Jane Groenewegen

Mr. Speaker, the Ecole Boreale is a French first language school and, as such, when the original capital budget for that school was obtained, there was participation by Heritage Canada in conjunction with our government, and subsequently our government has invested more capital in that school.

Mr. Speaker, is there an opportunity to secure any funding for the gymnasium to any other sources than just to the normal capital planning process of the GNWT? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We’re going to beat our colleague here to recognizing his family. You have one of your constituents and I have one of mine too, our colleague, Mr. Beaulieu’s sister, Louise-Ann Larocque.

However much it is, it’s too much. Because I don’t think you can buy a full-page ad in the News/North for much less than about $2,000 a hit. So I would, if I could suggest, think it would have been better if you were trying to instil in young people the idea of having a healthy breakfast to help them do better in school, maybe a poster contest or something where the kids could get involved in expressing their ideas as opposed to something like this.

Under what initiative does this eating breakfast so that you can think better in school, under what initiative of the GNWT and the Department of...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I don’t like to be critical, of course, and I certainly don’t like to be unkind to our Minister of ECE, but when I saw this ad today, I’m sorry, but this is the kind of thing that gets me upset. We have a school board in the South Slave that’s running a deficit, and I know you can say it’s all different pockets of money, but really it’s all one department. I have always said I have no problem spending money, I have no problem investing money, I have a problem wasting money. I consider this ad campaign to be a major waste of money on top of the fact that it is a little...

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I believe the wish of the committee is to at least get the Minister’s opening remarks and some general comments for Education, Culture and Employment. I think so far all we’ve done is the Department of Health, so we need to pick up the pace a bit, so I think we need to use this last 45 minutes of the day. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Mr. Speaker, I would like to ask the Minister: what would get obesity to the point, as she says -- I suppose they call it morbid obesity -- where it affects the well-being of the person? What would set that apart in the department’s policy guidelines from any other illness that someone could have? I don’t understand why this thing would be treated any differently than any other disease people have. Maybe some people are overweight because they are addicted to food, but if we were going to start telling people they couldn’t receive services because they had an addiction, that we wouldn’t be...

Mr. Speaker, so the Minister indicates that there has not been a change in the policy, that in fact in adherence to the policy that did exist. When my constituents began to receive services through a referral to the weight loss clinic at the Royal Alexandra Hospital and are now being told this is no longer, was it an error that they were referred there for surgery and medical attention in the first place? Was that referral made by someone who didn’t know what our policy was? Why now, in mid-treatment, is there a change in the support they received? Thank you.

I was wondering if the department did any research on the readership of the News/North. Not to offend News/North, but I would suggest that the majority of school kids are not reading News/North. Perhaps $2,000 a week might have been better spent on samples of nutritious breakfasts that could have been taken into the schools and handed out for free. Does the Minister agree?

Well, that makes it even more curious, because if it’s youth that are developing this, I’m quite certain they’re probably old enough to go to the fridge and have a breakfast for themselves before they go to school so they don’t have an empty brain. And I don’t even believe that’s... I think that’s an offence to say empty stomachs make empty brains.

Anyhow, my question is this ad campaign, which is being paid for by the Department of Education, Culture and Employment, I’d like to know what the price tag is on it.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I opened the News/North today and this may not be the first time this ad has run, Mr. Speaker, but I was struck by this full page ad which says -- if I can just read it, it’s very brief -- “Empty Stomachs Make Empty Brains. Your kids cannot concentrate with growling stomachs. Everyone needs a healthy breakfast to start the day. Sponsored by the Northwest Territories Department of Education, Culture and Employment.”

Mr. Speaker, I find this ad offensive and I would suggest that if it’s run for very many times, it’s very expensive. Mr. Speaker, this government has way too...