Jackie Jacobson

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. This weekend, starting Saturday night, 10:00 o'clock, I got a call: winds are hitting at 108 kilometres in my home community of Tuktoyaktuk, and we had a blow of the same weather up in Sachs Harbour. I put a note yesterday, I was so happy that the power was back on in my home community of Tuktoyaktuk and in Sachs Harbour, too; it was restored yesterday. Even waiting for the weather to improve and the delays that we had, we all pulled together through as a community, and a big thank you to my mayor, Erwin Elias. A special thank you to our Minister responsible for the NWT...

Just in regard to the action plan in regard to the staffing, how does it work now in regard to where we are going to get our extra nurses from to provide services in case something happens in the community? Is there a special nursing team that's going to come in and help the nursing staff of the day, I guess, if anybody in the community has that? Is there a plan in place to make sure that our staff is not overworked and somebody is backing them up?

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions today are for the health Minister on an action plan for COVID-19 for my riding in Nunakput and all small communities across the territory. For isolation equipment, oxygen machines, portable oxygen machines, are they being sent into our communities? Do they have to be called out of Inuvik to be sent into the community? How does that work, Mr. Speaker? Thank you.

I'm encouraged to hear that. You know, it's coming. I'm really worried about our communities, our elders, people who we represent in our communities, because we know all of them. I really think that we really should think about this, from now until June, take all limiters off. The Minister could make that happen. Would the Minister commit to me today to getting that done?

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I have questions today for the Minister responsible for the NWT Power Corporation on being proactive and not reactive, Mr. Speaker, in supporting our communities' action plan with regard to safety of lines, power lines that are in the communities that need to be redone before this COVID-19 our communities. Because I really worry about, if a blizzard hits and a lineman being sick and come to attend to our community, how do we fix that, Mr. Speaker? Will the Minister commit today to make sure that all the Nunakput communities, the line crews go in and then start working...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I'm pleased. Yesterday, we brought up the COVID-19. I am pleased this government is working so hard to get this pandemic for the people across the territories sorted out on a plan to go forward. I want to know this plan for our schools, Mr. Speaker, and our small communities. Yesterday, Ontario announced the unprecedented decision to shut down their schools for two weeks after their spring break to try to slow the spread of the virus.

I believe the Minster of ECE should be doing the same here, Mr. Speaker, across our territory. In every district, give the local DEAs the...

Mr. Speaker, I didn't get the answer I wanted. Will the Minister support the local DEAs on their decision that they make? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

That's not what I want to hear. We have [inaudible] like they do in the South, here. We have to make a stand in regard to this COVID-19. People are worried; people are panicked. The thing is, I'm not trying to put people into a panic, but I'm just making sure that, when the teachers are coming back from the South, or anybody coming back from the South for spring break, if the DEA says, okay, we're going to shut down the school for two weeks after, making sure that the teachers get paid and the Minister supports the local DEAs on that call.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Again, I rise to welcome my Pages from Sachs Harbour, Tony and Rylan. Thank you for doing a good job here this week. I really enjoyed having them in the House, here. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Madam Chair. Going over the motion and going over the bill, we, as Members of the Assembly, have to look at the big picture. We have to make sure that we are creating jobs and employment for the people in regard to projects where, basically, free money is coming from the federal government. I think what the biggest thing is, how I look at it is, when Yellowknife does good, we do good, and this is jobs for Yellowknife. There's a potential opportunity to make change in regard to the socio-economic agreements between the mine sites that are going to have access to that. We're going to...