Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I kind of wanted to make my comments in response to the general discussion that was going around here, but let me make them to the motion. I am not in support of the motion to delete the $114,000 from this activity. I would like to put on the record that I would thank the corporate sponsor for becoming involved and partnering with us, and I am very sorry that they are being named here over and over again today. I am not sure if there is anybody listening here who is actually with Chevron, if I can say their name again, that they must be sitting here scratching their heads sitting listening to us, wondering what on earth they’re doing donating and contributing anything to early childhood development in the Northwest Territories.

Screen time, the times they are a-changing. We’ve gone from vinyl records to eight tracks to cassettes to CDs to downloading tunes on iTunes. I’m sorry. We cannot stop progress. I think that to say that the audience that we are targeting with these iPads or tablets should not have access to this, I find it offensive and I’ll tell you why. I know you can’t maybe completely compare this on the same level,

but those little peewee hockey players that walk into that sports complex in Yellowknife here every time they go for their hockey practice, I betcha’ they walk by a corporate sign that says that a diamond company puts multi-millions of dollars into a complex here in Yellowknife.

This discussion we’re having here today seems very colonial. It seems very disrespectful to the audience that we’re targeting here. Anything can be abused. I’m worried about children that are sitting in houses full of second-hand smoke. I’m worried about kids that turn on television. Does Mr. Bromley not think that every home in the Northwest Territories has a television that is broadcasting commercials that are influencing the minds of children with their corporate products? I mean, I’m worried about more than commercials. I’m worried about kids that have got access to TV where they’re watching pornography, but I mean, we can’t be in every home. I don’t want to insult the parents, but we cannot be in every home.

As far as the branding goes, I do not see any subliminal harm or damage in a logo of a corporation, a highly regarded corporation, a reputable corporation being on a tablet and then participating with us as a government to put this tool in the hands of young families and mothers. Like I said, times are changing and we cannot stop progress.

I do take some exception also to the comment about the naivety of the Education Minister. I would like to suggest that probably our Minister of Education has more experience with raising children than anybody in this House.

---Laughter

That’s including Mr. Bromley, as he points out himself.

That’s not intended as any offence, but I think parents are doing their best, and like I said, we cannot stop progress. This is the way. I mean, I’m almost 60 years old and some of the stuff is amazing to me, too, but when the Legislative Assembly issued tablets to all of us, I’ve got to tell you, my screen time went up, like, 100 percent after I got this from the Legislative Assembly, but I don’t really think it’s had a detrimental effect on me. I know it’s the young people that we need to be concerned about, but we do need parental guidelines. We do need supervision, but so do we on many, many, many other things. So to exclude a group of people because we don’t think they can manage that, I don’t agree with that, and I certainly do not agree with this motion.