This is page numbers 4863 - 4888 of the Hansard for the 16th Assembly, 5th Session. The original version can be accessed on the Legislative Assembly's website or by contacting the Legislative Assembly Library. The word of the day was plate.

Topics

Wendy Bisaro

Wendy Bisaro Frame Lake

Gee, $10 for 30,000 plates. That is pretty cheap. What I was looking for was the cost to the government. I know the Minister, yesterday I think, said that this is going to be cost neutral, but I was looking for a total cost. I mentioned as well in my statement that we pay a vehicle registration fee, some $82.60 if you’re registering a vehicle. So I estimate that amount for 30,000 plates or vehicles to be about $2.5 million or more annually. I’d like to ask the Minister what that money is used for. Thank you.

Michael McLeod

Michael McLeod Minister of Transportation

Thank you. I’m assuming the Member is asking about the plate costs, $10, which is required to recover the cost of what it costs to produce it, associated paperwork. There is going to be 30,000 plates that will be replaced and a further 10,000 a year annually. It’s a fee that we are not marking up to recover any, or to make any money on it. Other jurisdictions charge more. For example, B.C. charges $18, Ontario charges $20, and New Brunswick charges $25. So we feel we’re below the national rates or at least on par with other jurisdictions. Thank you.

The Speaker

The Speaker Paul Delorey

Final supplementary, Ms. Bisaro.

Wendy Bisaro

Wendy Bisaro Frame Lake

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I didn’t hear an answer to my question. I heard an answer to the second question, not the third one. But I’d like to ask the Minister now, Mrs. Groenewegen had a wonderful suggestion of which would actually generate revenue for us, so I would like to ask the Minister if that would be a consideration that when people come to register their vehicle in this next 18-month period, will they be allowed to, (a), keep their plate and pay $10, or will they be allowed to hand their plate in for zero dollars? Thank you.

Michael McLeod

Michael McLeod Minister of Transportation

We are right now advising the public that they can turn their plate in and we’ll dispose of it for them, or they can keep it. We have no other options available to the public. We are not planning to try to put them on the market. There is a concern from the environment as these older plates were dipped in some toxic chemicals that were required to prevent corrosion that we are concerned about. Thank you.

The Speaker

The Speaker Paul Delorey

The honourable Member for Kam Lake, Mr. Ramsay.

David Ramsay

David Ramsay Kam Lake

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I want to follow up with my colleague Ms. Bisaro’s questions to the Minister of Transportation on the new licence plate. First off I must say the licence plate itself is very nice, but it’s the process that I think people are taking issue with. As the chair of the Standing Committee on Economic Development and Infrastructure, the Minister came to Members and told us that the department was in the process of developing a new licence plate. At no time were we given any opportunity to provide input on what that design would look like. Not only does the public not get an opportunity to provide any input, Members of the House didn’t have an opportunity to provide input into the design of the new plate that was given to us. I’d like to ask the Minister about the process that allowed us just to come up with this one design. Thank you.

The Speaker

The Speaker Paul Delorey

The honourable Minister of Transportation, Mr. Michael McLeod.

Michael McLeod

Michael McLeod Minister of Transportation

Mr. Speaker, we’ve been writing to committee since 2009. The Member, as the chair, could have requested a briefing at any point.

Mr. Chairman, we should also clarify that we didn’t change the design of the plate. We upgraded the plate to meet national standards that require some safety, there were safety concerns. There was also a size that needed to be incorporated into this new plate, and while we were at it we wanted to be able to be consistent with the government’s slogan, which is “Spectacular,” and incorporated that as a way to promote the Northwest Territories. Thank you.

David Ramsay

David Ramsay Kam Lake

I agree with the Minister on all those points but the fact is the design of the plate itself. I know the department came back to the committee and told us this “Spectacular” slogan would end up on that. We agreed with that. However, there is some design on the bottom of that plate that was never discussed with committee.

I’d like to ask the Minister why the committee, why the public wasn’t given some opportunity to comment on proposed options for the new design of the plate.

Michael McLeod

Michael McLeod Deh Cho

I guess the committee didn’t provide feedback because we didn’t have an opportunity to brief them. There was no opportunity to go in front of committee to present on the licence plate. We did talk to North America’s leader in licence plate design, 3M Corporation, who provided us some advice. We talked to the NWT Tourism Association, who provided us some advice. We also talked to the veterans, the Legion, the

municipal officers, the RCMP, and we also consulted with other jurisdictions.

We didn’t go out and do a full-blown consultation process because we were not planning to change the design. It was one design and we wanted to incorporate safety factors into this plate. We wanted to deal with the environmental concern. We also wanted to meet industry or national standards and work with NWT Tourism and our government to promote the NWT. I think we did all these things.

The reality, and I respect that change is always hard to accept, especially with a new fee incorporated, but the reality is that we would have had to replace the licence plate in any event and if we had tried to maintain the old plate, the old design, I guess we could have, but that’s not the advice we got. The cost would have been a lot more than what we are incurring right now.

David Ramsay

David Ramsay Kam Lake

I thank the Minister for that. The bottom line is that there is a new design on the plate. We can agree to disagree on whether there’s a new design on the plate, but anybody looking at the new plate will certainly see that there’s a new design on the bottom portion of that plate. I’ll leave it at that.

