Jackie Jacobson

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Why is it so hard to get commitment for getting essential worker status for the teachers? We need help. They need help. Like the Minister said, 800 teachers across the territory have done so much for the students and did their jobs well, but they are asking for help right now. They need to get out. It's been a year almost. Some of them have not been returned home. They need support to get them out for holidays and giving them a little bit of break during spring break. I am asking this Minister to talk to her colleague, to talk to the NWTTA, and get them on the list for...

Did the public health officer determine that, as doctors and nurses are essential workers, is it possible to put teachers on that essential workers list also?

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Today, I have questions for the housing Minister. Crisis in housing for Paulatuk: What's the status for the emergency shelter planned for Paulatuk? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Will the Minister commit to working with ECE and the Housing Corporation because we are lack of housing in the community? Like I said before, the teachers are being -- one was evicted. She came home. She got a letter. She was evicted. Then, the next thing you know, we had to rush and try to find her a place in the community. The hamlet did that for her, but we need more houses for teachers, for professionals, to draw them in because if you don't have housing, you're not going to draw the quality of people in because you're worrying about stuff like that. That's the last...

I'm going to rephrase that question because it's not an emergency shelter. Housing has an emergency house if something goes wrong, somebody's house burns down or some emergency. Last year, I was told in the House that there is a unit, but that they were waiting to get it furnished. Is that unit available for the community now?

Mr. Speaker, I would like to bring Paulatuk's priorities for today. For housing, there is a shortage of housing for our local population. People are living in overcrowded conditions, which makes COVID-19 a higher risk for the community. Also, the conditions in units people are living in are poor. People's homes are poorly insulated and cold. It drives up the cost of heating fuel and is dangerous when cold weather hits. We need emergency housing in Paulatuk. The hamlet and local authority, the housing authority, we are waiting to hear back on what is going on with our emergency shelter which...

I think we have to have a unit for the community. I have people that haven't, been trying to get into housing for over a year now. I keep sending letters in to the Minister to no avail in regards to one individual in the community. If there's a house available for that, is he eligible to go into and to use that unit? Will people be able to go into that unit to stay warm because it's minus 40 or 50 below back home, and it's really needed.

The only people who could drive in are from Tuktoyaktuk. I represent the most northerly riding in the territory. Our government gets $38,000 per year per person to provide services. Our government is obligated to provide service in regard to that and to our communities. I really want our government to take this recommendation seriously, to try to work with me. Just say yes. I will use some of my constituency budget when we fly into the communities to go and do it with them. I really want to know. The pandemic changed everything. To try to fly into Inuvik to see a counsellor would be, from...

Mr. Speaker, today, my statement was in regard to the COVID pandemic and how it changed communities in Nunakput. I am wondering: I am asking the health Minister if she could possibly look and work with me in regard to putting a team together to go to my communities and across the territory if possible, a grief counsellor, a few counsellors, to go into the communities for four or five days to actually sit with the people and listen to the hardships that they are going through and try to work with them to help them. I am hoping the Minister and maybe even the MACA Minister team up to find the...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Over the last two-and-a-half months, I've been home, and this is basically what I've seen, the struggles that our communities are going through, my home community of Tuktoyaktuk, and I could only imagine the rest of the communities across the territory. This COVID-19, Mr. Speaker, it makes it tough on everybody, the way gatherings and stuff are happening right now, and I think that we really have to thank our front-line workers, our nurses, RCMP, the teachers, our hamlet staff, the community corporations, the bands, our IRC staff in Gwich'in, for all the hard work that...