Julie Green

Yes, thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I hear the Member's desire to have more social activity in his community, and I appreciate that people are feeling cooped up, and they're ready to move on from this experience.

I can certainly ask the department if there is someone there or somebody in the health authority who can reach out to the SAO and go over what the possibilities are for funding in the area that the Member has indicated. So I'll make sure that that happens. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr.Speaker. Mr. Speaker, under the Public Health Act, the Chief public health officer has the authority to make recommendations to me about travel, and they are then written into public health orders and enforced at this point by the COVID Secretariat. So it's a process that begins with the Chief Public Health Officer and ends up with me signing off.

The issue about the travel exemption with the Yukon doesn't have to do with risk assessment. It has to do with verification of people being vaccinated. So the Yukon and BC have a common medical record system, but ours is different than...

Yes, thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, when the Member for Nunakput previously asked for a mental health team to go to his community, it went to his community in the last week of March, the last week that we were sitting prior to this sitting. So, certainly, the department is able to provide inperson mental health supports.

I'm not sure if they can do that again. It's something that I can request. I can say in the meantime, as long as people have a phone, they can get telephone counselling, which is not the same as persontoperson but is better than nothing by a long shot. You still have a...

Yes, thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the fact is we're not locked down here. Members of this House have travelled during the time that nonessential travel has not been recommended.

Just for your information, 48,183 selfisolation plans have been approved. So it's not really true to say that people are stuck here. People have made the choice to travel. And as of April 21st, the isolation time has been reduced.

So I can say that I cannot say when the Chief Public Health Officer will consider that conditions are right to lift her both restrictions, actually, or guidance. The one is travel...

Yes, thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, next Thursday evening at 7:00 p.m., the Chief Public Health Officer, myself, the Premier and others will be giving a briefing on the Emerging Wisely Plan to the Regular Members. And I invite the Member for Yellowknife North to ask his question at that time so the CPHO can give him a welldefined answer. Thank you.

Yes, thank you, Mr. Speaker. Since the pandemic began, the COVID Secretariat and NTHSSA have created videos, social media material, news releases, FAQs, a range of different kinds of documents that are available on the GNWT COVID19 site. It covers things like selfisolation, testing, vaccination, and so on.

So I wonder if some of the things the Member is looking for is already in place. I'm not familiar with the World Health Organization material.

What we do know is that in the course of the pandemic, information has changed. We've learned so much more, for example, about variants and how...

Yes, thank you. These two branches are not in silos. They do speak to one another. The work they're doing is connected.

The perceived lack of consistency is actually because not everyone got the same advice about how long to isolate or how many tests they needed and so on. I found that there's been some confusion between the general advice given to the public and the specific advice given to individuals. And there's been a mixup of those two, and the result is that it looks confusing. And I understand that people did experience it as confusing.

And so I think that there are lessons to be...

Yes, thank you. The Member is correct, that there is one counsellor resident in the community and one child and youth care counsellor. These services are available to the public regardless of what their need is, what their age is, where they were born.

And I know that the community counsellor provides the Matrix Program, which is a form of aftercare, and he does that every Wednesday from 4:30 until 6:00, and I understand it's very well attended.

So by all means, I would encourage the Member to make that known to the people who have recently returned to the community. Thank you.

Yes, thank you, Mr. Speaker. I certainly will make sure that the CPHO hears that suggestion. And, of course, we appreciate the fact that people would like to get to Whitehorse and go shopping, pick up their vehicles and so on. And we look forward to making that happen as soon as possible. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I give notice that on Tuesday, June 1st, 2021, Bill 31, an act to amend the Pharmacy Act, be read for the first time. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.