I’d like to ask the Minister of Transportation, for example, if somebody had personalized plates with the old plates, they pay a specialized fee for getting personalized plates. If they’ve just done that in the past six or eight months, now they’re going to be expected to not only pay the $10 for the new plate but also $25 to keep that plate after having already paid a fee for a personalized plate. I’m wondering if the Department of Transportation has any ideas in mind when it comes to folks like this, if they’re going to be paying twice within a short period of time for what in essence is the same plate on their car.

Michael McLeod

Michael McLeod Deh Cho

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The Member is correct; there are instances where individuals have recently purchased personalized plates and they will now incur a new cost to replace them. It’s not the full cost. It’s $25 for the personalized plate plus $10 for the new plate. That doesn’t seem to be stopping people coming forward. We’ve already had up to 200 people come in and request new plates or replacement personalized plates. We think it’s a cost that’s fair and we’ll be sticking to the price that we are trying to take.

The Speaker

The Speaker Paul Delorey

Thank you, Mr. McLeod. Final supplementary, Mr. Ramsay.

David Ramsay

David Ramsay Kam Lake

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Getting back to the question Ms. Bisaro had and that Mrs. Groenewegen raised in her Member’s statement, the utilization of existing plates. If folks could go into the Department of Transportation and give them their old plate -- and I know the Minister talked

about there being some kind of toxic paint or something on them. People aren’t going to eat them. They’re going to put them in their rec room or have them as a memento of their visit to the Northwest Territories. What’s stopping the Department of Transportation from collecting the plates from residents, giving them to ITI or some other agency to sell to tourists when they come North?

An Hon. Member

Great idea.

Michael McLeod

Michael McLeod Deh Cho

We are collecting the plates right now. As this moves forward, we will be collecting plates. People will be coming forward with the plates for disposal. ITI has already requested to see if we can recycle them. We’ve turned them down. We don’t want the plates going back on the market and being utilized in any other form, especially as souvenir plates on the front of a vehicle.

We are creating souvenir plates for the public to use, for the public to do whatever they want to do with it. They’re free to do that. That will go out to consultation, and Members, people across the floor can have input on that if they want to change the design or format of how it looks, colours, that’s open for discussion. As for recycling the plates, the public can retain their licence plate and do what they feel they want to do with it. But for the plates that are turned in, we are not putting them back on the market. We will be finding a way to dispose of them.

The Speaker

The Speaker Paul Delorey

Thank you, Mr. McLeod. The honourable Member for Nunakput, Mr. Jacobson.

Jackie Jacobson

Jackie Jacobson Nunakput

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Today my Member’s statement was regarding the Mackenzie Gas Pipeline and the government’s stance on going forward. I just want to ask the Minister if the government is devoting the resource and attention to this megaproject and if the government will involve the MLAs up and down the delta, up and down the valley, community leaders, to push forward from an all-inclusive campaign group to work with this project.

The Speaker

The Speaker Paul Delorey

Thank you, Mr. Jacobson. The honourable Minister responsible for Industry, Tourism and Investment, Mr. Bob McLeod.

Bob McLeod

Bob McLeod Yellowknife South

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. With the release of the Joint Review Panel report, governments have had to spend their time and effort on dealing with the recommendations, and legal advice we have been provided is that we should let the responsible Minister deal with the pipeline. As such, we have been limiting our remarks to just talking in general terms about the

pipeline. That’s the approach that we’ve been taking.

Jackie Jacobson

Jackie Jacobson Nunakput

The Minister said keeping on the timelines. Last year they took almost five years for this. I really hope that the federal government and our government don’t take that long regarding hearing back from the NEB. Will we be working with the federal Minister and our Minister regarding keeping the timelines and keeping them on track on the date that is set already, and when is that date?

Bob McLeod

Bob McLeod Yellowknife South

The responsible Minister for our government is working hand in hand with the responsible federal Ministers. The timeline that everybody is working towards is to finalize the final reports by September 2010.

Jackie Jacobson

Jackie Jacobson Nunakput

This report took five years from the JRP to get handed in. We have businesses in the delta that you know of in Inuvik and Tuk and Aklavik that are relying on this project. Not only this project, the people are having... There’s no work up there, no economic benefits and nothing going on right now other than building, if you’re a carpenter. No roadwork or anything. At the end of the day, this government has to take a step.

I thought we were too lax on not pushing this thing forward as hard as we should have. The Minister is doing a good job on working with the federal Minister, but I think the timeline, we have to get more concentrated in pushing them now to make this project happen. We need this project to go. We need the work. There’s nothing going on up in the delta. We’re going to have to wait another two years or three years before something happens.

Will the Minister commit to me today to work with the...to get this project off the ground and get the shovel ready?

Bob McLeod

Bob McLeod Yellowknife South

We will continue to do what we can in this area. It’s very important for us, or critical for us, to wait until the final reports so that we can work from there. I think one of the very important factors is the sunset clause that was discussed at length. We would have to wait for the final report on that. Also the federal government has, through the consult to modify process, we will have to wait until that process runs its course and everything is geared to when we get the final report in September of this year.