Rylund Johnson

I appreciate that answer. My concern here is that remote working requires some logistics. We have to build the technical capacity. I believe that we should start doing this now. We should start piloting sending different sections of departments who can work from home to do it. I'm not talking about front-line healthcare workers, obviously, or essential services, but we are the largest employer in this territory, and I believe that many of our workers should be working from home now. If we are closing schools and daycares and closing mass gatherings, it does not make sense to have 5,000 public...

Thank you, Madam Chair. I would like to thank my colleague from Frame Lake for bringing this motion forward, because it's an interesting process we go through where we all set our priorities and then Cabinet sets the mandate. A lot of that done is done in confidence for good reason, because that's consensus government, but there has to be a public debate on this. Ultimately, I am not in support of the motion because I don't believe we are actually having the debate right now on the Slave Geological Province Corridor. This is $2.5 million to begin environmental assessment, Madam Chair...

I am very happy to hear that. I do hope that we do not get to that point where this is a pandemic across the Northwest Territories. I leave that up to the facts. My next question is: I am also concerned there is an issue with homelessness across the Northwest Territories, and our most vulnerable may also be our most immunocompromised who may not be able to find a place to self-isolate. Can the Minister responsible for the NWT Housing Corporation speak to the plans to address our homeless population should a full pandemic occur?

I want to just emphasize that I believe the most important thing is that the Chief Public Health Officer is the key lead here, and we should clearly be following the best advice of medical professionals. I was hoping that the Minister of Finance could speak to steps that are taken to ensure that our government is not hosting large events and any of the steps based on the advice of the Chief Public Health Officer to limit the, kind of, contact and transmission throughout the GNWT, because our staff do travel often.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I have questions for the Minister of Finance regarding the coronavirus. My first question is: have all departments completed response plans?

I guess my question is: should a pandemic occur across the Northwest Territories, has the Housing Corporation and the Minister reached out to shelters? If possible, is it possible to secure hotel rooms for the homeless population?

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The Northwest Territories Housing Corporation, with over 2,800 units, is by far the Northwest Territories' landlords. My concern is: should the COVID virus become a full-on pandemic with outbreaks across the Northwest Territories, I do not want to see people getting eviction orders when they have been told to self-isolate. I think, if this should become a pandemic, we are going to see increasingly people struggling to pay their rent. My question is to the Minister responsible for NWT Housing Corporation: should we have a pandemic with cases across the Northwest...

If the coronavirus gets to a more serious stage and we have confirmed cases, can the Minister of human resources speak to steps that will be taken in regard to remote work, to make sure that continuity of government occurs and those who can work from home, because they're in isolation, are able to?

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I just wanted to rise in support of your decision to end this session early and pass an interim appropriation bill. I had a number of concerns about taking up the department of health's time, and all of the senior management, in questioning them over their budget while they have much better things to do.

I just wanted to speak briefly on this COVID-19 thing. I think the main priorities here are continuity of government and protecting our most vulnerable people, Mr. Speaker. I would like to commend all of the departments on the work they are doing, even without a...

Thank you, Madam Chair. Yes, I completely agree. I think, without the legislation having more teeth, you get fewer complaints. I was just curious whether it was being utilised and the extent, now. Sorry, I wanted to switch to the Office of the Fire Marshal. This is probably one of my largest, actually, areas of constituents' complaints, is coming out of the Fire Marshal. I'm very excited that we will be reviewing the act. I believe there is a bit of a cultural issue in the department, in not working with people, and there has been inflexibility. I even know that the GNWT itself has had some...