Thank you, Mr. Vician. Mr. Braden.
Debates of Feb. 27th, 2001
This is page numbers 1265 - 1329 of the Hansard for the 14th Assembly, 3rd Session. The original version can be accessed on the Legislative Assembly's website or by contacting the Legislative Assembly Library. The word of the day was chairman.
Topics
Committee Motion 39-14(3): To Revise The Highway Strategy To Incorporate Cost-effective Inter-community Travel (carried)
Item 19: Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
Page 1302
Committee Motion 39-14(3): To Revise The Highway Strategy To Incorporate Cost-effective Inter-community Travel (carried)
Item 19: Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
Page 1302
Bill Braden Great Slave
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I am going to reinforce the point that one of the ways that I find useful to measure progress is to have some kind of relationship between what we are investing in an objective and what we are getting out of it. So what I would like to do, for the record, is for future business plans, to urge the department to be somewhat more specific or detailed in this. It will give us a better sense of where we are going and what we are voting for. I request there, Mr. Chairman, if the department would like to comment on that, that is fine. Otherwise, I do have one other area that I would like to ask about in safety.
Committee Motion 39-14(3): To Revise The Highway Strategy To Incorporate Cost-effective Inter-community Travel (carried)
Item 19: Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
February 27th, 2001
Page 1302
Committee Motion 39-14(3): To Revise The Highway Strategy To Incorporate Cost-effective Inter-community Travel (carried)
Item 19: Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
Page 1302
Vician
Mr. Chairman, yes, we could extract the component for specific safety initiatives as best as possible and provide that in future business plans. Thank you.
Committee Motion 39-14(3): To Revise The Highway Strategy To Incorporate Cost-effective Inter-community Travel (carried)
Item 19: Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
Page 1302
Committee Motion 39-14(3): To Revise The Highway Strategy To Incorporate Cost-effective Inter-community Travel (carried)
Item 19: Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
Page 1302
Bill Braden Great Slave
The other area I wanted to ask about is with regard to patrolling and monitoring on the highway and specifically the degree to which the RCMP are engaged in this. I understand that through a contract the Department of Justice has with the RCMP, that it includes provisions for this, but there have been difficulties because of staffing and resources within the RCMP side related to the amount of enforcement and coverage they are able to offer on our highways.
This is an area that I think is augmented, if you will, by the Department of Transportation's own monitoring services which, I understand, are directed primarily or perhaps exclusively only at commercial vehicles.
I am wondering if the department could give us a sense of the extent of monitoring, which agency handles what category of traffic and do we have an adequate level of monitoring and enforcement going on in our highways? Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Committee Motion 39-14(3): To Revise The Highway Strategy To Incorporate Cost-effective Inter-community Travel (carried)
Item 19: Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
Page 1303
Committee Motion 39-14(3): To Revise The Highway Strategy To Incorporate Cost-effective Inter-community Travel (carried)
Item 19: Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
Page 1303
Vician
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. The department, through its compliance branch which is within this budget area, is responsible for the compliance of motor carrier or commercial traffic on the highway system and all aspects of that motor carrier compliance pursuant to regulation and statutes, both national and territorial.
The requirement for compliance by the general public or the motoring public is with the RCMP. That is established through the contract with the Government of the Northwest Territories for enforcement on the highway system and elsewhere.
A further authority exists with the delegation of enforcement authority to communities through bylaw and the ability for communities to have enforcement staff on their employment list to enforce those.
Overall, there is a series of ways to enforce. The RCMP at this point, we understand, have increased their presence on the territorial highway system at the request and continued pressure of the Government of the Northwest Territories, both through the Department of Justice and through the Department of Transportation. We are very pleased with the cooperation the RCMP has provided. They have also assigned some oversight to one of the detachments to look at how, in the long term, enforcement can best be handled on such a large system. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Committee Motion 39-14(3): To Revise The Highway Strategy To Incorporate Cost-effective Inter-community Travel (carried)
Item 19: Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
Page 1303
The Chair Paul Delorey
Thank you, Mr. Vician. At this time I would like to recognize and welcome Mr. Roland back to our committee. He just got back from Inuvik. Welcome back.
-- Applause
Mr. Bell.
Committee Motion 39-14(3): To Revise The Highway Strategy To Incorporate Cost-effective Inter-community Travel (carried)
Item 19: Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
Page 1303
Brendan Bell Yellowknife South
Thank you. I have some questions in this area. Mr. Braden has already indicated a request for more detail the next time we look at this, and I would agree that I would like to see that. I will try to keep them of a broad nature, and hopefully we can get some answers that way.
I am wondering, especially regarding safety, reading the description here, it says: "The department establishes and enforces acts, regulations and safety codes that apply to drivers and motor vehicles, including commercial motor carriers." I am wondering if the safety budget has declined this year from last year.
Committee Motion 39-14(3): To Revise The Highway Strategy To Incorporate Cost-effective Inter-community Travel (carried)
Item 19: Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
Page 1303
Committee Motion 39-14(3): To Revise The Highway Strategy To Incorporate Cost-effective Inter-community Travel (carried)
Item 19: Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
Page 1303
Vician
No, Mr. Chairman, with regard to compliance, we have not decreased our budget. Thank you.
