Julie Green

My information is that the CPHO is not aware of any clinic that was proposed or approved for Inuvik for the first week of February. That's February the 1st to the 5th, and so there was no clinic that was cancelled at that time. As I think the Member is aware, the vaccine allotted to the NWT is a public and territorial resource, and it has been moved to places where it is needed to vaccinate priority groups. In terms of how many specific vaccines were in Inuvik the first week of February, I do not have that information with me.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The categories that were released yesterday were front-line workers aged 18-plus who interact directly with the public and are unable to work virtually in the following areas: schools, including teachers; teacher assistants or support workers; school bus drivers; front-facing administrative workers; daytime janitors. The next category is day homes and daycares, hotels, grocery stores, drugstores, banks, libraries, postal service, liquor stores, gas stations, and convenience stores; customer service agents at airports; media, including reporters and camera crews. The...

I am delighted to say, because I raised this when I was a Regular MLA, that the department is now exploring the potential for implementing screening, brief intervention, and referral for alcohol use at the clinical level. What happens here is that the patient, in the course of an ordinary appointment with a healthcare provider, would be screened according to Canada's low-risk drinking guidelines, and the healthcare provider could offer a range of supports, from counselling to a referral to an alcohol treatment centre. We are interested in exploring whether we can use that. Of course, even...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The Department of Health and Social Services has relationships with a number of national organizations, such as Canadian Blood Services and the Mental Health Commission of Canada. However, we don't have a relationship with the Canadian Liver Foundation. I have asked the department to determine if there are areas where the health system can work more proactively with that organization. Thank you.

The situation with the rapid testing is that, even though somebody doesn't have symptoms now, they can develop them at any point over the 14 days. The rapid tests are not a substitute for isolation. Until the virus creates a load in the body that can be detected, it's not possible to know whether this person is infectious or not. That's the situation with rapid testing. There really needs to be ongoing testing through the quarantine period to determine whether someone is infectious.

What the tests are for, I think, was really well illustrated in Fort Liard. What happened there, as we all know...

Indigenous people were not listed on the new priority group because this is a public healthcare system. Everyone who works in a hotel regardless of their place of origin or their ethnicity is eligible to have a vaccine. What we do have the benefit of is that the initial vaccine allotment by Ottawa was very large to all three territories and the northern parts of the provinces in order to account for the fact that health vulnerabilities are higher in Indigenous people than they are in other populations. As a result of that, we were promised enough vaccine for 75 percent of our eligible...

The short answer is: no, they are not being vaccinated now. NWT resident rotational workers in the larger centres have been prioritized to receive the vaccine since January 31st. What we've seen at the Gahcho Kue Mine is that, when you have people in a congregate setting, it doesn't really matter where they're from the NWT or somewhere else. They get sick equally, and they are all infectious to one another. As a result, we had the outbreak that we had of 20 cases, one very serious case.

What I can say about this is that the NWT will not, will not prioritize non-residents over residents. When...

I can't make that commitment at this point. I can say that, of course, we are interested in helping people to have the best liver health that they can have, and our current efforts are really all focused around the alcohol strategy. I know the Member is talking about liver disease that is not alcohol-related, but we are dealing now with the issues that are alcohol-related because we see them as such big drivers of poor health in our territory. Thank you.

Thank you, Madam Chair. This is another question for Mr. Elkin. Thank you.

Thank you. I can make that commitment.