Debates of February 18, 2005 (day 39)

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. A few days ago, the Department of Health and Social Services circulated a document entitled Sexually-Transmitted Infections, the Naked Truth – A Strategic Directions Document. It might just be coincidental, Mr. Speaker, but that document was circulated to Members on Valentine’s Day, February 14th. I don’t know if that’s a suggestion to us or not. The content of the document is quite disturbing. I salute the department for putting the information out. When we see things or indications in the transmission of sexual diseases, the rate of gonorrhea infection has gone up 300 percent in two years, Mr. Speaker. There is a 30 percent overall increase in the rate of infection in the 15 to 22-year age bracket. Some of these diseases in the North, we have an incident rate that is seven times that of Canada.

The initiative taken by the department to bring this to everybody’s attention is admirable but, Mr. Speaker, when I look at a document like this and I see five different objectives outlined and more than 30 different action positions, but, Mr. Speaker, there are practically no measurable targets set out in this strategy. There is no budget and there is only the most general of timelines. In fact, the only real outline that I could see in this document, Mr. Speaker, of where we want to go and when we want to get there is, and I quote: “…we could entertain the possibility of bringing our rates down below the national average before the end of this decade.” That’s all this document says. I would hardly call it a strategy. It is certainly a good collection of thoughts and things that are possible and that we could and should do, but it falls far short of a real working document. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

---Applause