Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I have questions for the Minister of Health and Social Services. Mr. Speaker, I would assume that Protect NWT's slow response time is caused by staff shortage and the high volume of calls they are receiving. Can the Minister tell me: how many calls has Protect NWT received to date, and is it increasing or decreasing? What are the average calls per day? What is the nature of the calls? Are they for exemptions, monitoring, enforcement, reporting, or general information? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Member for Hay River South. Minister of Health and Social Services.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Since issuing the first public health order on March 21st, Protect Northwest Territories has responded to over 12,000 phone calls. We have processed over 5,300 self-isolation plans, and we have responded to more than 9,000 emails. On an average basis, Protect Northwest Territories receives about 144 calls a day. Currently, the call and email volumes remain very high, and staffing is a priority to meet the demands. Calls and emails received related to self-isolation requirements for residents and essential service workers, compliance, enforcement, requests for information about orders, requests for exceptional-circumstance approvals, and redirecting enquiries to other pandemic response services. Any time there is a compliance concern, the case gets forwarded to the compliance and enforcement task force. In the last week, we have had 52 cases around self-isolation and travel restriction concerns, 10 concerns on gatherings, and 31 public health enquiries from businesses.
That was a mouthful. Response time by Protect NWT has been an issue, so I would ask the Minister: have we added or considered adding additional staff to Protect NWT to address the slow response time to questions because, evidently, there are a lot of requests?
Mr. Speaker, having the necessary human resource support is very crucial to Protect NWT and the compliance enforcement task force being able to carry out mandates successfully, especially in a timely manner, and staffing is a priority for Protect Northwest Territories. The original team was largely made up of a small group of GNWT employees who were redeployed to assist with this component of the COVID-19 response work. With GNWT employees returning to positions, it has been difficult as hiring is a combination of casual positions and mature summer student positions. Staffing actions are not only to replace the GNWT workers but also to add to the team, given the workload demands. I do want to add that our department wishes to acknowledge the contributions of these redeployed GNWT employees and also thank them for their skills and passion in this area of work and coming to work for our department from other areas within the GNWT.
I think we all appreciate the work that the staff has done, as well. Mr. Speaker, if we are to open our borders at some point, it is imperative that the responsible department consider increasing our monitoring enforcement staff in communities at NWT entry points. This is crucial. Once the borders open, will the Minister commit to additional staff being added to monitoring and enforcement staff?
We have no plans to lift travel restrictions any time soon. We do recognize that we do need to accommodate those protected by the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, and we also need to ensure that the Northwest Territories residents have access to essential services, often provided by those who are travelling from other jurisdictions. I would also agree with the Member that ensuring that we have the necessary staffing is crucial to our continued efforts to reduce the public health risk of COVID-19 to Northwest Territories residents. The department has a better understanding of where the pressure points are in implementing and enforcing the Chief Public Health Officer's orders, having had time now to review some operations. The Office of the Chief Public Health Officer will be looking at all GNWT departments for some support to make this adjustment.
Thank you, Minister. Final supplementary, Member for Hay River South.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As I said in my statement, I constantly receive calls from constituents about southern workers coming into the NWT and not self-isolating, not self-monitoring, and not wearing proper PPE. Residents are becoming short tempered and discouraged at what is taking place. We need added staff to monitor and provide enforcement in Hay River. Can the Minister provide me with some guidance as to what I can tell the residents of Hay River to alleviate their concerns about those not self-isolating and how they will be dealt with?
Currently, the default is that essential service workers must self-isolate when they travel within the Northwest Territories. However, employers can apply for their workers to be exempt from this self-isolation requirements if they take other necessary measures and get special approval from the Chief Public Health Officer. Supply chain workers can be in the Northwest Territories for less than 36 hours. They must socially distance while they're here, but they do not need to self-isolate while working. This could include truckers who are coming, unload their goods that are being delivered, get something to eat, turn around, and get to their point of origin. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Minister. Oral questions. Member for Thebacha.
