Caroline Cochrane

Mr. Speaker, in a crisis, consistent and timely communications are crucial. The Government of the Northwest Territories understands the critical role of communications as part of our pandemic response. It helps create safer behaviours, greater community solidarity, and, in the end, improved health outcomes.

Mr. Speaker, we have said right from the start of the pandemic that our priority is to protect the health and well-being of residents. That is why the COVID-19 Coordinating Secretariat is using every tool at their disposal to connect with residents across the Northwest Territories. In the...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. The forecast that we are going to actually spend in this new coming year, 2021-2022, will be $34,589,000. However, Mr. Chair, as Members are aware, we do provide variance reports every month. Since we did change the isolation, we are no longer covering for discretionary travel, vacations. We are seeing a savings. We are also seeing a savings by combining the 811 and Protect NWT. Right now, I think we are looking at probably a surplus of around $6 million. However, Mr. Chair, that may fluctuate day to day, but we are seeing savings. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I will ask Ms. Mathison if she knows exact numbers. We did try to hire as much as possible from the regions. For example, in the Beaufort-Delta, when I went up to Fort McPherson, all of the border patrol staff were actually from the communities. Mr. Chair, the amount of money that we had spent, I would have to turn it over to Ms. Mathison if she has that.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I will turn it over to Mr. Neudorf, but before I do that, I want to state that it's very important that Protect NWT and 811 have the autonomy to be able to do their jobs. At no time, as the Minister of the COVID secretariat, do I actually give any direction to Protect NWT or 811 on their enforcement practices, who they ticket, what they're ticketing, although, Mr. Chair, I have said that I will stand behind each member in their decisions. On that, I'd like to turn it over to the deputy minister for more information. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Madam Chair. As committed to when we met with standing committee, 100 percent of the staffing for the COVID secretariat are from the North, either P1s, P2s, or some of them are not priority status but are residents of the Northwest Territories. No southern people were hired for the COVID secretariat. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Yes, I believe there is, but I'd like for Mr. Neudorf to be able to expand on that, on the training aspect. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Yes, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. This is under the responsibility of Health and Social Services, so I'd like to defer that to the Minister of Health and Social Services. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. That is a difficult question to answer. I would love to say yes. However, Mr. Chair, as stated earlier, not knowing what these new variants coming from around the world and not knowing the research yet, according to my understanding from the CPHO, not knowing if people who are vaccinated can still transfer COVID-19, having no vaccinations yet for children under 18, and not having the research yet if this vaccine is going to work on all of the variants, although some of them have shown positive results, I cannot say for sure, Mr. Chair, if our isolation centre costs will...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Actually, I am really glad to answer this question. Not only is the mine paying for it, but as stated earlier in the House -- I believe it was someone, Ms. Nokleby, who stated that the mines are good corporate citizens. Gahcho Kue mine has actually been extraordinary. When they had the outbreak, they went down into kind of a lower, almost a care and maintenance with them. They evacuated people. They covered all the costs, Mr. Chair. Not only are they covering the costs of the isolation centres, they also have had their own security at the isolation centres to watch the...