Caroline Cochrane

I think that all of us in this House would like clarification on the orders and how they stand. I can't commit to having a press release on it tomorrow. The reason is because there are many Ministers. It's myself, my schedule; the Minister of Health will be there, her schedule; and the Chief Public Health Officer. We did make arrangements already. Our press release will be on Friday. It is already scheduled. At that time, we will be answering any questions and clarifying the new orders as they come forward, and I suspect that we will get questions on the border and hopefully clarify that, as...

Thursday is coming up pretty fast, but if the Member wanted to meet with me after session, I am more than willing to meet. You can give me a call any time. Again, I apologize if it was my comments on CBC. This issue with the border and mobility rights is something that we have been discussing in Cabinet for the last little while. It is an issue. We didn't really come to any firm conclusion. We were just talking about up right until, actually, this morning, we were still talking about this issue.

The Chief Public Health Officer did come out and say that there was going to be a change. When I do...

At this point, essential workers are the only ones that the Chief Public Health Officer is allowing to travel within the Northwest Territories. My understanding is that, when she opens up the phase 2, according to what I've heard from the Minister today, it still won't be leisurely travel; it will be more essential workers. There is a family reunification clause in there, I think, that she was looking at, as well. At this point, it is still just essential workers. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I can't talk for Dr. Kandola. She's not here to speak for herself. I can talk about my understanding of phase 1 when we came in, so the end of the Act. Again, we went back to the Public Health Act. Section 33(1), says that, during a state of public health emergency, the CPHO may make orders and provide direction restricting travel to or from any area within the NWT. That was the point that we were discussing right through. My understanding then is that, when someone comes to the border, we can't tell you that you can't come to the border, that you have a charter right...

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...

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...

Again, we are trying to work closer with our Chief Public Health Officer. Oftentimes, orders will come out, and we are still trying to figure out what that means for us, as well. The border closing wasn't something that was actually designed by Cabinet. That was something that we were looking at the order and deciding, because we have a challenge about the mobility aspect.

If you look at the Public Health Act, under section 11.1(b), it says the Chief Public Health Officer, and excuse me if I paraphrase, may make any order that they consider necessary to protect public health. If, in the opinion...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I first want to state that the Chief Public Health Officer has the autonomy in order to make orders, and it is really important that, in the act, it says that people can't interfere with her orders. We have to be very careful, as politicians, that we are not imposing on her and making her feel pressured within that. We have been meeting with her as regularly as possible and talking to her about our concerns.

Mr. Speaker, our Chief Public Health Officer is not a politician. She is trying her best to protect the safety of people. She has made commitments, and I think that...

There are a couple of issues. I will provide the MLAs an update, but I can't commit to it being this evening. Two issues, Mr. Speaker: one is that my staff are still trying to arrange that emergency meeting. I'm not sure if the Premiers are just finding out because of this meeting here. The other thing, Mr. Speaker, I'm going through some family stuff, serious family stuff at this point, so I will not commit. I need to have a day off after I have this meeting to deal with my family issues, and I will deal with you tomorrow. Serious family issues. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Again, I am just actually finding out myself what's going on with it. The Chief Public Health Officers have been working closely together. It is the Premiers who have to have those discussions. We only meet once a week, and sometimes, that doesn't work with the Chief Public Health Officers' meetings. We had negotiations or talks at the table to see if there was interest. There was interest in all three. Since we had that first discussion, though, Mr. Speaker, there was a new revelation that Yukon -- as we were talking about three territories, all three territories had locked down borders, and...