Caroline Cochrane

The big difference is that the public health officers who are doing the compliance and the enforcement are not RCMP officers. They come with a different set of skills. All along, we've said that, if there were huge parties and people were breaking orders, disturbances and stuff, we would not put our public health officers at risk within that. That is the job of the RCMP. I do think that sometimes our public is getting confused. They tend to phone us. What I have to say is that we have almost, I believe it was, 800 inquiries or calls in to Protect NWT. Every single one of them gets followed up...

I think it's important as elected officials to actually take ownership when things aren't too good, so I will take ownership on this one in that some of the delay over the couple of months was on our behalf, on the department's behalf, because COVID-19 hit us, and we were scrambling. All government departments were told, "You are now working from home," and we had to figure out what that looked like, so I do take ownership for some of that delay. That is our fault, and there is not much we can do about that. We are trying to work with them.

How I am going to fix it, though, is that we have...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. It is not about because the only thing that changed was Lutselk'e Dene band, because I didn't even know that was the owner or not or whoever it is. The reality, Mr. Speaker, is that there was a change in ownership, and, with the change in ownership, they are looking for a liquor permit. If you are looking for a liquor permit, it's a little bit more difficult. You have to have not only a business licence but an occupancy permit, and then the fire marshal has to go in and do an inspection, so that is the difference. It's not only the owner; it's the request for a liquor...

How quickly they learn to be politicians. They know that there's an election coming up for the federal government. Actually, I have to say, in fairness to the Prime Minister, the Prime Minister has recognized, not only in this government, in the last Assembly, as well, that the territories are at a deficit. They have always given us extra money.

For example, for this Assembly, since COVID-19, I believe we got just over $23 million for the GNWT for our own COVID-19 expenses. We got $8.7 million for airlines. We got $35 million for businesses, and my understanding is that more will be coming...

At this point, I have not heard that having extra staffing at the border controls was an issue. We did know that, with the fire season, some of our public health officers had to go back to their positions in departments. We are actively looking for other recruitments in that area. I would love to be able to say that every person who came across, if we just took their temperature, they would be okay, and they could come in. My worry with doing that, in honesty, Mr. Speaker, is that sometimes people are asymptomatic. Not everybody will have a temperature. If we start taking that temperature...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Any person who enters the Northwest Territories and lands at either an airport or on a highway at the check points, the first thing you are asked for is a piece of identification to prove if you are a resident of the Northwest Territories. If you are not a resident of the Northwest Territories, then you are asked to provide a letter from an employer or a proof that you are an essential worker. If you are an essential worker, then we will allow you through because, if you are in the territories for more than 36 hours, you need to have a self-isolation plan. If you are...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The chief health officer has the autonomy to be able to do the directions herself. She doesn't need to work with departments. She has been very, very nice to actually work with us as much as possible though.

Actually complying with the enforcement, that is our biggest fear. I am just going to put it out there. People have this misperception, and I need everyone to help me with this. Not only MLAs in this House; municipal governments have brought it up; Indigenous governments; we need everyone. People have this misperception, Mr. Speaker, that we're in a bubble, and we...

I hear the Member's concerns, and I have the same concerns about people. We have been doing as much as we can to try to make the public aware that we are not in a bubble; we are at risk, and it takes every individual to do this. What I worry about is that we are trying to deal with an issue that has been long-standing. It's the partying, it's the drug dealers, it's the people who aren't being good neighbours in apartment buildings, and we're trying to deal with all of that with COVID-19.

I'm not sure if that's the answer, if we even have the capacity to do that. What I will commit to, because...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The Compliance and Enforcement Branch is actually there to enforce the orders of the Chief Public Health Officer. A lot of that is, like the Member said, around public education. Some are verbal warnings. Some are written warnings. The last would be a fine. That is the purpose of the Compliance and Enforcement Branch. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

The assumption is that this is a new policy, and, actually, it's not. It's always been in there that, if you are looking for a liquor licence, if you are looking for a liquor permit, that you need to have both. The reality is that my opinion is that we were a little bit lenient with lodges before. We did a review of the Fire Prevention Act, and then it really did confirm that all remote fishing lodges are subject to the building code. It just happened that this lodge was one of the first ones after that review, so it's not that we want to penalize. We want to help them, but we also have to...