Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I've risen in this House a number of times during this session to speak about ambulance, first responders, as well as emergency services on our highways.

Mr. Speaker, recently we suffered a dangerous tragic accident on our highways and those are always - and hopefully and thank God - rare on our highways. But the statistics show that we have had 130 vehicle accidents on our highways in the last three years, and if you add the numbers, that's almost one accident every eight days somewhere on our highways. They may seem small compared to the roadways in Alberta or our southern counterparts, but indeed it's something that is gravely concerning to many of us here.

It has been brought up in this House a number of times, as I said, during this session, where I've had concern where we're at with respect to our emergency services or highway emergency services and our first responder protocols.

I've had the chance to speak to both Municipal and Community Affairs and the Department of Health and Social Services, as well as the Department of Transportation to find out where we're at with respect to our highway protocols and our highway services. It appears that we actually did not get very far on those questions. In fact, it did probably shed more light on the fact that we had more gaping holes in our program than we did have in terms of process. So we're hoping, by virtue of today's motion and those Members who are speaking in favour of it and with Cabinet listening, that we, indeed, can make some progress and some milestones towards the safety of Northerners across the Northwest Territories.

We've known for years now that the three departments in question that I mentioned have been working on programs and services to develop emergency training management programs, but years have passed and yet we still have no solutions in site. In fact, we've asked whether or not there could be interim solutions or temporary solutions to these problematic issues. We've heard that there will be none forthcoming.

I applaud the Member for Deh Cho, Mr. Nadli, who has brought forward this motion. I think it speaks loud and clear the needs of our citizens, and it speaks loud and clear the needs of this government to finally get to a point in question where we have the right services and safety for the people on our highways. I will be voting in favour of this motion. Thank you.