Caroline Cochrane

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...

I have to give you both. Yes, they are allowed to travel across Canada. The charter right gives the mobility right to travel into any jurisdiction. No, once they hit the border and are across our border in the NWT, at that point our CPHO, our Chief Public Health Officer, has the authority to restrict travel as she sees fit. Yes, they can come across the border. When they put one step in our border, it's our jurisdiction.

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...

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...

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...

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...