Thank you, Mr. Chairman. It is unfortunate we do not have more Members in the House today. In order to respond to some of the issues which other Members have raised, it is my understanding that we have decided to spend some time on this item because it was one identified by the department that was causing them some difficulty and some frustration. They needed to find some way of giving a better focus to the problem, trying to find ways in which perhaps more policy direction could be developed, and to involve more people in the problem than simply the officials and the care givers. That is why we decided to spend some time discussing these two documents. It would be my expectation that, maybe not today, but next week in formal session after having listened to the discussion and read the papers, that we will come up with a formal motion in the House which will, at least, give some idea of how we think the condition could be improved in dealing with people who have HIV.

Mr. Chairman, the information which we have been given gives us some cause for alarm. I would like to ask a few questions.

With regard to the information we were provided with, about 1,000 NWT residents did, in fact, contract a sexually transmittable disease. This indicates that those 1,000, who were infected, were at risk also of being infected with HIV, and that 1,000 may be a small number of the total population who, because of whatever conduct they engage in, were also at risk. Out of 57,000 people, 1,000 people have either contracted gonorrhoea or chlamydia, a fairly significant statistic. Is this more or less consistent with the general population of the country?