Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Today Mr. Speaker, I'd like to acknowledge and thank all the frontline health care workers in Tuktoyaktuk and my leadership and all Nunakput riding.
Mr. Speaker, 10 percent of my community in Tuktoyaktuk had an outbreak and that was a really scary situation. It's still 18 positives that we're still working towards getting through that 10-day isolation and making sure they're testing negative but we're very thankful to our staff for all the hard work that they do, August Stuckey and the health centre crew, thank you so much. And for all the tireless work you've been doing for the last three weeks to a month. Also to the SAO and the hamlet staff for working so hard and diligently to make sure everything's been going right. And my mayor Erwin Elias, thank you for doing what you do and the good job that you're doing.
Mr. Speaker, November 26th, 2021 our health organization designated a new variant COVID19. It's a concern. The variant is called Omicron. It appeared in Canada. I was watching the news the other day, at six in the morning, and then it was in Ottawa. 4 o'clock in the afternoon, it was in Edmonton. So that's how fast it's travelling, Mr. Speaker, and we're worried. There's a lot of unknowns at this point surrounding the variant, and we don't know how quickly it will spread and the vaccines help. I am concerned with my communities.
My leadership called; I talked to my leadership Josh Oliktoak. I had a text message from him saying, Anybody travelling from Yellowknife airport should be getting a clean bill of COVID test before they jump on the plane heading into Ulu. So that has to be looked at, Mr. Speaker. I don't think it's being done here, or passengers have to go and get cleared to travel because getting it into Ulukhaktok, some of my Elders are not vaccinated and it's a really scary situation that they went through already. And, you know, there's so many challenges in our communities. Like, for Tuk we had to establish a managing and isolation centre, finding enough homes and places to isolate families. Mr. Speaker, I seek unanimous consent to conclude my statement.
Unanimous consent granted
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Thank you, colleagues. Ensuring residents have food and they don't have to leave their homes. Administrating the COVID testing and tracing is fast enough to limit the spread, and I'd like to thank them for doing that job so diligently, but we have to work on it.
Mr. Speaker, I'm really concerned on whether the next variant of COVID is going to hit our communities and the secretariat was created to respond to COVID, to create a process that will keep our communities safe. I'm concerned that the response to keep communities safe may be not improving and quick enough to address the challenges for our community and giving the SAOs and the hamlet help. Mr. Speaker, I'll have a few questions for the Premier as the head of COVID Secretariat later this afternoon. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Member for Nunakput. Members' statements. Member for Inuvik Twin Lakes.
Member’s Statement on
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. With the implementation of the Living Well Together training for all the government of the Northwest Territories staff, it was disturbing for me to hear on the different occasions that some members of the public service are not completing this training. The Living Well Together recognizes that the NWT was first Indigenous land filled with Indigenous people. It recognizes the impact of colonization had on Indigenous people. It explains through firsthand stories how this trauma continues today in the lives of Indigenous residents.
Living Well Together was intended to provide all public servants with Indigenous cultural awareness and sensitivity training to assist them in their jobs.
Mr. Speaker, I think people throughout Canada, even within the NWT, do not recognize the impact of our collective history built on racism, white privilege, removing Indigenous people from their land, and forcing children out of their culture. Many people don't recognize don't truly recognize how Canada's colonial history affects us all today.
Mr. Speaker, many of our Indigenous people struggle with addictions, mental health, high rates of family violence; our children make up most all of the children in care; and the majority of the inmates of the population in our correction facilities. The homeless and underhoused people in the NWT are made up of many residential school survivors or their children.
Mr. Speaker, this is a result of the systemic racism built in governments that has continued since first contact.
Mr. Speaker, this training is extremely important for all public servants in the GNWT to complete, especially those people who deal directly with the public.
Mr. Speaker, we know that nonIndigenous people make up nearly 60 percent of the entire GNWT public service. It is very concerning to me that nonIndigenous public servants, especially those on the frontlines, dealing with directly, with our Elders, our new mothers, our people struggling with addictions, are not properly trained in cultural awareness, or refuse to do so.
I will have questions for the Minister of Finance later today. Mahsi.
Thank you, Member for Inuvik Twin Lakes. Members' statements. Member for Great Slave.
