Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Recently one of my constituents brought to my attention a bizarre situation that warrants the attention of this government. Presently, in the Northwest Territories, it is illegal for a 12-year-old to attend a restricted movie at a movie theatre unless a parent or guardian accompanies them. However, that same 12-year-old may walk in to any video outlet in the Northwest Territories and without the consent or knowledge of their parents, rent that same movie on video. The present legislation in the Northwest Territories does not prevent children from renting restricted videos and further, the legislation does not prevent video outlets from renting inappropriate videos to children.
Mr. Speaker, there are video outlets that do take it upon themselves to monitor the age of individuals that rent restricted videos and they should be commended for this. However, Mr. Speaker, there are also those outlets that do not monitor the rental of adult and restricted videos to children and it is with these outlets that I have problems.
A possible solution to this problem would be to change the present legislation to require the licensing of video rental outlets. As the NWT uses Alberta's film classification system there would be no cost for doing classifications. It would be the responsibility of the outlet to ensure that the films are labelled appropriately. Mr. Speaker, presently, the Film Classification Act of the Northwest Territories noticeably avoids the mention of addressing video movies. By taking this approach, I can only wonder if this government is saying that renting restricted and adult videos to children is acceptable? Or, Mr. Speaker, is this government prepared to do something about it? Thank you.
--Applause