Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, my questions are for the Minister of Education, Culture and Employment. Last week, she put out a news release that said that education leaders were interested in talking about cannabis when she met with them and that ECE had compiled information for students, teachers, and parents so they are fully aware of the regulations surrounding this matter. My first question is: does the information only deal with regulations, or does it deal with health effects, as well? Thank you.
Masi. Minister of Education, Culture and Employment.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The information does deal with health effects, as well, especially geared towards the student population.
Thank you for that response from the Minister. The Minister also said that the information would be circulated well in advance of the October 17th legalization date. Can she please confirm that that was the case?
Yes, we have given all the information to the district authorities. I am assuming they have done it at the beginning of September, or at least in October; they are getting that out to all of the principals within all of the schools, so by now all schools should have the information available.
At the level of parents, what information can they expect to find in the future on the ECE website about cannabis education in the school? I note that there does not seem to be anything there at this point.
We are trying to do as much as we can. We are working with Health and Social Services. There was a brochure sent out to every resident in the Northwest Territories, I believe, with information on it. We have done quite a few things. On October 3rd, we had a Facebook Live on our ECE website that was talking with Dr. Matthew Hill, who was talking about the effects of marijuana. Again, we used him on October 4th at NACC, our Northern Arts and Cultural Centre. He was in person. There was an online webinar especially geared towards grades 7 to 12. October 9th, we did an online webinar in French. October 10th, we did more presentations provided to all the principals, et cetera. However, I do take the Member's note, and, if we do not have enough information, I will review that and we need to bump it up. If we do not have enough on there, then we need to make sure it's accessible, so thank you, Mr. Speaker. Thank you for bringing it forward.
Masi. Oral questions. Member for Yellowknife Centre.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker, and I thank the Minister for her responsiveness. My final question is: if parents have questions about the cannabis information or about cannabis as it relates to students and their children, is there a number they can call or an email address they can use to ask those questions, whether of this Minister or of any other Minister?
Parents, of course, like I say, we are trying to keep them as informed as possible. We recognize there is a lot of fear out there, and there should be a lot of fear out there. They can contact their principals at any time for any of these instances, but we also have it on the Executive and Indigenous Affairs website. I am going to try to read this off. It's https://www.eia.gov.nt.ca/en/cannabis, and on that site you can get information, common questions, contact forms for specific questions. Again, we are trying to keep parents as informed as possible. We are giving literature for students, for teachers, for parents, and we will monitor it. As needs come forward, if we find out we need more, we will try to do our best to accommodate that need.
Masi. Oral questions. Member for Frame Lake.
