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SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE
An amended act that will ban the use of cellphones while driving in the NWT entered a clause-by-clause review at the legislative assembly on Wednesday.

If it is passed, Northerners who use their cellphones for calling or texting while driving will face consequences.

It is expected that members of the assembly will vote on the prohibition for a third and final reading on Monday, said Doug Schauerte, the assembly's deputy clerk. The proposed cellphone ban would put the NWT on the map as one of the last Canadian jurisdictions to make driving and talking on a cellphone against the law, leaving only Nunavut.

The new territorial law would be an amendment to the NWT Motor Vehicles Act that is long overdue, said Wendy Bisaro, MLA for Frame Lake.

Bisaro has been campaigning to ban the use of cellphones while driving in the North for close to four years, and said there should be stiffer penalties for drivers who choose to use their cellphones while driving.

"I can't count the amount of times I have seen drivers on their phones who are completely distracted, and have almost hit pedestrians or nearly hit the ditch because they are too busy talking and not watching the road," she said.

"I've been wanting us to get up to speed with the rest of Canada for years, and it's about time," said Bisaro.

Back in October 2009, Transportation Minister Michael McLeod said that the territorial government was not going to look at a cellphone ban because 22 of the NWT's 33 communities did not have cellphone service.

Michele Thoms, a teacher at St. Patrick School and head of the Students Against Drinking and Driving movement in the city, said the attitude that small communities are not affected by cellphone use sets a bad example.

"Small communities don't exist in a bubble. Their people often visit larger communities where cellphone service is part of life. So ultimately, residents from smaller places are also affected by distracted driving," she said.

Thoms also agrees with Bisaro's claim that the NWT should keep up with other Canadian provinces and impose stiffer penalties on cellphone use while driving, but said she is still unsure about whether Northerners take the danger of talking and driving seriously.

Thoms said according to an article she read on texting and driving in The New England Journal of Medicine from June 2010, one study showed that "talking on a cellphone while driving posed a risk four times that faced by un-distracted drivers and on a par with that of driving while intoxicated."

"It's more socially acceptable to drive and talk, but if that same person had a beer in their hand and was drinking while behind the wheel, we wouldn't accept it," said Thoms.

"You shouldn't need to legislate common sense," she said. "It's one thing to talk or text on the side of the road where you aren't affecting other people directly, but when you get into a car and you decide to talk on the phone, you are adding potential deadly consequences to other people's lives."

Thoms, along with two students from Students Against Drinking and Driving, attended the clause-by-clause reading of the amendment on Wednesday.

"We want to make our presence known in the assembly, and it's a good way for the students to learn about the legislative process, even if it takes awhile," she said.

However, Thoms said even though the legislation appears to be in the final stages of being passed, she is still nervous about the voting process.

"There is always the possibility that it doesn't go through, and if the legislation gets tabled again, we are going to have a long fight ahead of us," she said.

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