Transportation ministers meet
Topics range from road safety to innovation
Enhancing road safety, supporting trade, fostering innovation and addressing climate change were topics addressed at a recent meeting of Canada’s transportation and highway safety ministers.
Paula Biggar, P.E.I.’s brought her colleagues up to date in regards to steps to ensure roads are safe in relation to the upcoming legalization of cannabis.
She said P.E.I. is well positioned in respect to legisla- tion with amendments implemented in 2012 to treat drug impairment or a combination of drug and alcohol impairment under the Criminal Code with the same penalties as alcohol impairment under the province’s Highway Traffic Act.
P.E.I. is currently working to strengthen roadside suspensions and create a summary offence in cases of impaired driving with a minor with potential for increasing penalties in the future. minister, also
With regards to climate change, Biggar said the province has established a transportation energy committee, a recommendation of the province’s energy strategy.
The committee has been given the mandate to examine and implement energy saving policies.
These could include installation of public charging infrastructure, expansion of cycling lanes and active transportation corridors across the Island and the implementation of strategies to make traffic more efficient and reduce energy use.
The transportation ministers also discussed automated vehicles, endorsing a report on the opportunities and challenges associated with the vehicles.
They agreed to develop a strategy to facilitate their integration, including testing on public roads.
Ministers also met, for the first time as a group, with indigenous representatives to have a dialogue on shared transportation issues and on a co-operative relationship going forward.