Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, Members of the committee, I would like to thank you for the opportunity to present Bill 8, An Act to Amend the Motor Vehicles Act, for your consideration. During the 2nd Session of the 14th Legislative Assembly, this Legislature considered Bill 5, An Act to Amend the Motor Vehicles Act. During its review and consultation of Bill 5, the Standing Committee on Governance and Economic Development received and noted concerns with the current Motor Vehicles Act, specifically the lack of statutory authority in respect of overloading of vehicles with passengers.

The standing committee noted that this overloading results in the lack of proper seat restraints for occupants of the vehicle. As Minister of Transportation, I committed to look into this matter. Very simply, Mr. Chairman, Bill 8 proposes to remove some of the few remaining exemptions for wearing a seatbelt in a motor vehicle. Specifically, these amendments will require any passenger travelling in a motor vehicle shall wear a seatbelt. Motor vehicle equipment design has developed over the years that all seating positions in a vehicle today are now equipped with seatbelts. This amendment requires passengers use them.

We now have over 30 years of working data for proving beyond the shadow of a doubt the effectiveness of seat belts in preventing injuries and deaths in automobile accidents.

Unless we choose to disregard the evidence, there is not much room for debate on the constructive and beneficial nature of this amendment.

Secondly, Bill 8 will amend the Motor Vehicles Act to prohibit the carrying of passengers in a box of a pick-up truck. The bill will now include legislation that will permit a municipality, settlement or an unincorporated community the authority to pass a by-law permitting a person to ride in the box of a truck that is being operated within the community at a speed less than 25 kilometres an hour.

The bill will also allow band councils, settlements, and unincorporated communities to request an exemption where circumstances are satisfactory to the Minister of Transportation to approve an exemption.

Mr. Chairman, it is important to understand that the intent of Bill 8 is public safety. A vehicle operator assumes responsibility for all occupants in his or her vehicle. Children or other occupants should never be placed into a situation where their safety is jeopardized.

These past weeks, I had the opportunity to appear before the Standing Committee on Governance and Economic Development to discuss Bill 8. I wish to take this opportunity to thank the standing committee and members of the public for their review of the proposed amendments.

Mr. Chairman, I trust the members of the committee will agree that the amendments proposed in Bill 8 are straightforward, sensible and sound. In closing, I would ask the committee to give them its approval. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.