Thank you, Mr. Chair. I spoke earlier about disagreeing with my colleague’s opinions that providing these tablets will be disastrous, deleterious and harmful to our children.
First, let me begin. Of course, I will not be supporting the motion. I am gravely saddened that my colleague’s opinions have led to a motion on the floor of this House. The motion, although it doesn’t say it, questions corporate donations. Like Member Jane Groenewegen, I too would like to thank them publicly right here for all that they do for our Government of the Northwest Territories, to the communities and to the schools in all our communities. These companies pride themselves in giving back to make a difference in the communities that they work in.
Once again, the premise of my colleague’s argument I believe is wrong. He is talking about screen time. The screen time that we are all talking about is at home. It’s a great concern to all Canadians and all jurisdictions about how much screen time that our parents are giving their children, but that’s under parental control.
He talks about branding data. That, too, the jury is not out. As much as he has his scholars that say that branding is bad, there are other scholars that can attest that branding has no or very little impact. To put those two together and say an iPad for parents and children is one and the same argument I believe is wrong. I don’t believe there is a connection there.
Once again, our education system and right across Canada, many of them are grateful that they have corporate sponsors, they have industry sponsors, non-profit sponsors, private sector organizations sponsoring them. They are happy, they are proud that everybody is working together for the education of their children.
My small communities have people with low and little and no income. I believe that what we are doing here will support access of my constituents to tablets for their children. Our children in the communities have the most to gain from this educational tool that’s in this supplementary budget. This will be otherwise unavailable to them.
In closing, I disagree that industry has the most to gain. It is us and our communities, our children and our schools that have the most to gain. Mahsi.