Question has been called.

---Carried

Mr. Hawkins.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I move that this committee recommends that the Elections and Plebiscite Act be amended to give the Chief Electoral Officer the power to enter into compliance agreements, issue compliance orders, and issue formal cautions.

Thank you, Mr. Hawkins. The motion is in order. To the motion.

Question has been called.

---Carried

Mr. Hawkins.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I move that this committee recommends that the Elections and Plebiscite Act be amended so that late fees can be imposed on later filers of elections expense reporting.

Thank you, Mr. Hawkins. I believe the motion is in order. To the motion.

Question has been called.

---Carried

Thank you, committee. Does committee agree that the Standing Committee on Rules and Procedures Auxiliary Report on the Review of the Report of the Chief Electoral Officer on the Administration of the 2007 Election has been concluded?

Thank you, committee. Next on our list to consider is Bill 4, An Act to Amend the Motor Vehicles Act. Excuse me. That was Bill 14, An Act to Amend the Motor Vehicles Act. We’ve agreed to do that next. I’d like to ask the Minister responsible for Bill 14, the Honourable Michael McLeod, to introduce the bill.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I am pleased to appear before the committee today to review Bill 14, An Act to Amend the Motor Vehicles Act. The NWT Motor Vehicles Act must be updated regularly. This ensures that new initiatives and best practices that improve safety and meet the needs of the travelling public are formalized in legislation.

Bill 14 consists of 12 amendments. The amendments are important to the regulation of vehicles and drivers on the NWT highway system. This will help us to better respond to the increasing pace of change related to motor vehicles.

Some of the key highlights of the amendments are:

• Expanding the list of individuals that have

access to accident reports. This will include anyone directly involved in an accident, not just the driver, vehicle owner, insurance company or agent. The expanded list would also include passengers, pedestrians, cyclists, and property owners.

• Requiring drivers to reduce their speed when approaching roadside emergency vehicles. This will protect emergency and enforcement personnel when performing their duties.

• Establishing an offence for driving a motor

vehicle on a highway while the lights are obstructed by snow, ice, dirt or mud. The lack of visibility is a safety issue. As with a similar amendment made to the act for windows and licence plates, we don’t anticipate any significant public concerns. We expect police will exercise discretion as to whether to issue a ticket to a driver depending on the circumstances.

• Increasing the grace period from one to two years during which a person can renew an expired driver’s licence without retesting. This will save time and expense for the clients and also for the department.

• Regulating the inspections of emerging vehicle types. This will ensure that new classes of vehicles are safe to operate on NWT highways. Examples include right-hand drive, low speed, and electric vehicles.

Other amendments include:

• Establishing the specific authority for driver’s licence demerit point regulations.

• Providing nurse practitioners and registered

nurses with the same duties and liability protection that currently exists for physicians under the MVA.

• Expanding the liability for equipment offences on commercial vehicles to the owner as well as the driver.

• Providing explicit authority for the registrar to collect personal information for purposes related to the Motor Vehicles Act.

• Expanding the list of agencies that may

request copies of registrar’s records to include provincial and territorial Crown prosecutors.

• Authorizing the registrar to issue temporary

permits for unusual vehicles and special events.

• It also includes minor changes to language and word usage to make the act consistent with other territorial legislation.

In closing, I would like to emphasize the need to update the Motor Vehicles Act on a regular basis. It allows us to operate more efficiently and, most importantly, it provides us with a better means to ensure the safety of the travelling public.

Thank you very much, Mr. McLeod. I would now like to ask the chairperson of the Standing Committee on Economic Development and Infrastructure, which reviewed this bill, to make comments. Mr. Ramsay.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. The Standing Committee on Economic Development and Infrastructure conducted its public review of Bill 14, An Act to Amend to the Motor Vehicles Act, on May 26th , 2009. The committee thanks the Minister

and his staff for presenting the bill to us.

The bill amends the Motor Vehicles Act. A new short-term permit is created and an application for a driver’s licence may now be based on a licence that has been expired for up to two years. Nurses are required to report medically unfit drivers in the same manner as required of a medical practitioner. A person is prohibited from operating a vehicle with obscured or damaged lights or reflective devices. And drivers are required to reduce their speed when close to emergency vehicles with flashing lights.

