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 offensive: a picture of a brain that says “Empty stomachs make empty brains.”
I have questions for the Minister of Education, Culture and Employment about this today. I’d like to ask him who is the target audience of this advertising campaign.
Thank you, Mrs. Groenewegen. The honourable Minister responsible for Education, Culture and Employment, Mr. Lafferty.
Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. The target audience, of course, is the youth. It was the youth that gave us the direction and also the feedback on what should be advertised in the newspaper. A lot of the youth are spending a lot of their quality time, free time, in front of the TV. That’s a clear message that we’re getting from the youth to say do a different advertisement in the newspaper, on TV commercials, so it’s targeting the youth. It may not make much sense for us as adults, but it came from the youth to focus on what their intentions are. This is focused on the youth.
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.
I did request the information and it is coming to our department through the communications department that we’ve initiated this with an outside source. So as soon as I get that information I will certainly share that with the Member.
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 Education, Culture and Employment does this program come?
This is under the direction of the youth, the feedback of the youth. It’s under the education plan, part of the educational plan of going forward and promoting students to stay in school, the healthiness of our students. Promoting more of that into the communities, Members have alluded to where maybe other work with other departments, whether it be the recreational program or other promotional programs. We are currently doing that as the Department of Education, Culture and Employment. We are working with Municipal and Community Affairs and other health departments, as well, to promote even more of that. We have all these different role models that we’ve highlighted through our posters campaign, so we’ll continue to promote that.
Thank you, Mr. Lafferty. Final supplementary, Mrs. Groenewegen.
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?
I do agree that students with full stomachs learn better in school. So we’ll continue to support in that respect.
Thank you, Mr. Lafferty. The honourable Member for Weledeh, Mr. Bromley.
