Caroline Cochrane

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I am going to ask the Minister of Health and Social Services if we're testing for the variants on every test that we do for COVID now. Thanks, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. My understanding is that they are paying it directly. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I do know that the isolation centres do fall within that line item, but for more clarification, I would like to turn it to Ms. Mathison.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Some of the people, quite a few of them, actually, are new hires. There are some people who were transferred from departments and chose to stay with the COVID secretariat. Those people who were transferred within government departments will go back to their government departments. They are on a leave, but they still have jobs. The other people who were hired for the COVID secretariat started out either as casual and we just actually, because of the agreements with the union, I think that it made a couple of years back when I was the Minister, we have turned them into term...

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.