Lesa Semmler

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We continue to see violence against our Indigenous women and girls, not just here in the North, Mr. Speaker, but across Canada. We have all seen recently over this time, during this pandemic, the loss of a young Indigenous woman from Yellowknife as well as another young woman murdered in Hay River. Outside the NWT, an Indigenous woman and a mother of seven, Joyce Echaquan, who went to the hospital to seek medical treatment, instead died while being treated like no person should be treated in a facility like that.

Mr. Speaker, in June, we were informed that an action plan...

I will rise and report progress.

I will now call Committee of the Whole to order. Mr. Norn, what is the wish of committee?

Thanks to the Minister for that. I am going to be looking forward to that in four to six months. My question to the Minister is: how is this going to be kind of infiltrated into the departments so that way we know, when we look at the calls for justice, that it kind of filters into all different areas of the GNWT, that the GNWT would be responsible for actioning? Can the Minister just say how this direction is being provided? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My question is for the Minister responsible for the Status of Women. Will the Minister update this House if there has been any progress made on the development of an NWT action plan? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

We can go to church with up to 25 people, with the ability to apply for more seats, but this does not include funerals. That is not right. How does one measure a funeral ceremony is more risk and less important than allowing non-NWT-resident essential workers for infrastructure and mining projects, who are flying in from Edmonton on the same flight as all of us, that I go home on every time I leave Yellowknife?

The winter is on its way. We cannot deny families indoor funerals. This must be looked into. Our families need to mourn. They need to lay their family members to rest in a way that...

During the public briefing that we had in September, I did ask the Minister if they could review the restrictions around funerals, and I'm just wondering if the Minister can tell me if the CPHO, if you know that they are reviewing this rule?

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I understand that the Chief Public Health Officer has the power to make all of the rules that have been in place and is not to be politically influenced, and we have heard this from the Premier and the past Minister. When this Emerging Wisely document was created, I would just like to know if this document was run by Cabinet before it was released to the public? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. First, I'd like to express my condolences to the families in my community and the surrounding communities in the loss of their family members over the last few months. Since I left this House in June, just in our region alone, we have lost a lot of elders, younger people in our region. We just lost another person yesterday.

During this time of loss, families are under extreme stress. In addition to this, they are mourning, they are trying to arrange for funerals, and they are trying to do it in their ways, in their beliefs, in their burial ceremonies that bring them...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I just have one question to the Minister: if she can ask the Chief Public Health Officer if she could move this up. Lakes are freezing at home. In the North, we've already got blizzards going. We can't have outdoor funerals already. It's already too cold. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.