu.
