Thank you, Mr. Chairman. The department’s initiative is a step closer to another safety awareness for our people who are using our roads, especially ones that are driving. This bill is a good step towards safety.
The one issue that I have is going to have a concern for me -- and I want to ask the Minister if he would elaborate later on -- as to the portable use of handheld electronic devices in our region on the winter roads. We know that we have winter roads that we rely on these handheld devices for our
safety, for knowing if there are big semi-trucks coming in our direction, safety for our people in our vehicles. Also these handheld electronic devices are also used to service oil rigs and oil leases, camps that are going to be starting up in the Sahtu this winter for working, and not all companies have extra money to buy these radios that should be mounted on the dashboards. So these handheld electronic devices would be a big help if we had some clarification on that from the department’s attention. Otherwise you’re going to have a few companies in the Sahtu being charged under this new law here. That’s something I would not support the department on.
The restrictions on the cell phone talked about here, I think, again, as I said, the Minister is in the right place to do this. It’s the right time. But also all cell phone users, you know, in Yellowknife here sometimes, and other areas, people who are on their cell phones sometimes don’t look at when they’re crossing the street or not. They’re so busy on their cell phone they don’t look around and see if a vehicle is coming or not. I think there’s a general awareness campaign not only for people who are driving vehicles but for people in general who use cell phones. Some of them use these headsets and they cross roads, they don’t check. Just like when we had people who were hiking with us on the CANOL Trail, we said there’s no personal electronic device for the headsets, otherwise they won’t hear the animals or they won’t hear us or that. So you’ve got to be safe about it. It’s just good general education awareness about these devices that it could be good, but also it could hurt you. This reminder here is a good one in a general sense. The legislation itself is good. It talks about some specific things.
The other point I wanted to ask the Minister, in his remarks back to us, is that there are lots that have animals in them, cats and dogs, in front seats, on people’s lap. Sometimes you don’t know who’s driving, the person or the dog, because you see the dog in front of the person. I experienced that last week here in Yellowknife. I had to take a look twice because that little dog’s face got in front of that person’s face and I thought that the dog was driving. Well, it’s scary. I want to know, because that kind of legislation is needed or we’ll find it somewhere else in the regulations for distracted driving.
I want to ask the Minister on that one there, because they put people at risk, too, having the animals in the front seat or the back seat. I have a little boy who goes to school here, and every time he gets into the vehicle I know his life is in my hands, and if someone is not responsible for their driving, well, it affects me, it affects my boy. My boy, I love him so much. If anybody has some things with the animals there, think about my boy’s life over a dog’s life or a cat’s life. That’s serious for
me. I know it’s funny sometimes, Mr. Chairman. It is when you think about in, but when you come down to really think about it, we have children on the road, we have children in our vehicles and we have to be reasonable, someone said responsible, and think about it.
For me, I want to say I support this amendment to the Motor Vehicles Act. I would like to get some clarification on some of the issues that I’ve brought up and I want to know that some communities do not have cell phone coverage. Some communities rely on the handheld devices. We don’t have a SADD chapter in the Sahtu but we have a lot of good kids who write a lot of good educational posters and awareness about the dangers of drinking and driving, about seatbelt safety and all those other things. I mean, we’d certainly like to see them up in our region and start a chapter, you know, not just as in Yellowknife.
As a legislator, I’d like to see things happening in other regions such as my own in the Sahtu, and we use the winter roads. We don’t have all-weather roads here. Winter roads are somewhat different from the roads in Yellowknife, Hay River, Inuvik, Simpson, Res. My people depend on the winter road. That’s our lifeblood and not to restrict us in the Sahtu there.
Mr. Chair, that’s all I wanted to say. I am supporting the bill. I need some clarification or there is going to be some more rumbling.