Madam Speaker, as COVID-19 approached at the beginning of this year, our government was preparing our institutions to respond to the threat of a generation. Before a case even reached our borders, we pulled together a team from across our public service to stand up for our emergency response. As the threat grew, so too did our response.

We declared a public health emergency; we restricted travel; we required self-isolation planning; and we put restrictions on businesses and people as the first COVID-19 cases were confirmed in our territory. We stepped up contact centres like ProtectNWT and 811...

The Member is right. Mental health and addictions are not just one department's responsibility. It goes across all departments. In fact, it's a community issue. The stories I heard from women, when they were children, what happened to them did not happen because of our government. It happened because of people, so it does take a community to deal with the mental health and addictions that we are facing. Mr. Speaker, what I can commit to is that we will bring this issue to the committee of Cabinet or social committee, and we will look at a wholesome, all-of-government approach to dealing with...

Absolutely, Mr. Speaker. I stand by the Grand Chief's message: how much money is one life worth? We could use that in many instances. The Grand Chief used it with the secretariat and our measures in there, so I don't want to twist his words, but it can be used with many things.

Addictions and mental health has been something that all societies have been struggling with for many, many, many decades. It's not as simple, in my opinion, as just putting a treatment centre in Yellowknife. Treatment centres work for some; they don't work for all. AA works for some, but it doesn't work for all. On-the...

Absolutely, we're looking at cost-saving ways. That's why the secretariat was formed, to get better coordination, to be able to see what we're doing, to look at ways that we can actually be more efficient, more effective in our service delivery. I would like to say, Mr. Speaker, that, of the $31 million I believe it is, around what we're looking for in this supplemental that's coming forward, I believe it's around $23 million that is already funded from the federal government. The federal government in their Speech from the Throne identified the maintaining of COVID-19 supports as a huge...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As I had stated earlier, the formation of the secretariat was because there were multiple departments that were working on different initiatives. Oftentimes the right hand was trying to figure out what the left hand was doing, so the secretariat formed, I think it was just about a month ago, within that. When the secretariat formed, Mr. Speaker, we were hit with the increases of the cases, the second wave coming in southern Canada. We did not have a lot of time to do a lot of consultation, and our communication was not the best on that. We have spoken to address that...

That question I'd like to defer to the Minister of Infrastructure.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Yes. The lead department that will be looking into the Mackenzie Place high-rise -- I want to make sure I get the name right. I'm just used to calling it the high-rise; sorry, Mr. Speaker. The lead department will be Municipal and Community Affairs, and then there are key departments that are working on it, of course: Municipal and Community Affairs; Health and Social Services is working on it; Infrastructure has a piece in it; the Northwest Territories Housing Corporation; and then also the WSCC, Workers' Safety and Compensation Commission. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

The Minister of Health and Social Services would like to take this answer. I would like to defer it to her.

What the COVID secretariat is hoping to accomplish, I stated before, is better coordination, more transparency, better communication to the communities, and the opportunity to be able to look at efficiencies and effectiveness within our services. I'll give an example, Mr. Speaker. I've been asked about the border patrols down by Providence-Hay River. It's a great question. The reality, and the reason that we're looking at different things and didn't go out through normal processes is we didn't have time.

Mr. Speaker, the secretariat was only formed, I think, three weeks to a month ago, and...

I would love to be able to say that we will stay status quo and we will use the current workforce. That is what we were doing at the beginning of the pandemic. I would have fought back and said that was the right way to do it, except I spoke to the employees who told me they were burning out. They were working way too much overtime. They were working seven days a week. It was not sustainable. It came from their mouths, saying that the current structure, the old structure, was not sustainable.

We do not want to spend a whole bunch of money, so we are looking at -- I can't remember the number. At...