Rylund Johnson

Thank you, Madam Chair. Can I just get a little more explanation of what types of orders we are anticipating to see under this, and do we have any already drafted or ready to go? Just kind of a sense of it, a little more detail on what we can expect to see this power used for. Thank you, Madam Chair.

The idea of 450 residents across our very small population dying, I think, is truly a tragic figure that we want to avoid at all costs, and I'm happy to hear that we do not expect, given our public health measures, for everyone to obtain COVID at the same time.

My other question is: one of the main things we have been trying to do is to break the wave, to prevent a surge in our healthcare system. Do we have any current projections or idea of, if we get to that community spread where there are potentially hundreds of people dying, whether other deaths will be caused due to the surge on the...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. If I have learned one thing in this job, it's that persistence often gets you results. Considering that one third of NWT residents are at high risk of COVID-19, does the Minister have any projections of, if COVID-19 were to spread across our population, how many people would be hospitalized and/or die? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Yes, I would appreciate if that level of information could be made public. During one of our briefings, I asked the Chief Public Health Officer, and she started to lay out a formula of how you could take a set of the population, and what we know about COVID-19, and then project hospitalizations. It's that kind of information I'm looking for. It's certainly not information I am capable of understanding or providing, so I would really appreciate if the Minister could follow through with that commitment.

Another one of the main concerns I have had is that I still don't have a full understanding of...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Throughout the course of COVID-19, I have made multiple requests to see some data regarding COVID-19. I have made requests to see modelling, and I have still have not seen those. The type of data I am looking for is really not the kind of thing that I think should be asked on the floor of the House, but I will ask.

We have consistently heard that one of the risks of the Northwest Territories is we have a lot of immunocompromised people and respiratory illness, so my question to the Minister of health is: how many people in the NWT are projected to be at high risk or...

Thank you, Madam Chair. Yes, I have big expectations from what a work-from-home policy could accomplish. I think many people who work in government departments feel they don't need to be in the office the majority of the time, and I feel that a great way to get more childcare is allow people to be at home with their children, should they want. I know there are various ways across departments, and some departments have been highly productive working from home, and others have not.

I also think this is a big potential for the GNWT to be a leader. More and more corporations across the world are...

Thank you, Madam Chair. I do agree with many of the sentiments expressed by my colleague from Frame Lake. One of the issues I struggle with is that expanding strategic infrastructure projects, including Taltson, was made a priority of this Assembly, it's in our mandate, and then therefore the government is working on it, and to me it is committee's direction to provide that direction on how to do that. I still think there are a lot of questions to be answered about Taltson, and whether we actually build it or find a buyer, I think, is the biggest one, but to me, what this recommendation really...

Thank you, Madam Chair. I also note that the bill has the ability to be retroactive. We've seen licence deadlines extended. We've seen a number of kinds of deadlines that we've already missed, so can I just get a sense of what deadlines have already passed that we anticipate creating retroactive orders for? Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I guess my request to the Minister is: I think if people hear that there are potentially 450 deaths, that statistic has numerous qualifiers and a bunch of underlying assumptions built into it. When we hear that 5 percent of people get COVID and end up in the intensive care unit, once again, there are a number of qualifiers, and that's a worst-case scenario based on all of the qualifiers you said. My request to the Minister: could we publish some sort of report or data or put this out with all of the information out? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

That was some very helpful influenza data, and I will re-read the Hansard to try to understand it after. Perhaps it could be posted publicly. However, specifically, I'm not just looking for data on influenza; I'm looking for a projection of COVID-19 community spread across our population and the number of hospitalizations or deaths that could result from that.