Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’d like to follow up on my statement from yesterday and my priority mentioned today of early childhood education to the Minister of ECE.
Pediatricians in B.C. are ready to adopt the recommendation that children under the age of two not watch any television at all. This is already recommended by the pediatricians in the United States. Apparently problems that are linked to television viewing by the very young include obesity and an increase in violent activity, but, most importantly, two hours of screen time daily will cut brain development by an estimated 15 percent.
Now this is a remarkable report, quite recent, and it points out the need for strong communication with parents to inform them of the health risks and concerns. Is the Minister aware of this concern and is he notifying the public about this opportunity to support their children? Thank you
Thank you, Mr. Bromley. The honourable Minister responsible for Education, Culture and Employment, Mr. Lafferty
Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. I’m not aware of this particular issue that’s before us within another jurisdiction, but surely we can have our department look into that information in the B.C. jurisdiction. Mahsi.
I appreciate that openness on the part of the Minister. I did find out about this from a concerned resident and I’d be happy to forward that information to his system with that.
Can the Minister outline for me how the department does keep parents directly informed of good child care and rearing practices in general? Thank you.
Through education awareness within the schools or the child care development programs, the facilities, we do have various qualified caregivers. Not only that, we do have coordinators at the community level and even at the regional level that can surely share that type of information. Whether it be pertaining to children under the age of two or over the age of two, there are all kinds of programming that is out there.
So that information is shared broadly throughout the Northwest Territories. So we continue to depend on our workers at that level, at the community and regional level. Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.
That’s sufficient for now. I’ll look forward to further work on this. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Bromley. The honourable Member for Great Slave, Mr. Abernethy.
