Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I bring this motion forward because I believe it is a very serious matter of public safety and I believe it’s a situation that needs to be corrected. Distracted driving is said to be an unreported traffic safety problem and I believe that statement as well.

I made a statement two weeks ago and I said that distracting driving can be many things: eating, drinking, changing a CD, using portable video games or DVD players, fiddling with radio dials, talking to a passenger, experiencing emotional distress, minding children, personal grooming, looking at billboards, looking at people or even at other vehicles on the road and, last but not least, using cell phones to talk, text or e-mail.

This behaviour causes risks to users of our roads. Those users aren’t just motorists, they are pedestrians, they are cyclists, they are snowmobilers. The Minister of Transportation said just today in his statement, being distracted, for instance, by eating, reading, texting or anything else that takes your attention off the road while driving, reduces and sometimes removes the ability to react to sudden and unexpected conditions or obstacles. I totally agree.

All across the country, Mr. Speaker, all across the world, there is clear evidence that using a cell phone or other hand-held device while driving

contributes to risky driving behaviour and thus an increasing incidence of motor vehicle accidents.

It’s acknowledged by an increasing number of companies in Canada that employees should not drive while using cell phones. In the North, there are two that I am aware of for sure; both Finning Canada and NWT Transportation Company Limited have that policy and I commend them for it. Their employees must pull over if they have to use their phone.

Those companies recognize the threat that distracted driving poses to their employees and to the public in general and to their equipment. They don’t want to pay for repairs to their equipment, for sure.

A few statistics: It’s four times more likely that a person who is on a cell phone while driving or a distracted driver will have an accident. Data shows that eight out of ten collisions are caused by distracted drivers. The Canadian Automobile Association says the number one cause of motor vehicle accidents is cell phone use while driving. Drivers using cell phones have reaction times the same as if they were intoxicated. In a study at Western Washington University -- this is an interesting one -- researchers planted a polka dot dressed clown with a big red nose riding a unicycle in a campus square. Then they measured those people who noticed the clown and who didn’t. These are people walking, not people driving. Twenty-five percent of the people talking on their cell phone while walking saw the unicycling clown compared to 50 percent of the people who were walking alone, in pairs or even those listening to portable music players. So you can’t even walk and use a cell phone and see what’s going on around you, so why would we drive?

A recent news release from the GNWT Department of Transportation says we need to make safe travel choices. The safest travel choice is to turn off your cell phone when you get behind the wheel of a vehicle. Unfortunately, people need to be coerced to make that right choice. This ban of hand-held devices and the accompanying public awareness campaign will help to make our residents make those right choices.

I regret that people have to be forced. I don’t like to force people into doing things, but if this ban will help to improve public safety, if this ban will ensure one less death or one less injury, then I accept that the law is necessary.

Five provinces in Canada have banned cell phone use while driving and four other provinces are looking at a ban in the very near future. More than 50 countries worldwide in other jurisdictions around the world have restricted cell phone use while driving.

I have heard concerns from Members that this ban will create problems, particularly among RCMP and those who drive truck and need a two-way radio that they depend on for their employment activities. I have to disagree. Northerners are not the only people who need radios for their work. Newfoundland and Labrador have had a ban on cell phones while driving since 2003, that’s six years, Mr. Speaker. No doubt they have a solution for this anticipated problem; anticipated to us, not to them. I am sure their legislation includes exemptions of some sort for RCMP and truckers.

There is no need for us to reinvent the wheel here. We can use what works in other jurisdictions. People say we shouldn’t do this because we are a northern population. We live in the North. We are different. We have small populations. We have little cell phone service in our small communities and on our highways. I believe this should not be a reason for this government to take action. If it is a public safety issue, we need to recognize it is a public safety issue for all of our Territory.

The Yukon recently considered two motions on the subject of banning cell phone use while driving and, interestingly enough, one motion from each side of their party-divided House. So it wasn’t just one side or the other. They are a northern jurisdiction. They have the same situation in many respects that the NWT does. They are looking at a ban to take effect possibly January of 2010.

People are asking what the affect is. I don’t think there is any effect except that it will provide for the safety of our residents. That is residents whether they are driving, whether they are not driving, and it includes pedestrians. I liken it to drunk driving. When drunk driving was first considered to be an inappropriate behaviour, it started slowly. There was a major awareness campaign. Legislation then came into place. It has taken a really long time, but drunk driving is now not acceptable and we have to do the same thing for distracted drivers and I believe starting with hand-held devices is a good way to go.

In conclusion, Mr. Speaker, banning hand-held devices is prudent and proactive as an action. Again, there is a commercial where an old man -- I think it is Wilford Brimley -- sits there eating cereal and he is in a cereal commercial. He used to say it is the right thing to do. I believe that phrase also applies to this particular recommendation.

Banning hand-held devices will protect our NWT residents from harm. To quote the Minister of Transportation again from his statement today, our children deserve that protection. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.