Evidence of meeting #64 for Justice and Human Rights in the 42nd Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was impaired.
A recording is available from Parliament.
Executive Director, Drug Free Kids Canada
For sure, we definitely would, because we can do things more efficiently than the government. What we do is use public service announcements that we get our 60-plus media partners to provide us for free.
Executive Director, Drug Free Kids Canada
If the government does the campaign, they have to buy the media time.
The effectiveness of campaigns are when they're ongoing 24-7, 365 days a year. If you're only going to do a six-week campaign once a year, it's not going to be very effective. It will fall off very quickly.
Community Liaison, Students Against Drinking and Driving of Alberta
Sure. I have only a couple of points.
Going back to your previous point about “Just say no” or what the dangers are, in the past we kind of walked the same grey line. Do we talk about underage drinking or do we really focus on what the dangers of drinking and driving are? That's where we've chosen to focus our attention.
We found that students will simply tune out. They will not listen to it. As you said, if you start talking about “Don't drink” or “Don't do cannabis”, you really have to change the conversation to what the risks are and what the dangers are in that context.
As for funding and timing, we work on a shoestring budget as well with whatever resources we have. If there is more money available, we'll definitely be looking to use some of it and provide resources to our teachers and advisers, but the main thing is really to get buy-in at the schools as much as possible.
We work with many different groups, whether it's principals, counsellors, teachers, advisers, even community members. We look for champions who want to really help out on these subjects, and we try to find those people who are willing to dedicate their time and we provide them with the resources they need in the schools and the communities.
Liberal
September 20th, 2017 / 6:20 p.m.
Liberal
Ron McKinnon Liberal Coquitlam—Port Coquitlam, BC
Thank you, Chair.
I'm going to start by bringing in some information from another jurisdiction, Colorado. This comes from a letter that was shared with us on the health committee in our study of C-45. This was a letter from the Governor of Colorado and the Attorney General of Colorado to the Attorney General of the United States. It says:
Following legalization, the state trained approximately 5,000 peace officers on marijuana-related laws, including driving under the influence of drugs; increased by 68 per cent the number of trained Drug Recognition Experts in the state—there are now 227 active DREs in Colorado—; and trained 1,155 peace officers in Advanced Roadside Impaired Driving Enforcement. The state has also appropriated $2.3 million to the Colorado Department of Transportation's, CDOT, impaired driving education campaigns, which convey the criminal penalties and dangers associated with driving under the influence of marijuana.
It goes on to say:
In the first six months of 2017, the number of drivers the Colorado State Patrol considered impaired by marijuana dropped 21 per cent compared to the first six months of 2016.
That tells me two things. First, it shows that the police officers were better trained. They were able to recognize impairment presumably much better, yet the rate of impairment dropped. Second, it suggests the power of education, because I think that was probably a significant aspect of this undertaking. I have heard on the health committee, and on this committee as well as we studied both these bills, many witnesses speak to the effectiveness and the critical importance of education.
That brings me to you, Mr. Paris. I certainly appreciate what you're doing with your education program, and I really like your ad.
That brings me to my question. Mr. Lee, you are presumably part of the demographic targeted by this ad. Do you find it compelling, persuasive?
Community Liaison, Students Against Drinking and Driving of Alberta
It has been around for a while, hasn't it? I think it's been two years or so.
Executive Director, Drug Free Kids Canada
This campaign ran in January. But to correct you, the campaigns that we do are all directed to the parents, not the kids. The strategy to target the kids is much different from what we do. The media mix would be different, and so would the messages. The only part of that campaign directed to the kids was the video we produced, and that made a strong impact. The ad campaign to promote parents making the call that comes after is targeted only to the parents.
Community Liaison, Students Against Drinking and Driving of Alberta
I saw this ad and some of the people at our office played around with it and got the text message during the videos. We thought it was very effective in that it used these new technologies the students are looking for, because that's how they interact. I would say that this is going to be an effective measure going forward. Whether you're getting your message on Facebook or Instagram, that's where the students are today. They're not reading books like they used to. To get to them, you have to be aware of these new methods of communication.
Liberal
Ron McKinnon Liberal Coquitlam—Port Coquitlam, BC
In my day job, I was a computer programmer, so I really love the innovation here.
Last night on the health committee, the Minister of Health spoke and she advised that the education campaign is now getting started. They are focusing on social media in particular. She brought this front and centre as something good that's happening. The $9.6 million mentioned in budget 2017 is an initial amount, but it's under way right now and it's going to be unrolling in a much more robust way as we go forward.
She was talking about social media being the place of choice to reach young people. Would you agree with that, Mr. Lee? What sort of messaging do you think is going to be most effective in getting the word out?
Community Liaison, Students Against Drinking and Driving of Alberta
I think it's going to be very effective in reaching the students. But we have to look at the call to action, at what students can do. One of the things we're looking at is geo-targeted campaigns. If someone's at a bar between 11:00 p.m. and 2:00 a.m., we target an ad for that geo-location and distribute it between 11:00 p.m. and 2:00 a.m. At the bar, they pull up their Instagram account and it says, “What's your safe ride home?” There could be a button, “Call Uber”. That's the call to action. That's the right choice they can make at that time.
Those are the kinds of things you're going to have to look at, not just sending out a message telling them not to drink and drive. We need to tell them their options and help them make the right decisions.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Anthony Housefather
Is there anybody else who wants to ask a question? If not, let me thank this panel.
It was wonderful to have you both here. We really appreciate your testimony. We will take it all under advisement.
The meeting is adjourned.
