Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’ve recently got in touch with the Town of Norman Wells and I asked them about this question. I wanted to hear from the Town of Norman Wells, because it’s the only community in the Sahtu that has cell phone service there. So I’ve spoken to the senior administrative officer and this issue hasn’t become an issue for the community. We did talk about the safety issue in the town of Norman Wells and I also know that Imperial Oil employees have their own rules on using cell phones. Like any other organization, I’ve heard that they’re not allowed to use them while they’re driving and if they are going to use them, they have to pull over to the side of the road and use them. He said it is a safety issue; however, it’s more geared towards the southern part where there’s lots of traffic and there is cell phone service in that area. However, he said he doesn’t think that it should be used in the town of Norman Wells. So I thank my constituent for that. Basically what he’s saying is that this issue is for larger communities and at this time no one in my communities are pressing me to vote for this motion here.

Using cell phones in the Sahtu while driving is not an issue in the small NWT communities such as the Sahtu communities. Our issue is having a highway in the communities and getting cell phone services. Cell phones, again, don’t work because we don’t have them, except in the town of Norman Wells. Other issues such as the high cost of living or education and youth are much more important in my riding.

Mr. Speaker, in the Sahtu there are other ways to deal with the issues that do result…rather than making our lives more complicated. As I said, organizations can draft up their own rules and regulations for their employees. NWT communities can enact their own bylaws if they want to prohibit this type of activity. We’re seeing this type of issue, Mr. Speaker, in terms of some of the gun registration. That is a very important one where larger urban centres are telling us how to deal with this issue in our small communities. There’s animal rights, there’s helmets, there’s requiring helmets for our snowmobiles and ATVs in our smaller communities, so we are standing up and voicing our concern on these issues here; simple activities in our lives which are completely different from the cities. Sometimes we get caught up in the red tape and the rules which may make sense for the larger centres but don’t make sense at all in our smaller communities. We don’t want to become like Yellowknife or Edmonton. We want to work on the advantages of living the modern way; however, we want to have cell phones before we even start banning them in our vehicles.

So, Mr. Speaker, if Yellowknife wants to have cell phones or hand-held devices prohibited in their city, then we certainly in the Sahtu would consider supporting this initiative here. Safety, as I heard, is an important issue. We have a great program in this government called Drive Alive. Let’s use this tool here to educate all NWT drivers about this program here and really educate our people in terms of the real meaning behind Drive Alive.

So, Mr. Speaker, I think I want to close my comments here in terms of reminding people of both hands on the wheels and eyes on the road. Thank you.