Thank you, Mr. Speaker. After raising the issue of a cell phone ban while people are driving, on Tuesday, I’ve received a considerable amount of feedback from both the community of Yellowknife as well as the riding of Yellowknife Centre. Many people are speaking out towards their support of this type of issue. Equally, they are stressing their concern about the lack of interest from the Minister of Transportation and his lacklustre answers when he was told to address the issue.
People in Canada are concerned about this issue and, I’ll tell you, people in Yellowknife and the Territory are starting to register their concerns. The New England Journal of Medicine might not have been good enough for the Minister of Transportation to hear. Why wasn’t the Canadian Medical Association not good enough for the Minister of Transportation to hear? Now we have, potentially, the Students Against Drunk Driving taking on this issue, as well as many other people concerned in the city about this. I’ve recently talked to one of our city councillors, Paul Falvo, who says maybe we can start a Facebook page to start drawing out the support.
The Minister of Transportation asking for the name of the person who raised this issue from my
constituency is highly irregular, but the fact is, it’s a safety issue, so it really doesn’t matter where it comes from. I’d like to know where the Minister is on this issue. Ultimately I think people demand a clear answer. If the Minister is finally listening to this issue, no matter where he is, I certainly hope he’s not driving in a big fancy truck tempted to grab his cell phone and say, hey, wait a minute, I feel differently. The fact is this needs to be driven home; there needs to be clear calls to this Minister to say stop, think about it.
I’m encouraging everyone who can listen to this statement, everyone who is going to take the time to read this statement, to e-mail the Minister at [email protected] and express their concerns about this issue and say action must be taken, because it is elsewhere in Canada and the world.