The registrar’s duties are clarified with respect to the disclosure of records. Drivers and employers are held liable for contraventions in the operation of commercial vehicles. The authority for a demerit point system is expanded.

Following the committee’s review, a motion was carried to report Bill 14, An Act to Amend the Motor Vehicles Act, to the Assembly as ready for Committee of the Whole. This concludes the committee’s opening comments on Bill 14 and individual Members may have additional questions or comments as we proceed.

Thank you, Mr. Ramsay. I now would like to ask the Minister responsible for the bill if he would like to bring witnesses into the House.

Yes, I do, Mr. Chairman.

Thank you, Mr. McLeod. Does the committee agree?

Thank you, committee. I will now ask the Sergeant-at-Arms to escort the witnesses into the Chamber.

Would the Minister please introduce his witnesses?

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I have with me Mr. Russell Neudorf, deputy minister of Transportation, and also Garry Dziwenka, senior policy analyst, and Ian Rennie,

the legislative counsel with the Department of Justice.

Thank you, Mr. McLeod. I now open the floor to general comments on Bill 14, An Act to Amend the Motor Vehicles Act. Mr. Krutko.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I did raise a committee issue in regard to review of this bill. I think it’s something that we have to be cognizant of. A lot of the time the road conditions that we operate on are basically because of the climate or weather conditions that we’re operating in. Especially when you’re driving on the highway such as the Dempster Highway and basically you’re in the fall time during the rainy season and you got mud from one end of your vehicle to the other end. I think we have to be realistic when we enforce some of these laws that we make. It has to be realistic to the climate and environment that we’re in. Regardless, it’s the person issuing the license. He’s going to have the same problem you have in regard to covered taillights by way of mud or even in the case of a lot of travelling public, especially tourists who come up the highway. For them especially with motorhomes, you’ve got mud from one end to the next and you’re looking for the next station to wash your vehicles off. In most cases, you’re talking a couple hundred kilometres apart.

I think that we have to be realistic that when people are issuing these licences they have to be aware of the condition of that particular day, especially with the condition of our highways. Unless you want to amend the bill and consider that this only applies to paved highways where you can see it, realistically you shouldn’t have muddy plates on paved highways. But highways that basically are built from gravel and mud and whatnot that during the rainy season you will see this problem.

The same thing applies to snow conditions that we see in the winter months when you you’re driving through a blizzard or a major snowstorm. There are going to be these times when basically…So I’d just like to get some clarification from the Minister if he had an opportunity to think about this.

I think that you have, whoever is issuing or basically charging someone under this offence, it should be either a summary conviction or some sort of notification that, you know, you have a problem in regard to the dirt and mud that is on your vehicle. Or even in this case snow conditions. I think that you don’t want to have someone get a criminal record simply because the condition of the road they’re driving on caused the effect that that person is being charged with. The person didn’t personally go out there and coat mud all over his signal lights. It’s a natural thing of how we operate vehicles in the climate that we’re in, in the condition of the highways we operate on. I’d just like to ask the Minister exactly has he had a chance to think about

this and see exactly how we can, you know, whoever’s enforcing this legislation don’t use it as a tool to start charging people every time they drive by with mud on their signal lights.

Thank you, Mr. Krutko. Mr. McLeod.

Mr. Chairman, the changes are in the area of trying to upgrade the act to improve safety on our roads. We certainly recognize that we’re not going to have the RCMP stopping every vehicle as they drive down a muddy road. But at the same time, if the conditions are dry and it’s sunny out and you’re driving on pavement and your taillights are all covered in mud, that’s something for consideration.

The act uses the words “unduly diminishes the effectiveness of the light or reflective device.” That is key, I think. We expect the RCMP to use discretion as they provide enforcement in this area. The conditions have to be realistic. If it’s raining and it’s hard to see the lights, then we would expect people to also take the due care and attention to clean their lights. We already have the act that covers windshields and licence plates, so we’re expanding it to the area of lights. We think this is appropriate.