Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I wouldn't suggest that the money we are spending on new positions for RCMP officers is money not well spent. It is money very well spent, Mr. Speaker. The more money this government can spend on combating crime in the territory, the better off we will be. If we need new positions in the communities, so be it. What I would like to understand, Mr. Speaker, is how...One of the new initiatives here for the $1.4 million is to put a dog and a handler here in Yellowknife when, Mr. Speaker, we know the drugs are coming in on the highway. Why wouldn't we look at putting a dog and a handler on the ferry or at Fort Providence where the drugs are coming in? Why does a dog and handler have to be located in Yellowknife? Thank you.

---Applause

Thank you, Mr. Ramsay. Mr. Dent.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The RCMP have suggested that that is the best place to put it. Perhaps the Member is better qualified to know where things should be, but, in fact, that is where the RCMP say the biggest drug problem is. This dog is not just to serve Yellowknife. The dog will travel around the Northwest Territories and service all parts of the Territories as required. The RCMP have said that this is where it is needed.

Thank you, Mr. Dent. Final supplementary, Mr. Ramsay.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I know the Minister was somewhat joking when he said that, but I take this quite seriously. You don't have to be a rocket scientist to know how the drugs are getting into Yellowknife. I think it is a waste of resources, actually, to put a dog and a handler here in Yellowknife when they obviously wouldn't be able to serve the highway. They should be in Fort Providence. They should be on the ferry. They should be attacking the drugs that are coming into the Northwest Territories, Mr. Speaker. I don't have a question for the Minister right now. I just wanted to make that comment. Thank you.

---Laughter

---Applause

Thank you, Mr. Ramsay. Item 6, oral questions. The honourable Member for Hay River South, Mrs. Groenewegen.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I received today a document put out by the Minister of Health and Social Services, by his department, signed by him with a message in the front. Mr. Speaker, this is another in a long continuum of documents which seem to be internal documents put out by this government for I don't know whose benefit; for them to share with each other, I suppose. This is called Sexually Transmitted Infections, The Naked Truth - A Strategic Directions Document. Mr. Speaker, I would like to ask the Minister how many copies they published, how much it cost this government, and who is the audience. All that is contained in this document are five goals to address this problem that is primarily with the youth. I can assure you that no youth in the Northwest Territories is going to see this document. There is a logo on this thing. Somebody actually designed a logo to put on this document. I would like to ask the Minister if he would answer those questions for me. Thank you.

Thank you, Mrs. Groenewegen. The honourable Minister of Health and Social Services, Mr. Miltenberger.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I would be glad to touch briefly on the cost of sexually-transmitted infections, which run 10 to 15 times the national average. It costs this territory and many of the people, mostly the young ones between 15 and 29, a tremendous amount of money, pieces out of their lives and problems that affect us all. It is tied into HIV, hepatitis, gonorrhea, Chlamydia, the whole gamut, Mr. Speaker, so there is a huge cost. This is part of the initiative to help deal with that tidal wave of sexually-transmitted infections.

Mr. Speaker, specifically to the costs, we spent $735 on design. We printed 500 copies for $1,065, and we started sending them out the middle of last week: copies to MLAs, libraries, health centres and COs, community health offices, health centres, public health, hospitals, communities, NGOs, women shelters and groups, Native Women's Association, the Status of Women, BHP, Diavik, De Beers, and NWT aboriginal organizations. The work done on this was done in a collaborative effort with Health and Social Services, Education, Culture and Employment, the Status of Women, the Native Women's Association and the Dene Nation. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Miltenberger. Supplementary, Mrs. Groenewegen.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, there is a disconnect between this document, this glossy coloured document that this government has invested money on. Any amount of money invested in this that would have cost more that photocopied paper is too much money as far as I'm concerned, because the money needs to be spent on addressing the problems with the youth. I am glad that everybody has a copy of this now for their bookshelf, but we need to look at putting the resources where the problem is. We need to look at a document that is directed to the people who are the affected audience. That is, as the Minister has indicated, the youth. What is the benefit of this over something that would have been photocopied on white paper? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mrs. Groenewegen. Mr. Miltenberger.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, of course the Member is entitled to her own opinion, and if she has some constructive feedback which she would like to pass on to the coalition to tell them that they are misguided and to offer them specific suggestions, I would be very happy to take them forward on her behalf. Any expertise and opinion that she wants to bring to bear on how to combat sexually-transmitted infections, of course, would be always seriously considered, and anything that will help us turn this tide would be appreciated. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Miltenberger. Supplementary, Mrs. Groenewegen.

