Mr. Speaker, I congratulate the hon. member for his interest in this extremely important subject. I note the task he has set for us, of being the best in the world in this regard.
I am pleased to report that I met with my provincial colleagues in Charlottetown over the last three days and we now have a new program, Road Safety Vision 2001, which we will implement. The key to the success of the initiative is that we will crack down on impaired driving and high risk drivers. We will work to increase seatbelt use which is now just above 90 per cent. We wish to increase that to over 95 per cent by the year 2001.
I should add that this is an extremely serious matter. If we think back 30 years and use the figures the hon. member has given us, we will realize that the deaths on Canadian roads in the past 30 years are equivalent to the whole population of one of our provinces, the province I was in yesterday, Prince Edward Island. We have to do something about that type of number.