Julie Green

Yes, thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, we do not at this point have a specific number. We've been saying to people that they should get vaccinated if at all possible. The higher the vaccination rate, the better off we all are.

I think one of the lessons from the MJ outbreak is how vulnerable unvaccinated people are. Almost all of the cases there were children. The median age of those children was 8 and a half years old. So they're not eligible for vaccines at this point. And so having a vaccination rate is fine, but there are these pockets of people who are not vaccinated who we have to take...

Yes, thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the Public Health Act provides detailed guidance on the powers of the Chief Public Health Officer. And it is her role to evaluate risks. She has disclosed the documents that she uses. One particular one is from Johns Hopkins University. Another is from the National Chief Public Health Officers Committee that meets fairly regularly that she uses to consider what the risks are.

She is instructed in the legislation to balance the risks with personal freedoms, that the measures that she recommends need to be commensurate to the risk and not to necessarily...

Yes, thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, it's standard for the department, the Health Authority, and the Secretariat to do a debrief after an outbreak is over.

The outbreak at MJ McPherson is not yet over. But when it is, those three entities will meet and will go over what they've learned and what they could do differently next time. Thank you.

Yes, thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the COVID Secretariat has a small communication staff that provides material to do with the public health orders. And on the other side, the NTHSSA provides communications and materials on the operational side of things, like testing and vaccinations. Thank you.

Thanks, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I'm always glad to hear that people have taken advantage of the treatment options that the department provides and that they have been successful. That is obviously great news for them and great news for the community as well.

We don't have an aftercare strategy, per se, but recently, we asked community governments to apply for peer support funding which would enable them to design their own program to assist people to maintain their sobriety.

So I hope that your community has applied for that money and that they will be able to provide that specific approach...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, it's my understanding that the CPHO is working on a travel exemption which would provide access to the Yukon that would be not time limited. I'm not aware of any work being done on a timelimited option. Thank you.

Yes, thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I hear the Member's desire to have more social activity in his community, and I appreciate that people are feeling cooped up, and they're ready to move on from this experience.

I can certainly ask the department if there is someone there or somebody in the health authority who can reach out to the SAO and go over what the possibilities are for funding in the area that the Member has indicated. So I'll make sure that that happens. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr.Speaker. Mr. Speaker, under the Public Health Act, the Chief public health officer has the authority to make recommendations to me about travel, and they are then written into public health orders and enforced at this point by the COVID Secretariat. So it's a process that begins with the Chief Public Health Officer and ends up with me signing off.

The issue about the travel exemption with the Yukon doesn't have to do with risk assessment. It has to do with verification of people being vaccinated. So the Yukon and BC have a common medical record system, but ours is different than...

Yes, thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, when the Member for Nunakput previously asked for a mental health team to go to his community, it went to his community in the last week of March, the last week that we were sitting prior to this sitting. So, certainly, the department is able to provide inperson mental health supports.

I'm not sure if they can do that again. It's something that I can request. I can say in the meantime, as long as people have a phone, they can get telephone counselling, which is not the same as persontoperson but is better than nothing by a long shot. You still have a...

Yes, thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the fact is we're not locked down here. Members of this House have travelled during the time that nonessential travel has not been recommended.

Just for your information, 48,183 selfisolation plans have been approved. So it's not really true to say that people are stuck here. People have made the choice to travel. And as of April 21st, the isolation time has been reduced.

So I can say that I cannot say when the Chief Public Health Officer will consider that conditions are right to lift her both restrictions, actually, or guidance. The one is travel...