SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE - The territorial government should be doing more to raise awareness about the dangers of date rape drugs, according to Hay River South MLA Jane Groenewegen.

She said existing drug awareness campaigns don't take into account the people ingesting the date rape drug don't do so willingly.

"This date rape drug is something quite different in the fact that a person could just be innocently at a social function or at a public establishment and could have this put right into their drink," she said. "It is a very insidious thing and it's hard to get information about it."

Groenewegen said date rape drugs often interfere with people's memory, it's difficult for the victim to remember what happened and for law enforcement to find the person who gave them the drug.

She asked Justice Minister Jackson Lafferty to start an awareness campaign or a support group.

"My fear is that these incidents happen in isolation and no one ever knows anybody else that it happened to. They have absolutely no support," she said.

Lafferty said the department has $100,000 allocated for drug campaigns and said he was willing to consider feedback.

RCMP Cpl. Shawn King, drug awareness coordinator with the RCMP "G" Division, said there were no reported incidents of the date rape drug in the territory in the past six months, but said the drugs are hard to detect because they're often a clear, odorless, tasteless liquid.

"The message we'd try to get out to protect yourselves is knowing who you're with and not leaving a drink unattended," he said.

NWT has to think Hollywood: Hawkins

Building on the success and hype surrounding Yellowknife-based reality television shows Ice Pilots NWT and Ice Road Truckers, Yellowknife Centre MLA Robert Hawkins said the territorial government needs to look for more ways to foster the film industry in the NWT.

"We have such a wealth of people, scenery and landscapes to showcase to the world, yet it seems a shame that we don't have more films being produced here in the North," he said.

Hawkins asked Bob McLeod, minister of Industry, Tourism and Investment, if there was any way to set up incentives to ensure filmmakers not only stay in the North, but people working in the film industry come to view the territory as a place they could come to work.

McLeod said the department was reviewing ways to expand the film industry. He said it would have recommendations in the spring and didn't rule out incentives.

"We have to be careful if we start trying to get into a race to the bottom with B.C. or Ontario with regard to tax incentives," he said.

NWT could be a penitentiary destination: Ramsay

Having a federal penitentiary in the NWT could create hundreds of jobs, give contracts to local businesses and increase the territory's population, said Kam Lake MLA Dave Ramsay in the legislative assembly last week.

Justice Minister Jackson Lafferty said a penitentiary was something that could be "five or 10 years down the road."

He said a penitentiary wasn't a priority but that he would bring it up with the federal justice minister if the assembly deemed it a pressing issue.