We received this letter yesterday, December 29, from the New Brunswick Minister of Transportation, Denis Landry. This is in response to our letter dated December 4, 2009, (click here to read our December 4th letter) in which we made a request under the Right to Information Act because we couldn't seem to get the answers we wanted from the bureaucrats in the Department of Education and Transportation, including Charlotte Valley of Transportation and John McLaughlin, District 15 Superintendent, Department of Education. (Click here for letter from John McLaughlin, dated October 28, 2009, in which he does not answer our question about whether the BHS 21 passenger MFAV is being used or not).
We are not satisfied with the Minister's response and will be taking further action.
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Dear Mrs. Hains, Ms. Kelly and Ms. Acevedo:
This is in reply to your e-mail dated December 7, 2009 in which you request, under the Right to Information Act, “the number and copy of the Department of Transportation policy to which Mr. Hoar refers”. The policy to which Mr. Hoar refers is actually the Department of Education Policy number 512 and 513, which you may already have, but I am attaching it for your convenience.
In response to your questions, I will reply in the order you asked.
1. On December 1, 2009 a letter was sent to Marc Gregoire, Assistant Deputy Minister of Safety and Security with Transport Canada, asking for their confirmation, based on adequate testing at highway speeds, of the appropriate tires that should be used on the steer axle of rear wheel drive multi function activity vehicles.
2. The Department of Transportation will not be undertaking its own study of tires on 21 passenger multi function activity vehicles, however, officials and technical experts along with Transport Canada are in discussions to resolve this issue, with the safety of students foremost in their minds.
3. These vehicles are operated by the Department of Education, therefore any decision to take these 21 passenger vehicles off the road would be made by them.
I trust this will meet with your satisfaction. Should you require anything further, please feel free to call, Dianne Broadley, our Right to Information Co-ordinator at 506-453-2552.
Sincerely,
Denis Landry
Minister
cc. Hon. Premier Graham
Hon. Roland Haché
Hon. John Foran
Att.
http://www.gnb.ca/0000/pol/e/512A.pdf
http://www.gnb.ca/0000/pol/e/513A.pdf
http://www.gnb.ca/0000/pol/e/513AA.pdf
http://www.gnb.ca/0000/pol/e/513AB.pdf
http://www.gnb.ca/0000/pol/e/513AC.pdf
