Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. My questions today are for the Honourable Premier. The Chief Public Health Officer's sole concern when issuing orders is public safety. At the start of the pandemic, her experience in exercising her powers was invaluable. However, as the pandemic wears on, government must balance the interests of the immediate public safety with the longer-term interests of continued education and economic recovery. What I would like to know is: how will the GNWT balance these issues with the CPHO's powers as this pandemic wears on? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Member for Kam Lake. Honourable Premier.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I was trying to remember the name of the framework that we just provided to standing committee less than a month ago, I believe, although my time is running into each other. We identified early on, when the COVID-19 pandemic hit us, that we were facing not only a public health crisis, but people were saying an economic crisis, and I saw a social crisis coming, as well. So we had businesses that were closing. We had people who needed places to live. We had addiction issues, mental health issues, serious issues going on, and so right away we said, "What are we going to do about it?" So we presented to committee and we said we were going to do a framework. We're going to have a team of MLAs with Ministers feeding into it from special committees, feeding into it from the business sector, the social sector, and the Indigenous governments, so that we can actually have all of the opinions from all of the sectors and come out with a plan that addresses all the social and the economic and the health needs of residents of the territories. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
I'm wondering if the Premier can speak to the process that Cabinet follows in order to kind of negotiate and discuss the orders that are coming out from the Chief Public Health Officer's office.
We've asked to meet with the Chief Public Health Officer, but we're really conscious that we can't have any political influence on her. The act stipulates that it is her responsibility once the Minister assigns her that title. How we work is that, often, the orders come out. Before they come out, hopefully, she will meet with us, and then we try to figure out what we need to do to implement those orders. She is in charge of making the orders herself. She is in charge of the enforcement herself, but there are issues that need to be addressed, such as the borders. That isn't her concern; that's the government's concern. The isolation centres, how we're going to house people, the services we're going to provide to people, the community services, all of those things are the GNWT. So, once an order comes out, or there is a hint of an order, like we know that there might be one coming out at the end of this week, we sit behind closed doors and we talk about how we're going to implement those, and what it's going to take on our side and what resources we need to pull up to be able to enact those orders.
A lot of Northerners like to travel south during the summer. It's what we do. Sometimes, it's to visit family. Sometimes, people just need to get away for a little bit. I'm wondering if it's the intent of this government to encourage as many NWT residents as possible to stay in the NWT for the summer in order to reduce people's exposure to COVID-19 in southern Canada and, if so, what the GNWT is doing to encourage NWT residents to stay home.
Actually, at the Cabinet table, we never actually said, "Do we want people to stay or not?" That wasn't the question, but the reality is, with the Ministers and myself included, it makes sense for us to limit our travel outside the Northwest Territories this summer. The numbers of COVID-19 infections in the South are still rising. We haven't flattened that curve, yet, so I think, at this point, my personal opinion is that it would make sense for as many people to travel in the North as possible. What we're doing about it is we have Spectacular NWT; we're talking about it now. Our Minister of tourism is actively meeting with the tourists' associations, talking about what we can do.
We have beautiful, beautiful sceneries in the Northwest Territories, and one of the privileges of being elected in this House -- well, before COVID-19; I apologize to all the Ministers now -- we did get to travel, and it really emphasized to myself personally that every region, every community, is different and every one is beautiful in its own way. So we need to advertise that. We need to promote that as much as possible so that we can keep people here. The North has a lot to offer, and I don't think a lot of Northerners who are from here have been to all of the communities, so I would, right now, like to say that all Northerners should travel north and see the beautiful land that we have in the Northwest Territories this summer, and every summer.
Thank you, Honourable Premier. Final supplementary, Member for Kam Lake.
Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker, and I absolutely agree with the Premier that the North is beautiful and has a lot to offer. I also wonder how many Southerners might feel the same way, especially considering we don't have any active cases of COVID-19. Now that we've discussed that people can come into our borders, it sounds like what we will be expected to do is to advise people to self-isolate within our four self-isolations zones.
If somebody comes to the Northwest Territories and wants to go visit Jackie in Tuktoyaktuk, they need to self-isolate in Yellowknife first, before they can do that. They have already arranged to go stay with Jackie and his family in Tuktoyaktuk, so who pays for the hotel when they stay in Yellowknife and self-isolate in Yellowknife? Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Right now, we're in phase 1 of the Emerging Wisely, and we have kind of limited the amount of travel. Phase 2 is going to be coming out this Friday. The Chief Public Health Officer will be announcing those orders. Hopefully tomorrow and Thursday I'll be getting more information on them, as well. Again, I'm very cautious about what I ask her for. I do not want her to think that I am imposing my will on her. It's a very delicate line. We will be talking about those issues as we talk to her. At this point, we have been paying for the isolation units. As we open up phase 2, those are conversations we still need to have. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Honourable Premier. Oral questions. Member for Inuvik Twin Lakes.
