Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions today are in response to the Minister of Transportation’s Alcohol Ignition Interlock Program. I’m just wondering when the Minister and the department expect the regulations to be in place to implement these units.
Thank you, Mr. Bouchard. The honourable Minister of Transportation, Mr. Ramsay.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Within the next three months. Thank you.
Mr. Speaker, has the department looked at other regions where they have implemented these units? Have we re-introduced or re-created the program? I know some of the issues that the department had in the past, they’ve basically created their own system and then we found out there were flaws because we never looked at other jurisdictions. Has the department looked into the other jurisdictions?
Mr. Speaker, a great deal of consultation took place with other jurisdictions across the country. I mentioned in my Minister’s statement Saskatchewan, Manitoba, Newfoundland and Labrador. In other jurisdictions, they see reductions in impaired driving being reduced by 50 to 90 percent. We are very hopeful that once the program is put into place here in the Northwest Territories that we will see a reduction in impaired driving here in the NWT as well. Thank you.
Mr. Speaker, I am wondering if the department has been in contact with some of those people that had the infractions already and maybe they’re having to work through Justice, but they informed them that this is a program that is coming forward and will be implemented within the next three to six months.
Mr. Speaker, the program will be piloted at first in Yellowknife and in Hay River. We will start things in those two centres and move the program forward from there. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Mr. Speaker, not that it’s that important, but I’m wondering, because I think this is an important issue, but not that the cost is an important issue, but does the department have any estimates of what the rollout cost of this program would be to start?
Mr. Speaker, I can get that detail for the Member, but for the program itself, for somebody to enrol in the program, as I mentioned, it is $125 a month. That’s the cost for the individual. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Ramsay. The honourable Member for Inuvik Boot Lake, Mr. Moses.
