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?
Thank you, Member for Yellowknife North. Minister of Finance.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Yes, all departments have been acting on emergency preparedness now for some time, and there are response plans being developed by every department. Business plans are being looked at by every department to plan for the contingencies, and I believe the next meeting of all deputy ministers, in fact, is this Monday to determine whether or not they need to run any special scenarios in anticipation of the change in situation. I hope that answers the Member's question. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
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?
Yes. This is a whole-of-government approach that is being taken right now. All of the departments are involved, multiple Ministers are involved, multiple deputy heads are involved, and I certainly can assure the Member and the public that various scenarios have been run, starting firstly with the health Department and their staff, but also including all the other staff and the essential services that are provided throughout the communities. They're considering the fact that we have to fly people into communities to provide those services. Everything from power and housing, straight down to corrections, all departments are aware of these important situations. They are planning for current situations, but also should there, in fact, be a need to change and to amplify what's being done, that is being looked at by human resources, as I say, in part, but also by all of the other departments in lead and also the Department of Municipal and Community Affairs who are engaged at the community level and who are taking a lead in terms of emergency preparedness.
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.
Yes, our Chief Public Health Officer does have significant authority and has been very much involved with Cabinet and with all of the government in terms of identifying potential events to which she would want to exercise her authority to cancel an event, and she is doing so in a way that is responsive and continuously responsive as the situation has unfolded with COVID.
Notices have gone out to communities. Notices have gone out to Indigenous governments in order to bring their information in to the public health officer and to the GNWT so that all of these different parts can be working together. Notices continue to flow between levels of government and will continue to do so in response to the public health authority, who continues to meet with the Chief Public Health Officer. I certainly can say that, as I think has been the message here this morning, there is a lot happening, but all of those parts are communicating, and there's a lot happening in the background and a lot of information that is flowing between all of these different levels of government from our Chief Public Health Officer, who has remained very much engaged at this level, but also on the national level.
Thank you, Minister. Oral questions. Member for Hay River South.
