Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I previously asked questions to the Minister of Infrastructure about extending the hours of the department of motor vehicles in Yellowknife. Mr. Speaker, I recognize that this is a small issue, but it is my intention to go through each of my campaign platform points and try my best, and if I can't have an office buy a couple of hours, then I wonder what I am doing here. The Minister responsible for the Department of Infrastructure last said that one of the barriers to implementing this was cost. I would like to know what the cost would be in adding an additional day to the department of motor vehicles' operating hours.
Thank you, Member for Yellowknife North. Minister of Infrastructure.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. To the entire cost of adding one extra day, versus moving days around, I don't have that number in front of me. However, it would be the staffing for at least one employee there for the hours. Then, there would be security needed, if that was on a weekend; so that's $22 per hour for security. There would also be issues with the HVAC systems. Buildings are turned off, generally, over weekends and in the evenings, so that would also be an additional cost to building maintenance that we would have to deal with. I am not sure if we would have to look at things like different types of pay rates for people working outside the regular 9:00 to 5:00 business hours, but I believe those would all be things that would add to the cost. If the Member would like, I could find out what one day of operating costs at the DMV are and supply that to him. Thank you.
One of the problems in this House is that it is not my job, and it's not the Minister's job, to get into the operations of departments and be talking about HVAC systems, but consistently, when I ask for something that seems like common sense to me, that the department of motor vehicles should be open outside of government hours, I end up talking about HVAC systems, so I would look forward to the Minister providing that information. Would the Minister be willing to also provide information on whether it would cost us money to have the department of motor vehicles be closed on Monday, but then open Saturday, which would allow us to have some hours which are not government hours?
Yes, I can provide the costs of what that would be. Again, I would have to get that information off of the department. I don't think it is as easy as just shutting down for Monday and opening up on Saturday, because there are, like I said, other ramifications to deal with having people in the building on a weekend when the rest of the building is not occupied. That includes, at this moment, the response team within the building, which does involve using staff that is in the building already who would, then, not be there on a weekend. Again, I will commit to the Member. We can give him a costing to change those hours, but I do believe it would be with a cost.
I hope, by end of three years of pestering the Minister about this, I can get a couple of extra hours. At some point, if the democratically elected people of the NWT can't get a couple of hours of time to renew their driver's licence, then I don't believe we are having the right conversations. My question for the Minister of Infrastructure is simple. I don't want to continue having conversations about the operating costs and the operations of a building. Will the Minister direct her department to open the department of motor vehicles in Yellowknife for some portion of time, either evenings or weekends?
No, I won't make that direction at this time, because, while the Regular Member does not maybe have to worry about the cost, I do. Therefore, I will look at the costs; if it does make sense, I will do what I can for this to be a win for the Member with his constituents. However, I do need to factor in the costs of the budgets of my department.
Thank you, Minister. Oral questions. Member for Inuvik Twin Lakes.
