Caroline Cochrane

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Absolutely, and that's why, like I said, we hired a private contractor. It would be really easy for us to say that we just did the review of the job descriptions, everything's fine, we're giving them extra training. But that's not good enough. And I don't think that's what was wanted when we developed that priority. So that's why it's important that we dig further into this and we find out what are the obstacles. And, like I said, I think it needs to be from an outsider to do that work. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Mr. Speaker, I wish to advise the House that the Honourable Julie Green will be absent from the House for a portion of today's proceedings to participate in a conference call with federal/provincial/territorial ministers of Health.

I also want to advise the House that the Honourable Caroline Wawzonek will also be absent from the House for a portion of today's proceedings to also participate in a conference call with federal/provincial/territorial ministers of Tourism. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I wouldn't say that no money hasn't been allocated. We haven't defined what it would be yet; they're still looking at it. But we have spent money internally. We have the Indigenous Council of Leaders that meets regularly. We pay for all of those leaders to come into the capital and we pay for their accommodations; we pay for their expenses to be able to take part in those meetings. So at this point other than, like I said, they're looking at codeveloping legislation for the United Nations Declaration. Until that's done, we haven't identified any extra money that we need...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Actually, I would think that that priority is actually going along quite well. I've said since the beginning that the biggest thing within the United Nations Declaration is it's about Indigenous people and Indigenous people should take the lead.

We also have a special committee from the Speaker's Committee that has Members of Cabinet and the Regular Members. The chair of that comes to our meetings with Indigenous governments. And the Member did say that I have often referred to the relationship with Indigenous governments and the federal government in a triangle. I don't...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The contractor is D.J. DeLancey Consulting, and the work that that consulting firm would be doing is a planned phased approach. There's three phases. The first one will be one-on-one meetings with senior managers, which has been done. The second phase of the work to be done is facilitated decisionplanning meetings, developing the questions that need to be asked. That's taking place early in January I believe. And the third phase is the facilitated discussions and a final report.

So like I said, we don't know what's going to come out of that, but we need to remain open so...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As I mentioned a few weeks previously, we started with looking at the regional decision-making by doing a review of job descriptions, and we found that there was no discrepancy. But we know there's discrepancies. So we have got together with the we did a questionnaire with regional senior managers to identify training. They did bring up training. But they also identified other things that were happening as was said; you know, the feelings that there's an unequal balance between headquarters in the regional centres.

So based on that, and recognizing that often it's not...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Actually, the border open was specifically made to address the needs of truckers coming into the communities, needing to drop off supplies, etcetera. So that's been taken into account. Most of the trucking companies, speaking of almost two years, are well aware of the times of operation. If there's anyone that is not, they are required if they're an occasional user, they are required to file a selfisolation plan and therefore hopefully will identify what they need and we can get back to them on that. But if anyone has issues and can't access it and can't get...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The determination of when borders open and when we'll need enforcement is a determination made by the CPHO. However, I can say that the CPHO has been vocal in saying that we're suspecting that by spring that we will be calling off the public health emergency and if do that, then there will be no border patrols. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I do know that the community was very concerned about COVID, and so I do know that once we reach a certain population that we opened it up a little bit more. But people businesses do have to reach out and let us know when they're coming. So we're trying to work with them as much as possible but we're also trying to make sure that communities are safe. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Actually, I thought that was going to be easy but it's not quite as easy as I thought. I'd have to get back to the Member and find out the exact hours of operation, because we have three border crossings so I'm not a hundred percent sure. Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I do know you can leave any time. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.