Thank you, Mr. Chairman. The French language services, the signs were put up for safety reasons. Anywhere where we felt there were potential safety-related issues we put up signs in both languages to ensure that it was understood by all the travelling public. The majority of that money, we provide French services, as well, in addition to that, and that was salary and a little bit of travel. So we thought it was well spent.
Highway emergency learning protocol is something that we work with the departments of Municipal and Community Affairs and Health and Social Services. We’re going to continue to work on that. We know that it’s not a simple solution, covering the highway, emergency services on the highway. It might seem
simple; however, who covers which area from which community and who pays for the ongoing services inside that community? So the emergency, like an ambulance, for example, that sits in the community of Behchoko is used within the community of Behchoko. If they respond to something on the highway, who pays for it? Like, those types of things. So we’re working with, like I said, the two other departments, to try to come up with the correct protocol on how to address emergency services on the highways.
Drivers’ licences, I’ve always felt was a good idea that drivers’ licences be part of the school curriculum. Everything the Member said about that is true. Still today you get 25-year-old guys who are applying for a job and they can do the actual job, but one of the requirements is a driver’s licence, and that’s something I think everyone should have. If we have a better system of issuing drivers’ licences, full drivers’ licences to people who meet all the qualifications, we’re all for that. The driver’s licence is very well used. I use that instead of my passport to travel all over within Canada. It’s a good document that’s recognized by the travel industry, for sure, and so on. It’s something I wish anybody who can achieve it at the right age could get it.
We’ll talk a bit about the governance of the ATB in Yellowknife when we get to that detail.
The Deh Cho tolls, we tried to answer that in various ways. Individuals who don’t want to be penalized for hauling their personal boat or pulling their personal trailer should just buy a regular licence plate as opposed to a commercial licence plate and that will avoid having to pay for commercial-type tolls.
The NWT fires, it’s an interesting point of view from the Member, but it is a fact that winds do die down at night. Along with the Department of Environment and Natural Resources, we’ve had 24-hour coverage during the heavy fire season. We were talking about a very long highway that was in jeopardy, 200 kilometres. We didn’t want to send people down the highway and one hour later they were in the middle of 200 kilometres of highway and if there is a fire on each end, what do we do? We had to use escorts and we had to make sure when we did open it, it was very safe. So we did what we did. We’ll pick up some knowledge from the fires last year. I know the Department of Environment and Natural Resources does a debriefing on fires, so maybe this year we could have some of our DOT people from highways join them. I will have a discussion on that with the Minister, or maybe you have already. It’s already happened? That’s good.
Again, I look forward to having an exchange on Highway No. 4 when we get to the detail.