Legislative Assembly of Alberta The 27th Legislature First Session Standing Committee on the Economy Wednesday, September 10, 2008 10:31 a.m. Transcript No. 27-1-3 Legislative Assembly of Alberta The 27th Legislature First Session Standing Committee on the Economy Allred, Ken, St. Albert (PC), Chair Taylor, Dave, Calgary-Currie (L), Deputy Chair Amery, Moe, Calgary-East (PC) Bhullar, Manmeet Singh, Calgary-Montrose (PC) Blakeman, Laurie, Edmonton-Centre (L) Campbell, Robin, West Yellowhead (PC) Johnson, Jeff, Athabasca-Redwater (PC) * Marz, Richard, Olds-Didsbury-Three Hills (PC) Mason, Brian, Edmonton-Highlands-Norwood (NDP) McFarland, Barry, Little Bow (PC) Weadick, Greg, Lethbridge-West (PC) Xiao, David H., Edmonton-McClung (PC) * substitution for Robin Campbell Bill 204 Sponsor Johnston, Art, Calgary-Hays (PC) Department of Transportation Participants Marlene Anderson Manager, Policy and Research Jeanette Espie Executive Director, Office of Traffic Safety Shaun Hammond Assistant Deputy Minister, Transportation Safety and Services Division Support Staff W.J. David McNeil Clerk Louise J. Kamuchik Clerk Assistant/Director of House Services Micheline S. Gravel Clerk of Journals/Table Research Robert H. Reynolds, QC Senior Parliamentary Counsel Shannon Dean Senior Parliamentary Counsel Corinne Dacyshyn Committee Clerk Erin Norton Committee Clerk Jody Rempel Committee Clerk Karen Sawchuk Committee Clerk Rhonda Sorensen Manager of Communications Services Melanie Friesacher Communications Consultant Tracey Sales Communications Consultant Philip Massolin Committee Research Co-ordinator Stephanie LeBlanc Legal Research Officer Diana Staley Research Officer Rachel Stein Research Officer Liz Sim Managing Editor of Alberta Hansard Transcript produced by Alberta Hansard September 10, 2008 Economy EC-25 10:31 a.m. Wednesday, September 10, 2008 agenda has been posted on the web. Could we have a motion for Title: Wednesday, September 10, 2008 EC approval of the agenda? Moved by Jeff. Any discussion? [Mr. Allred in the chair] We have the late Brian Mason who just arrived. Brian, do you want to introduce yourself? The Chair: I’d like to call the meeting to order. My name is Ken Allred, chair of the Standing Committee on the Economy. We do Mr. Mason: Sure. I’m the late Brian Mason, MLA for Edmonton- have a quorum. I’ll ask the members to introduce themselves. Highlands-Norwood. Firstly, I’ll ask Mr. McFarland and Mr. Weadick, who are on teleconference, to introduce themselves. The Chair: Not much late, though. Okay. The motion is for approval of the agenda. All in favour? Mr. McFarland: You just did it, Mr. Chairman. Barry McFarland Those opposed? The motion is carried. from Little Bow. The next item: approval of the minutes from the July 29 meeting. Are there any errors or omissions? If not, could we have a motion The Chair: Thanks, Barry. for approval? Mr. Weadick: Hi. Greg Weadick from Lethbridge-West. It’s Mr. Marz: I’ll move that. raining down here, so I hope your weather is a little nicer up there. The Chair: Richard. Any discussion? All those in favour? Those The Chair: It’s beautiful and sunny up here. opposed? The motion is carried. Okay. A presentation from Alberta Transportation. Alberta Mr. Johnson: Jeff Johnson, Athabasca-Redwater, subbing for Robin Transportation had submitted their PowerPoint presentation at the Campbell. last meeting. They weren’t able to attend, however, but they’re here today to make a presentation. I understand they’re not going to redo Mr. Marz: Richard Marz, MLA for Olds-Didsbury-Three Hills. the PowerPoint, but they’re going to summarize it. Shaun, if you could introduce your delegation, please. Ms Blakeman: Laurie Blakeman, and I can tell you that the weather in my fabulous constituency of Edmonton-Centre is absolutely Mr. Hammond: Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman. My name deluxe, a fine fall day. Welcome, everyone. is Shaun Hammond. I’m the assistant deputy minister for transporta- tion safety services with Alberta Transportation. With me today I The Chair: Okay. Thank you. have Jeanette Espie, who is the executive director of the office of traffic safety at Alberta Transportation, and Marlene Anderson, who Mr. Reynolds: Rob Reynolds, Senior Parliamentary Counsel, is our manager of research and policy within the office of traffic Legislative Assembly. safety. They’ll be here to help me answer some of the questions that will arise. Mrs. Kamuchik: Louise Kamuchik, Clerk Assistant, director of House services. The Chair: The floor is yours. Ms Sorensen: Rhonda Sorensen, manager of communications Mr. Hammond: Thank you. With your permission, Mr. Chairman, services, Legislative Assembly Office. I’m just going to skim through that presentation that we sent up in July. A year ago the department published a report on distracted Ms Staley: Diana Staley, research officer, Legislative Assembly driving