Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Thank you, also, to all the Members that made comments. This issue of distracted driving has certainly come forward as an emerging issue. When it was raised here several years ago there has been a lot of research done in here with distracted driving. We’ve had many organizations -- the NWT Association of Communities, we had the RCMP, people from SADD, the city -- come forward and bring some information that would support the need for new legislation. We also, of course, had many of the MLAs raise the issue and bring examples and also concerns by residents of the North to our attention.
We worked hard to try to find a balance on this piece of legislation. We know some people are not totally satisfied that it didn’t go far enough. There are so many things you can include in a piece of legislation such as distracted driving. You can include drinking coffee. You can also include smoking a cigarette or putting on makeup, animals, children in a vehicle. We always encourage that every driver should minimize distractions. The proposed legislation reflects common current best
practices from legislation from all across Canada and since last year there are probably about seven jurisdictions that have adopted similar legislation. So we’re seeking a balance between enforcing safety and making sure that it is enforceable, and we’re also mindful of the fact that we’ve got to obtain public support.
There has been a question raised about how do we measure effectiveness of this legislation, and right now there is currently information that’s collected by the RCMP, and the information that’s collected on collisions also includes information on driver distractions as a potential cause in the collision. We also summarize these statistics in our annual reports. Transport Canada also currently conducts surveys in each jurisdiction that reports not only on cell phone use but on seatbelts. We also will be conducting roadside surveys like we do with our seatbelt information. We also intend to evaluate the effectiveness of this legislation in probably two to three years when we have enough statistics.
The question that was raised about winter roads, right now this legislation provides the authority for regulations to be developed to exempt certain classes of users from law, and it can also show how the device may be used. So it’s intended to develop regulations to permit the handheld two-way radios on winter roads, but at the same time we still expect people that are out on winter roads that are using handheld devices, to stop and pull over.
With the question on animals in the vehicle, right now we still have legislation, Section 154 of the Motor Vehicles Act, Driving Without Due Care and Attention, as a tool that can be utilized to discourage that. We certainly can relay the concerns from the Member.
We are also supportive of the SADD organization, Students Against Drunk Driving. We know that there are some areas of the Northwest Territories that don’t have a chapter. We certainly support any initiatives. Of course, it needs a champion in that region to pick it up and make it work, but we certainly would support any type of initiatives of that nature. We intend to have this campaign in all of our communities, the larger centres and smaller communities. I think we have a very effective campaign planned that will not only go through this year but also next year so that people are well aware that this is a concern, and our goal is to reduce the number of accidents that are happening and have people pull over or not use any electronic devices while they’re driving. Thank you, Mr. Chair.