Thank you, Mr. Speaker. This cannabis issue is multi-facetted, so I have some questions for the Minister of Justice. He is not going to get off the hook today. There has been a lot of talk of the roadside testing for cannabis for impaired driving, so I would like an update from the Minister. I believe the NWT has procured these roadside drug-testing kits. Have they been distributed across the territory, and are they available to all officers? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Masi. Minister of Justice.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I know that the roadside drug screening device was approved at the end of August, but I am not certain whether it has actually been deployed across the Northwest Territories as of yet. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Hopefully the Minister can provide that information sooner than later. This has been discussed in this House before. Officers are being trained to use the equipment, as well as, I believe, to detect impairment without the equipment. I know that there was a training program that officers were going through, and they had a timeline. How many officers in the territory have been trained to date in cannabis impairment testing?
There are different types of programs that are taking place. There is the Standardized Field Sobriety Testing and the Drug Recognition Expert Training. I can advise that 31 police officers are trained in the SFST, and four members have been trained in the DRE.
I figured it would have been more than four members by now, but I know that there are a lot of challenges facing the RCMP in the territory, and you can't just send them all off for training. Hopefully we can get an updated timeline from the Minister about when all that training will be completed.
One concern that we saw in the media was that these roadside testing kits might fail in cold weather, and I want to know from the Minister: what has the department put in place to monitor the occurrence of false positives so that we are not wrongly charging our residents?
Yes. I understand that there have been some concerns about the reliability of these tests in cold weather. I am assured that the tests are quite reliable, and if they aren't, they will be tested in the courts.
Masi. Oral questions. Member for Hay River North.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I just want some clarification on that last answer. The Minister is aware that there have been concerns about the reliability, but he is not concerned about the reliability, so there is nothing in place to test the reliability. Is that correct? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Yes, I do understand that there are concerns about the reliability of the results of the tests. However, if there are concerns about the reliability, I am sure the defence counsel will attempt to make applications in court so that the reliability of those tests can be reviewed. I do understand, however, that the machines are quite reliable and have been tested in various locations and climates in Canada. Thank you.
Masi. Oral questions. Member for Kam Lake.
