Caroline Cochrane
Statements in Debates
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I will say that the Member has to be careful when she goes home to her riding. She might have offended a previous Minister who would say that every government in the Northwest Territories has lobbied hard to the federal government for additional money for the Northwest Territories, and I carry that forward. The reality is that every Assembly has asked for additional monies, and not only ourselves. We tend to partner as the three territories, with Nunavut and Yukon Territory, because we are all in the same situation.
Every government that I have known and that I have...
Yes, my understanding is that definitely everyone is asked for their identification. It does not matter if you are driving or riding. However, there is an issue with some things. People are coming up and, from what I have heard, it's not only across the highways or in our airplanes; it's coming from water. Those are things that we are looking at, as well. The bad thing about COVID-19 is what's happening. The good thing about COVID-19 is we are having more checks at the borders, and so we are more conscious of illegal trades that are happening at our borders.
The reason we have seven Members on Cabinet is because there is value in having many voices. I do appreciate. My first question was, "Can we do this?" and it was, "Yes, we can meet." Then, a wise Minister said to me, "That's why we have a committee of Cabinet for COVID-19, our social issues committee." What we will do, then, is bring that to our COVID-19, our committee, to address that issue, but we will be talking about it. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
The big difference is that the public health officers who are doing the compliance and the enforcement are not RCMP officers. They come with a different set of skills. All along, we've said that, if there were huge parties and people were breaking orders, disturbances and stuff, we would not put our public health officers at risk within that. That is the job of the RCMP. I do think that sometimes our public is getting confused. They tend to phone us. What I have to say is that we have almost, I believe it was, 800 inquiries or calls in to Protect NWT. Every single one of them gets followed up...
I think it's important as elected officials to actually take ownership when things aren't too good, so I will take ownership on this one in that some of the delay over the couple of months was on our behalf, on the department's behalf, because COVID-19 hit us, and we were scrambling. All government departments were told, "You are now working from home," and we had to figure out what that looked like, so I do take ownership for some of that delay. That is our fault, and there is not much we can do about that. We are trying to work with them.
How I am going to fix it, though, is that we have...
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. It is not about because the only thing that changed was Lutselk'e Dene band, because I didn't even know that was the owner or not or whoever it is. The reality, Mr. Speaker, is that there was a change in ownership, and, with the change in ownership, they are looking for a liquor permit. If you are looking for a liquor permit, it's a little bit more difficult. You have to have not only a business licence but an occupancy permit, and then the fire marshal has to go in and do an inspection, so that is the difference. It's not only the owner; it's the request for a liquor...
How quickly they learn to be politicians. They know that there's an election coming up for the federal government. Actually, I have to say, in fairness to the Prime Minister, the Prime Minister has recognized, not only in this government, in the last Assembly, as well, that the territories are at a deficit. They have always given us extra money.
For example, for this Assembly, since COVID-19, I believe we got just over $23 million for the GNWT for our own COVID-19 expenses. We got $8.7 million for airlines. We got $35 million for businesses, and my understanding is that more will be coming...
At this point, I have not heard that having extra staffing at the border controls was an issue. We did know that, with the fire season, some of our public health officers had to go back to their positions in departments. We are actively looking for other recruitments in that area. I would love to be able to say that every person who came across, if we just took their temperature, they would be okay, and they could come in. My worry with doing that, in honesty, Mr. Speaker, is that sometimes people are asymptomatic. Not everybody will have a temperature. If we start taking that temperature...
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Any person who enters the Northwest Territories and lands at either an airport or on a highway at the check points, the first thing you are asked for is a piece of identification to prove if you are a resident of the Northwest Territories. If you are not a resident of the Northwest Territories, then you are asked to provide a letter from an employer or a proof that you are an essential worker. If you are an essential worker, then we will allow you through because, if you are in the territories for more than 36 hours, you need to have a self-isolation plan. If you are...
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The chief health officer has the autonomy to be able to do the directions herself. She doesn't need to work with departments. She has been very, very nice to actually work with us as much as possible though.
Actually complying with the enforcement, that is our biggest fear. I am just going to put it out there. People have this misperception, and I need everyone to help me with this. Not only MLAs in this House; municipal governments have brought it up; Indigenous governments; we need everyone. People have this misperception, Mr. Speaker, that we're in a bubble, and we...