Caroline Cochrane

Things have been going really fast over the past few months, really fast the last few weeks, so I was under the impression that we had already done it. My commitment is, if we haven't already done it, that I will be providing those this week. I know my staff is listening. They're jumping on it right now.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Yes, absolutely. Mandate letters were done, painfully, again. At the beginning of this Assembly, first of all, it was identified which Ministers would take over the priorities in the mandate, and from the mandate exercise we developed mandate letters. We had made a commitment that we would be sharing that with the standing committee. When we were almost ready, it was in my inbox waiting for me to give final, and COVID-19 hit. With COVID-19 we stepped back and we said, "Do we need to add in this COVID-19?" My first gut was just to add in COVID-19, you've got to do it...

Again, most people, when they talk about COVID-19, people have seen the economic impacts and people across the world, across Canada have been talking about economic recovery. I think we are one of the only jurisdictions that is talking about economic and social recovery. Perhaps because we are a small population, we had the benefit of actually seeing what we could do in a short amount of time. So I think that involving MLAs was a commitment that we made at the beginning of this session. It has been long. It does take a lot more time, but I made a commitment that it would not be Cabinet plus...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Looking for a plan of our response for COVID-19, absolutely, we are looking at it. However, I do want to be careful with that, because COVID-19 is still here. We are still experiencing things at a rapid rate. It has slowed down a bit, but, by the second wave, we are expecting that changes will come pretty rapidly.

We have been in the process now of changing our services, providing services that we needed and programs that we needed to accompany people, but some other things will need to be done. For example, the municipal and community government, EMO is the one that...

Mr. Speaker, I would like to welcome all Members back to the continuation of our Second Sitting of the 19th Legislative Assembly.

Much has changed in the Northwest Territories and around the world since our sitting was interrupted by the declaration of a global COVID-19 pandemic this past March. Governments across Canada, including our own, have had to take swift and strong action to protect the health and safety of Canadians from this disease.

COVID-19 is a disease that no one in the world has a natural immunity to. There is no vaccine, and there is no effective anti-viral treatment for it...

Those are some of the discussions we are having right now. That is why we have given direction for the departments to do the tabletop exercises. Like I said, we are looking at procurement practices, bill payments. We will also be looking at things like loans, et cetera, how we can make those easier for people.

Again, the federal government is also doing that work. They are looking at it. There have been no promises yet, is my understanding; however, they are looking at things. Can they pump money into business development agencies? Can they take money away from mortgages? Can they look at loans...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The Minister of Finance has a call with the federal Finance Minister this afternoon, actually, to find out that information. We do know that the federal government has put aside a billion dollars already for health issues that there may be with COVID-19. However, our portion of that monies is just under $600,000, if I remember correctly, and I have already said that that is not enough. We're dealing with the health issues, what he's looking at giving us now, and when the economy comes, my instinct is telling me that my first words will be, "That is not enough." Thank...

For businesses that are a little bit worried or need some extra assistance, they can contact our Department of ITI for assistance. We do have the Business Development Program that might be able to assist them in some long-term plans. We're looking at bumping up; we're working. Right now, the priority is on health and safety. I have to put that. Right now, we're scrambling to figure out how we're going to take care of our residents, our long-term care, our most vulnerable in society. At the same time, we're looking at the economic detriments, so we're looking at increase, probably, in Income...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I don't have current statistics on where, exactly, the tourism industry is within the Northwest Territories; however, it doesn't take very much research to look outside our doors and see that the numbers are going down. There are two things that are happening. One, the numbers are going down, and the public is concerned that we still have tourists on our streets. I'd like to first of all say that all tourists have been asked to self-isolate when they come into Canada. We have brought up the concerns to the federal government in talking about international travel. It's...

Again, I am not going to want to notice on this question. I'm going to try to answer it. If it's not the right answer, then the next session, if the Member can bring it back to the Assembly. My direction to all Ministers was: try to engage stakeholders as much as possible. A five-year review tells me that there would be more than one opportunity, ideally at least once a year, that all stakeholders would be engaged with this. I would ask the Member to ask the appropriate Minister when she returns for a more concrete answer. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.