and cellphone use, the result of significant research and Office. analysis on current policies, legislation, and trends worldwide. We drew the conclusions that, in essence, a cellphone ban addressed Ms Stein: Rachel Stein, research officer, Legislative Assembly only a symptom of the problem and not the root cause, that being Office. distracted driving. In the department we use the CCMTA strategy for the reduction of impaired driving, or STRID, definition of Dr. Massolin: Good morning. I’m Philip Massolin. I’m the distracted driving, as shown on slide 2. It’s nonspecific and relates committee research co-ordinator, Legislative Assembly Office. to the impact of non driving-related events that affect the driver’s ability to focus on the road ahead and the task of driving. Ms Rempel: Jody Rempel, committee clerk with the Legislative If we turn to slide 3, and as you have and as Mr. Johnston detailed Assembly Office. in his submission, we referred to the 2004 NHTSA naturalistic study from the University of Virginia when we undertook our analysis. In The Chair: Okay. We have a presentation from Transportation, essence, cellphones are only one of many driver distractions. which we’ll get to in just a few moments. I’ll just go through some Compared to other common distractions, cellphones are associated of the formalities. with a lower crash risk. Driver distraction leads to collisions, based We have two more who have just arrived. If you’d introduce on Transport Canada’s estimate that 20 per cent of collisions are yourselves. attributable to driver error and that driver error can be laid at the door of driver distraction. Mr. Bhullar: Manmeet Bhullar, MLA, Calgary-Montrose. In terms of the hands-free versus hand-held debate, many jurisdictions, in fact the majority, ban hand-held phones only. At Mr. Amery: Moe Amery, Calgary-East. this time Israel, Japan, Portugal, and Singapore are the only jurisdictions to ban both hands-free and hand-held outright. The Chair: Okay. The first item is approval of the agenda. The However, we do not have any data in terms of a postban impact on EC-26 Economy September 10, 2008 collisions from these jurisdictions, so it’s virtually impossible for us to 3.5 per cent after three months and then a slight increase to settle to tell whether or not that total ban has had an impact on the number at 4 per cent 12 months postlegislation, or a net impact on usage of collisions. decline of around 2 per cent. Hands-free cellphones are no safer than hand-held phones for the Again, we have no evidence that the cellphone ban has reduced simple reason that both modes require the driver to refocus from the collision frequency in any of those jurisdictions. road ahead and the task of driving to a secondary task, either dialing, In terms of the current situation in Canada, Quebec, Nova Scotia, using a voice-activated command, or in fact having a conversation. and Newfoundland have banned the use of hand-held cellphones by This multitasking establishes a priority of tasks for the driver, and all drivers, but none of the jurisdictions at this time are collecting when talking on a cellphone, the priority becomes conversing rather data in relation to its effect on collision frequency. There is a lack than driving. Indeed, for many of the other distractions the focus is of evidence that the cellphone ban has reduced collision frequency shifted away from the road ahead and onto whatever task they are in those three provinces. B.C., Saskatchewan, Manitoba, Nova doing. Exactly the same conflict occurs when the driver is eating, Scotia, and Prince Edward Island have all had recent public drinking, reading a map, reaching for an object, adjusting the radio, awareness campaigns aimed at distracted driving and/or cellphone or changing a CD. use. If we look at the impact of distraction on a novice driver or an In terms of cellphone use rate this was calculated at the same time experienced driver in terms of whether driver experience had any that Transport Canada conducted the seat belt survey, where they effect on the degradation of driving skills, an independent study observed seat belt use or non-use. In 2006 they did the rural survey, conducted by the University of Calgary and funded by the Insurance and they took a look at cellphone use at that time. In 2007 they Bureau of Canada determined that all drivers, not just novice drivers, undertook the urban survey in terms of seat belts. Once they showed reduced ability when on the cellphone or changing a CD, published it, we got the combined urban and rural, so we got the and in fact the degree of degradation for both groups was about the Canada-wide. same. The other note that came out of that study was that – correct From the graph, as you can see, Alberta has the highest rate of me if I’m wrong, Marlene – changing a CD showed exactly the same cellphone use while driving, at 10.7 per cent.