Committee Motion 39-14(3): To Revise The Highway Strategy To Incorporate Cost-effective Inter-community Travel (carried)
Item 19: Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
Page 1303
Committee Motion 39-14(3): To Revise The Highway Strategy To Incorporate Cost-effective Inter-community Travel (carried)
Item 19: Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
Page 1303
Brendan Bell Yellowknife South
So my question then is, if the mandate used to be that we would stop non-commercial traffic and enforce seat belt legislation and all these other kinds of things, and now we no longer do that, what are we doing with that extra money that must be kicking around?
Committee Motion 39-14(3): To Revise The Highway Strategy To Incorporate Cost-effective Inter-community Travel (carried)
Item 19: Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
Page 1303
Committee Motion 39-14(3): To Revise The Highway Strategy To Incorporate Cost-effective Inter-community Travel (carried)
Item 19: Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
Page 1303
Vician
Mr. Chairman, nothing has changed in terms of the resourcing of the compliance branch. The challenge that we were facing over the past few years was the amount of time spent in compliance of motor carrier units. For example, the highway patrol that was dedicated to looking at large vehicles was challenged in the time it could spend on motor carrier as well as enforcement of infractions under the Motor Vehicles Act by the general public.
There is no doubt that we are facing increased traffic volumes in the commercial sense in different parts of the Territories, the Liard, the Beaufort, the Dempster and in this region of the North and South Slave. What we have done through a policy measure is ensure that our officers, or our compliance group, are focusing on motor carriers and sticking to ensuring that the increased volume of motor carriers adhere to the large vehicle regulations and other statutes, such as dangerous goods transportation and so on. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Committee Motion 39-14(3): To Revise The Highway Strategy To Incorporate Cost-effective Inter-community Travel (carried)
Item 19: Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
Page 1303
Committee Motion 39-14(3): To Revise The Highway Strategy To Incorporate Cost-effective Inter-community Travel (carried)
Item 19: Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
Page 1303
Brendan Bell Yellowknife South
Thank you. So are we no longer involved in any sort of enforcement of seat belt legislation for non-commercial carriers, that is entirely out of our hands now? Or do we still do some promotion, or any of these kinds of things? Or are we strictly in the safety business for commercial traffic?
Committee Motion 39-14(3): To Revise The Highway Strategy To Incorporate Cost-effective Inter-community Travel (carried)
Item 19: Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
Page 1303
Committee Motion 39-14(3): To Revise The Highway Strategy To Incorporate Cost-effective Inter-community Travel (carried)
Item 19: Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
Page 1303
Vician
Mr. Chairman, from a compliance point of view, the department only enforces seat belts with regard to motor carriers. As far as the promotional aspect of the department is concerned, we are continuing to pursue seat belt awareness and seat belt campaigns. Time is given to the officers and other compliance and motor vehicles staff to work with fire departments, to work with communities to continue to promote these activities. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Committee Motion 39-14(3): To Revise The Highway Strategy To Incorporate Cost-effective Inter-community Travel (carried)
Item 19: Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
Page 1303
Committee Motion 39-14(3): To Revise The Highway Strategy To Incorporate Cost-effective Inter-community Travel (carried)
Item 19: Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
Page 1303
Brendan Bell Yellowknife South
One possible concern I can see is that we can spend a lot of money promoting seat belt awareness and these kinds of things and have very little or maybe no idea if it is working if we are not actually stopping traffic, and we are taking somebody else's word for it. I will move on to other issues.
It looks like the department also has information related to the status of registration of vehicles and other kinds of things. I know that in Alberta, for instance, if you were going to purchase a vehicle, you are able to access information from motor vehicles that will tell you if there any liens against the vehicle. You can do a vehicle identification search to confirm ownership. I am aware that the department also has this information, but residents of the Northwest Territories are for some reason unable to access any of this information. I believe they are told that it is confidential. Can the Minister confirm whether that is in fact the case?
Committee Motion 39-14(3): To Revise The Highway Strategy To Incorporate Cost-effective Inter-community Travel (carried)
Item 19: Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
Page 1304
Committee Motion 39-14(3): To Revise The Highway Strategy To Incorporate Cost-effective Inter-community Travel (carried)
Item 19: Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
Page 1304
Vician
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. The issue to access to information for the purpose of motor vehicle registration or licence information is considered restricted. That information has limitations and is ongoing in terms of the discussions with regard to the degree of release of that information for certain purposes. We have considered presentations by the access to information commissioner and other parties, such as the Department of Justice, that have concerns with regard to disclosure of this information.
We are aware that other jurisdictions practice differently. It is a matter that is currently before the department and we are looking carefully at the possibility of changing our current policy in terms of release of that information. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Committee Motion 39-14(3): To Revise The Highway Strategy To Incorporate Cost-effective Inter-community Travel (carried)
Item 19: Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
Page 1304