Mr. Speaker, it is unfair of the Minister to insinuate that I do not agree with the goals identified in here. The goals and the strategic work of the committee is not the issue. That is good work. What I am saying is we don't need to spend money to put it in a glossy brochure to send out to the stakeholders that are involved in this. The problem is not with the people who are receiving this document, as he listed, the problem is with the information and awareness that is available to young people about this. I would say that if you want to put out a document, put something that is targeted at the audience to whom the problem affects.

I think it is unfair of the Minister to suggest that I do not support the goals and the hard work of this coalition that went to produce this document. I think that we spend too much of our money circulating pretty documents around amongst a bunch of people who, I don't know, I guess it decorates their shelves or whatever.

Mr. Speaker, would the Minister agree that any amount of money that could go directly to the problem would be better directed there and not into such a document as this? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

---Applause

Thank you, Mrs. Groenewegen. Mr. Miltenberger.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I am not insinuating on the Member's behalf, but I would like to point out that that

document was done and crafted and is the work of the coalition that I listed with Education, Health and Social Services, Native Women's, the Dene Nation and the Status of Women.

Mr. Speaker, we are talking about prevention, we are talking about education, we are talking about awareness and that happens at many levels and not just with the actual young people themselves. We have to mobilize, coordinate, and we have taken steps to do that. We have been very frugal with this document and it is the start of what will hopefully be a successful initiative. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Miltenberger. Final supplementary, Mrs. Groenewegen.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the artistic design of the document does not necessarily translate into results of where the problems are. That is the point that I would like to make. I think that sometimes we just have to use a little better judgment of this on these sorts of things.

I also noticed with interest the Yellowknife Health and Social Services Board put out an annual report with full colour glossy paper. It is unnecessary. We have real problems, real needs, and we need real money attached to those problems and this is not where our money should be spent. I guess there is no question. Thank you.

Thank you, Mrs. Groenewegen. I did not hear a question there. I would like to remind Members to keep there preambles short, especially on the supplementary questions. We do have a lot of Members. Item 6, oral questions. The honourable Member for Range Lake, Ms. Lee.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I would like to ask some more questions of the Minister of Health and Social Services, about the issues that I had brought up earlier in my Member's statement. I would like to ask a question on the master plan for Stanton Territorial Hospital. We know that this has been in the works for at least a couple of years. There was supposed to be a public hearing and public role out of that. Members were given notice that we would have an opportunity to look at that. We are all aware that there is no public board for Stanton Territorial Hospital and there are questions as to where would the public input be put into in this whole process that has to do not only with the physical capacity and configuration of the hospital and possible expansion, but also what sorts of programs and services are being delivered there, especially if he speaks to amalgamating and consolidating and changing the makeup of other health care facilities in the city. I would like to know what the Minister has planned to get the public input into that process. Thank you.

Thank you, Ms. Lee. The honourable Minister of Health and Social Services, Mr. Miltenberger.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, there are going to be a whole number of ways that there is going to be input for the people in Yellowknife, including through the very able and articulate representation of the Yellowknife MLAs.

Mr. Speaker, there is money in the budget. I have indicated nearly $16 million for upgrade of Stanton. There has been work started on the master plan, there was some consultation done initially, but that work, along with the work in Hay River and in Fort Smith, was put in abeyance until we could conclude this overall facilities review that would look at the occupancies of the facilities, especially those, as directed by Cabinet, under 30 percent occupancy. Through this exercise, which I indicated is now concluded, we have come up with some benchmarks, some recommendations which we plan to move forward. Once that document is reviewed and agreed to, then the master planning processes in Yellowknife, Fort Smith and Hay River will proceed at full speed as the money to do the planning is in the budgets for this coming fiscal year. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Miltenberger. Supplementary, Ms. Lee.