The following statement was given today in the House of Assembly by the Honourable Steve Crocker, Minister of Transportation and Works:

Mr. Speaker, I rise in this Honourable House today to inform my colleagues how the Department of Transportation and Works is increasing the use of technology to help people make more informed decisions before travelling.

Since 2018, new highway cameras have been installed by the department at Heart’s Content Barrens, Black Duck Siding, Lumsden, St. George’s, and Terrenceville, and cameras will be added to the Viking Trail and Argentia Access Road this year.

Mr. Speaker, in all of 2018, approximately 890,000 people visited our highway cameras home page. The number of visits to each of our individual camera web pages combined was more than 1.6 million.

Each of these cameras cost approximately $6,600 dollars a year to operate, but the value they provide is immeasurable.

In addition, in December 2017, we introduced a Provincial Plow Tracker for our busiest routes, which we expanded to the rest of the province this past winter.

In the six-month period between November 2018 and the end of April, our plow tracker received more than 28,000 visits, and we look forward to building on this usage this winter.

We have also been using digital display speed signs on some highways, which is proven to be effective in getting drivers to reduce their speed.

Next month we will launch a 511 NL mobile app and website. This will create a single-point-of-contact service that provides information such as highway condition and construction reports, highway cameras, the Provincial Plow Tracker and ferry schedules.

Mr. Speaker, while we use more modern technology to promote highway safety, we encourage all motorists to use this information before they drive and remind them to put their phones away when they sit behind the wheel.

Thank you.