Katrina Nokleby

Mr. Speaker, my questions are for the Premier as the Minister in charge of Executive and Indigenous Affairs. Can the Premier commit to forming a special commission or committee to determine the location of any grave sites of residential school students in the NWT. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, as a child, my summers were often spent traveling around British Columbia and Alberta with my family in our old Econoline van. Whenever we passed through Kamloops, my mom never failed to point out in a sombre voice the ominous brick building on the river, the residential school. As a child, I had no idea what that meant. My school experience was of an encouraging place full of books and wonder, where my biggest concern was a stolen eraser.

25 years later, after moving north, while I was waiting at the Greenstone building, I started speaking with an elder who...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Without getting into too much of an argument with the Premier, I would argue that mental health travel that many people are suffering from now, including Members of her own Cabinet from what I've heard, would say that if they couldn't afford to come back or didn't have a job like ours where we can work from home, that it is a form of privilege. So the private sector would probably disagree with you, Premier.

Will the Premier advocate that "staycations" qualify as a travel benefit under our Northern Residents Deduction and make that retroactive to 20202021 fiscal year.

An...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, while I have the Premier committing to things, I am going to ask her some questions. I have to say I'm a little bit distressed to hear my colleague get a response that risk assessments are not part of the discussion on whether or not we are going to go into interterritorial bubble travels.

So I am going to reiterate the question here: Can the Premier tell us where her discussions are at with the other two territories and their Premiers on interterritorial bilateral travel agreements and can she roughly estimate when she can expect this to happen.

And I do...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Yes, round 2; I think I figured out my problem.

Risk aversion is the tendency of people to prefer outcomes of low uncertainty to those of higher uncertainty. In the case of COVID, where the end result could be widespread disease and death, it's completely understandable that the aversion to risk would be very high. In the beginning so much was unknown; therefore, the ability to take any risk was nonexistent as governments reacted to the onslaught of information that was changing by the minute. As COVID has continued, our knowledge of the disease, its transmission and...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I guess that comes back to those awesome communications, since I didn't realize that.

My last question is around communications. Will the Premier direct her Ministers to improve their communication in collaboration with any thirdparty entities that they may be responsible for.

We as Regular Members must have the ability to look at all areas of the government in order to ensure the voice of the people is represented properly. Always deferring and deflecting and saying you can't speak or even relay information is frustrating for the rest of us as Members, and I'd ask that...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I'm glad the Premier used the word "privileged" because it takes privilege and money to leave the territory and come back and isolate for 8 days or 14 or 30, as I've been hearing from some of my constituents.

Next, will the Premier commit to instructing her Cabinet to work with any northern airlines ahead of any agreements being made with interterritorial or interprovincial travel in order to gain their input and update any safety or screening requirements that I'm asking that the Premier instruct Cabinet and the rest of the Ministers to do so. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. This Cabinet needs to work on a collaborative relationship with the CPHO where the bigger picture is taken into account. Where proper risk assessments are performed and decisions are made based on facts, not kneejerk reactions after there was a failure to plan. This partnership is important in order to mitigate the skyrocketing economic, financial, and social losses and challenges our people are facing. Otherwise, we will be paying for the indirect costs of this pandemic long after the disease is eradicated. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

I think I am jinxed, Mr. Speaker. Could you please go to someone else.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, my questions are for the Minister of ITI. The earlier GRIT funding for tourism operators was a much needed, if somewhat delayed, relief for our tourism sector. This relief which includes money from CanNor has not been renewed for the upcoming year. With the easing of the restrictions delayed, it apparent that we will not see a viable tourism sector this year.

Will the Minister commit to providing a phase 2 of the GRIT funding or something similar for the upcoming year? Thank you.