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 expect that the Premier is talking with the other Premiers, not just leaving it to the department. Thank you.
Thank you, Member for Great Slave. Honourable Premier.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Actually, yes, we do have a lot of conversations with the Premiers, Premiers across Canada. We usually meet on a biweekly basis, if not weekly, depending on the situations. The Northern Premiers also meet regularly as well.
Those relationships are important. And we're in a special situation. The three territories actually were the first in Canada actually to get the vaccinations. Thank you to all Premiers across of Canada for that consultation. But we also realized that we are exceptional in that we're a little bit isolated; there's not as many entrances and exits outside, et cetera.
So we have made exemptions. We looked at the Nunavut that we have done. However, what I have to say is exemptions change. As soon as Nunavut had the outbreak, things changed.
So we were looking at one with Yukon, and then Yukon opened up, and things changed. Now Yukon is again back to the table. We're at the process, like the Minister said, that we're looking at agreements.
What I have to say, though, is anybody now has the same opportunity as people as anywhere in the NWT. People can go to the Yukon. They just have to come back and isolate. If they've got double vaccinations of vaccinations, they can get 8 days. If they don't, they have to do 14 days. That is the same privilege as every single resident in the NWT.
Now, recognizing that the Beaufort Delta is a little bit different, a little bit more isolated, we are looking at a special agreement. But at this time, people that are vaccinated can go in and stay the 8 days when they return. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
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. It's nice to say that the Premier has privilege. A lot of people have privilege, and a lot of people don't.
Mr. Speaker, our intention when people come back and have to isolate is not about privilege. It's about accessibility. Anyone in the Northwest Territories that is going for medical or emergency or grievance, exceptional situations, will be covered by our isolation centres if they have no other safe place to isolate.
Everyone across the territories, people are privileged, people are not. At this point, we are not paying for the isolation centres for people that are traveling for leisure. That's about our safety things, Mr. Speaker. So every single individual is accounted in that, and I'm hoping that people who can't have safe place to isolate will contact us because that's what we're there for.
As for the airlines, it's not every Minister, Mr. Speaker, that would have that direction. It's the Finance Minister that has those conversations with airlines. But she doesn't. They're federally regulated.
So we did give some contribution because of COVID to Canadian North, and we're looking at an arrangement with them. I believe that going into the Yukon, it's a different airline, though. It's not even ours. It's Air North. So we can't tell Air North what to do. But what I can commit is that we will have discussions with them to see what they're willing to do, such as the discussions we've had with Canadian North. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
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.
And I do understand that might take some pressuring of the federal government; however, if we want to see people moving around this winter or sorry this summer and dealing with some of these mental health burnout and fatigue I'm talking about, then I think this is a good move for our people. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Yes, mental health is important. Never assume that somebody comes because they have a good job, that they come from a place of privilege. Sometimes people with good jobs have exceptional costs as well that are taking care of families. So I never go that way.
As for taxes, absolutely, Mr. Speaker. Actually, it's already covered. I'm just trying to look for that, yes.
So you can actually within our taxes at this point, you can actually use staycations for a tax exemption in the NWT. You can claim the lowest of the three following amounts: You can claim the value of the taxable travel benefit received from your employer; you can claim the actual amount that you spent on your trip; keep all your receipts and your supporting documents; and you can claim the lowest return airfare available at the time of the trip between the airport closest to your residence and the nearest designated city to that airport. For example, in Yellowknife, it might be Edmonton. So that's already in place. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Honourable Premier. Final supplementary. Member for Great Slave.
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 the Premier start to work on that. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I'm a bit confused on that question. I would ask that the Member actually meet with me in person later if she's willing to do that. My direction has been to Ministers since the beginning of this government has been that work with MLAs, work with stakeholders as much as possible. There will come times that we may have to fight. And ask any of the Ministers here. I can see the Member's shaking her head.
But you can ask any Minister here, that the direction has been work with people as much as possible. Pick your fights that you need to. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Honourable Premier. Oral Questions. Member for Deh Cho.
