Caroline Cochrane

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. That's a little bit harder of an answer to give. There's all kinds of factors that need to be taken into consideration when looking at costs. There's amounts the federal government will cover. There's also some people in communities do have insurance, and some people don't. Those things have to be taken into consideration as well.

What I can say, Mr. Speaker, is that the officials are meeting this weekend, and also Cabinet is going to meet this weekend to discuss about the flooding and what we can do to support as well.

So I'm looking forward to figuring out what we can...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I hear the MLA talking about we need to be more compassionate and personal with people, and I heard the MLA say that as well during the presentation the other day, that, when we were looking at the flooding. And I agree. And, Mr. Speaker and the Minister agrees as well, the Minister of Municipal and Community Affairs. She has already said that we need to humanize our services there. So I do think that we need to have a more compassionate way of working with people. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As the Member is aware in seeing the draft document, that some of the things, absolutely, have budget lines to them. There are some things that are and were not priorities. Universal Childcare, we never had that before. Those things are in our priorities already. Those things have action plans. They have things attached.

Some of them, Mr. Speaker, will not be, have budgets attached to them at that time; they will have to go through the process that we all go through, the mains and the infrastructure or the capital. So until those processes are done, you won...

Mr. Speaker, I want to begin by welcoming all my colleagues back to the Chamber for this sitting of the 19th Legislative Assembly. I look forward to providing updates on key issues and mandate priorities, as well as hearing from Regular Members on issues important to residents over the course of the next seven sitting days.

Mr. Speaker, I would like to take some time to talk about community, about how that term has a renewed meaning not only with trying to address COVID 19, but also in the last few weeks due to the impacts of flooding in many regions in the Northwest Territories. It has been...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. So I'd like to say the Emerging Stronger package will be done now, and it could have been done two months ago and put out there if I was going to take 100 percent control. And that would not be appropriate. We've talked about partnerships.

So I do know that people are waiting for it. I want to say that on March 26th, quite awhile ago actually, we presented the draft of the Emerging Stronger to the Accountability and Oversight Committee. So I'm hoping that all Members had seen that draft at that time.

We got a response back, and a revised...

Mr. Speaker, a fundamental part of our success as a government, and the future prosperity of our territory, depends on a productive and collaborative partnership with Indigenous governments. We must foster constructive and respective relationships with our Indigenous leaders and, to seek ways to advance reconciliation, recognize and affirm Indigenous rights and support expanded program and service delivery.

It gives me great pleasure to update Members of the 19th Legislative Assembly on the Intergovernmental Council's recent adoption of the legislative development protocol for lands and...

Absolutely, we have been having discussions with our CPHO around what will happen when the majority of residents in the NWT get vaccinated; 75 percent is herd immunity. However, there is still a population, there are still people who have not, will not, or cannot get immunized, and we have a whole population of children who we don't have a vaccine for. The major factor is actually that they're not projecting that the vaccines will be delivered in the South until late fall, September, so we have serious concerns. There is not enough research. My understanding is that, even if we have the...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Yes, I have had discussions with Premier Silver from the Yukon government around exemptions for residents to cross over the borders. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I'll begin this line of questioning. I am just totally unhappy that my picture is not in the energy strategy. I have to say that, Mr. Speaker. Do I have a grasp on the cost of living? Mr. Speaker, I've said it more than enough times. I was a single parent for many years. I exactly know how hard it is to live in the Northwest Territories, so I will just stop at those questions. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

I would like to defer that question to the Minister of Health and Social Services. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.