Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As always, I’m trying to keep the issue of drivers using cell phones, and the fact that they shouldn’t be, front and centre in people’s minds. It’s definitely not something we should be doing. I’m looking for a bit more information from the Minister of Transportation in regard to the pledge campaign that is now part of the Drive Alive program. So I’d like to ask the Minister if he could elaborate a little bit on the Leave the Phone Alone pledge campaign, what the department is doing to put the campaign in place. Thank you.
Thank you, Ms. Bisaro. The honourable Minister responsible for Transportation, Mr. Michael McLeod.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’m glad the Member has raised the issue of safety for our travelling public, whether it’s on our roads or our trails or our waterways. It’s an issue that you have to be constantly promoting.
This past couple years we’ve initiated a Drive Alive activity list program that focuses on different areas. Last year we had a number of things that we worked on. This year we want to continue that. We’ll be providing advertisements and also asking some of our colleagues from the MLAs to participate. We have developed a helmet safety program through posters and other means. We’re also doing a lot of work in other areas of creating awareness with the bison and issues around bison on our highways. We’ve committed to hiring summer students and we’ve also incorporated a website and developed that over the last while and we’re doing some displays at our airports.
As part of the Drive Alive activities we’ve also started the program Take the Pledge – Distracted Driving and we have a number of activities. I can’t specify what the response has been. We’ve invested some dollars so far and plan to do another 13 or 14 thousand dollars worth of investment to promote the program. As soon as we get some summaries, I can provide it to the Member. Thank you.
Thanks to the Minister. The more we can do to publicize the negative aspect of driving and using cell phones and texting, the better. I’d like to know from the Minister if he knows at this point -- I understand it’s a little bit preliminary for this campaign -- whether or not the department is working in conjunction with any other groups that also work to get people to not drive distractedly. Thank you.
We had planned to contact the MLAs, if we haven’t done it already, to ask them to participate and do some promotional ads on this area. We have worked with the Students Against Drunk Drivers, I believe, and some of the municipalities, and of course we are always in contact with the RCMP, the municipal workers and the different sports organizations across the Territories. Thank you.
Thanks to the Minister. I guess if the Minister is going to contact MLAs, I hope that he would publish how many MLAs or how many do not take the pledge. I’d like to know from the Minister -- I mentioned in my statement that there are some amendments coming forward -- whether or not the Minister at this point can provide more information about what those amendments will be. Thank you.
I’m not sure whether we’re going to threaten the MLAs to take part. We would expect most MLAs would want to be involved with the program to providing advertisements on the different radio stations and television stations. Also, I’m sure that many would want to sign up for a Take the Pledge Program.
The legislation for distracted driving has gone through the process. We have done the due diligence on it and provided our findings to standing committee. The legislation is now in the process of being drafted. We’re working with Justice on this. We’re hoping that we’ll have the draft legislation prepared for final review. It still has to go through a number of checks and balances here before we’ll provide it, but we would expect that we would have that ready, if all goes well, at the tail end of this session or more than likely it would be the May-June session. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. McLeod. Your final supplementary, Ms. Bisaro.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker, and thanks to the Minister. I definitely don’t want to threaten anybody, but we’re called leaders and I would hope we would be leading in this particular aspect of not driving with our cell phones in use. Thanks for the information on the amendments.
To the Minister, I guess I’m just wondering, knowing that the legislation is coming forward sometime and will be passed sometime in the next four or six months, any idea when the legislation will take effect? Thank you.
There’s still a number of internal review processes, as I mentioned earlier, to go through. Of course, I can’t give a 100 percent guarantee that it’s going to pass. We’ve already had one motion on the floor that didn’t get the full support. The details are all in the bill, including the timing. I don’t have that information in front of me. Certainly it will come forward as we move this document forward. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. McLeod. The honourable Member for Tu Nedhe, Mr. Beaulieu.
