Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Today I am raising the topic of safety for students in the NWT. We all know that intercommunity sports and recreation events are an important part of a student’s life experience.
Mr. Speaker, I have many fond memories of travelling with Mr. Rick Tremblay when I was kid to communities for basketball, wrestling and cross-country events. As we all know too well, coaches,
team mangers, chaperones and parents often take their teams to other communities in the NWT and Alberta. They make use of their own cars and minivans and sometimes rent vehicles and buses.
Sadly, I need to recognize the tragedy of seven lost lives last year in an accident in New Brunswick. Typically, the investigations into these kinds of incidents point to poorly maintained vehicles, overly tired drivers, bad weather, poor safety practices by passengers. In response to that event, the province has now taken steps in establishing guidelines about students travelling, including vehicle types, vehicle inspections and driver training.
Mr. Speaker, before the alarm bells need to go off in our territory, I hope our government will consider acting. The government in New Brunswick is proposing and eventually establishing their guidelines as enforceable regulations under their Education Act.
I suspect the NWT practices are not much different from other places in Canada. Hard working teachers and parents volunteer their time and efforts and vehicles to make huge positive contributions in their children’s sports activities. We all have heard stories about northern travel, about broken down vehicles in cold winter and passengers without winter gear. We know that ambulances are not easy to find on many NWT highways. We all know that coaches often do double duty coaching and chaperoning all day long at hockey arenas, and then they drive home in the dark when most of the athletes and students are sleeping because of their exhausting day and weekend.
I think that it is time for the NWT Minister of Education to work hard with his partners and establish some northern guidelines for student travel. These guidelines would assist everyone to take the right amount of care and the right kind of standard to make sure our students are travelling safe.
Mr. Speaker, I am sure the Education Minister would agree with me that parents and teachers want to know their children are as safe as they possibly can be when travelling to events with the school teams. That I wholeheartedly support.