Qujannamiik. (Translation) Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I will be speaking in Inuktitut. Mr. Speaker, the AIDS virus, known as HIV, has been recognized as a serious concern for the future health of residents of the Northwest Territories since 1986. Since then, a major effort has been made to ensure that all NWT residents were made aware of the risk of infection and how to protect themselves. In spite of knowing about the risks, there is evidence that many people are not taking action. Within communities and regions, the understanding of AIDS/HIV infection is good and improving, but there is evidence that many people are not accepting the information. They are not practising "safer sex."
The patterns of infection in the NWT are unlike that of southern Canada, where the disease is found mainly among homosexual males and in drug users. In the NWT, the pattern is more like that found in most other parts of the world, where the disease is spread mainly by sexual contact between men and women.
Mr. Speaker, in the NWT, HIV infections have been reported in the young and in the old, among men and women, among aboriginal and non-aboriginal, in the "gay" and in the "straight" community, and among the rich and the poor. AIDS can be everyone's disease, and it is everyone's problem. We all must take it seriously if the epidemic now upon us is to be stopped.
It has become clear that public education activities to date have not been successful in changing sexual behaviour, which places people at risk of HIV infection. An effort to find out more about the attitude and beliefs that affect sexual behaviour is under way. Public educational materials will be redesigned to take advantage of information regarding their relative effectiveness.
Mr. Speaker, in 1991 this Assembly took some comfort from the seemingly slow spread of HIV infection among us. This year, there is little comfort from the rapid increase in reported cases and great peril in the evidence that even those who are aware of the risk of HIV infection are failing to protect themselves. We must convince everyone that they are at increasing risk of infection from unprotected sex. Stopping AIDS is up to all of us, the future existence of NWT society is at stake. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.