Thank you, Madam Speaker. Again, I'll repeat myself from what I said last night. As an Inuvialuit beneficiary living in my home town of Tuktoyaktuk, 17 miles away from Tuktoyaktuk is Kittegaryumiut. We lost 3,000 people in the pandemic in the 1920s. I think that, when COVID-19 first came out, we didn't know what we were doing. Everybody was in a panic. Everybody tried to do their best. Our government tried to do their best. Now, we have to do our best in regard to the safety of the people of the Northwest Territories, and for me, the money, 8 million bucks, one life saved is worth it. I don't care about the money. I care about the safety; the safety of my people. You know as well as I do that our hamlets, our communities, tried to shut down the highway going into Tuktoyaktuk, into Inuvik. They had to try roadblocks and things like that. They were so worried about the pandemic coming because, growing up in Tuktoyaktuk, you hear stories about those days, about what happened. It's different. When you say "pandemic," or something like that, it scares people, especially our elders. That's the most important for me, is our elders and our youths.

You look back, and we have to try to get through this together as 19 Members. It's not the government. It's all our responsibility to get through this. We have to get through this pandemic. It's a new world in regard to this COVID-19 world, and it's the safety or our constituents that's our priority. For the COVID secretariat, I will be supporting it. I have all the respect in the world for every one of these Members in this House, Madam Speaker, and everybody has to make their own choice upon their own judgment. When I look at this, it's bigger than that. It's so big, we just hope it doesn't hit our communities. I will be in support of it. Thank you, Madam Speaker.

Thank you. To the motion. Member for Nunakput.

Marsi cho, Madam Speaker. I will not say too much beyond what some of my colleagues have already spoken about this motion. I will say, when this news first came up, the news reports in China last year about this terrible virus, COVID-19, I thought, "I hope it doesn't come this way." All of a sudden, you start hearing that kind of trickle starting to come through and the terrible sickness and illness. Again, every day, I was thinking, "I just hope it does not come this way," and sure enough, it did. It did make its way here. We started to hear businesses closed, businesses that had kept open for 200 years all of a sudden start closing their doors, that there is operations in place, businesses, like all kinds of, again, businesses are open during the World War II, like through the world wars, that, all of a sudden because of COVID, they are closed now. Things we've never seen in this generation, that none of us has ever experienced, and I kept thinking, "I hope it doesn't come this way." Sure enough, it did, and one of the cases hit my home town. That was scary, but we got through that. When I visit my home town, if the weather is nice enough, I'll go and visit some of my lost loved ones. I go and visit my pops at the grave, and on the way out of the graveyard in Deninu Kue, there is a large area there of a previous pandemic from the flu and TB. There are some terrible, terrible scourges that hit our territory and our people really hard, and I hope none of this ever happens again. How do we navigate that?

In really thinking about this, again, I have spoken about this early on. When I first saw the documents that came out from the Cabinet side of things, I thought it was some sort of weird joke. I thought, "It had better not be April 1^st." I looked at the date, and no, this is actually happening. Because, looking at this and at our responses, we're the only jurisdiction in the country that is doing this, that is creating a department to react to this. It has never been done. It's not done anywhere else. Other jurisdictions are aligning their resources to battle this through their different departments and doing it in that way. Is this best practice? No. Do I feel this is the right thing to do? No. No, I don't feel it is.

I mentioned this yesterday, and I won't spend too much more time speaking to this. I really believe in my heart that there is a better way to go, but not this way. Like I said, we're very thankful right now. Our response right now has been very good, and I'm hoping and I'm praying that we don't see any loss of life through this. I'm hoping we navigate this, and I have to respect all my colleagues' votes. We've been here just over a year, now. We all have our mandates, and we have to try to navigate through this. I really think this $8.7 million will take a step back against some of our mandate items. I think there is a better way to do this, and so, again, I want to let everyone know that I will be speaking against this motion and voting against it. I do not support this part of the motion.

Again, like what my colleague from Deh Cho said, it's just the specific allocation for the COVID secretariat. This $8.7 million is what I have an issue with. The rest, I'm okay with. With that, I have nothing else to say. Marsi cho.

Thank you. To the motion. Member for Tu Nedhe-Wiilideh.

Mahsi, Madam Speaker. I would like the residents of the Northwest Territories, especially the elderly and the sick, that I do care for their health and well-being. The issue here is: are we doing prudent spending on behalf of the people so that we can save dollars that can be used towards the small communities in terms of buying ventilation equipment, buying all of the necessary items that are required for PPE for all the COVID-related issues. With Alberta travellers coming into our territory, it's a big concern because we are on the highway system, my community. I have four communities on the highway system. We are seeing lots of traffic, and we have seen all summer Alberta, British Columbia, and Quebec licence plates into our territory. I stated all this yesterday, and I just want to reiterate it today, that that shows that there are problems manning our border check stops. We are not doing a good job of that at all.

I think this COVID team has been in place since March. I spoke to it a length, too, stating that we have a workforce of close to 6,000 people, 6,000 employees within the Government of the Northwest Territories. I suggested many times to the Premier and Cabinet that we should have used people from our own workforce, which would have saved us having to pay for benefits and compensation for 150 new people. That would have been significant savings. The federal government has contributed $24 million, 23.4, to the GNWT for COVID. I would like to call it a task force. It should have been called a task force, probably. I suggested that they use that, those federal dollars, for this task force and not have to touch the GNWT taxpayers' dollars. That can go to much-needed complements, as I mentioned at the start of my speech.

Also, I noted that it's recorded that the Finance Minister could not assure this House that we would get success, I mean the funding continuing for every successive year. There was no indication of that. It could be a one-time funding pot, but they are saying on that side of the House that of course the Prime Minister will throw money at it every chance he has. We do not know the future of the federal politics at this point, whether there is going to be a new election or whether they may change their tune. There could be some other emergency. This COVID is a serious, serious business, but we need to tighten up our actions, and we should have done it with this secretariat. We could have saved a lot of money. The GNWT, being the highest level of government in the Northwest Territories, has to show the people, the businesses, that we represent that we can take on and be prudent and fiscally responsible in our spending.

There are lots of news reports out there on social media about our isolation centres. That is another big catastrophe since day one. We are well into November. Since March, November now, nothing has improved with those isolation centres. There are still lots of people walking, walking away from the centres, stories of people partying all night. They got free places to stay to party. That has not been fixed. We are finding that there are a lot of problems, still. We have got a team in place since March, and we have not made any headway. We keep saying, Cabinet keeps saying, that we are making headway, but I did not see anything.

We should have had all the residents who return, even from medical, who are in the isolation centres to get tested, not the rapid testing. I am not a big fan of an instant test because it's been shown to fail in some instances because, six days later, symptoms can appear. I am a fan of the lab testing that takes about five days, maybe less, but you can send it out to different labs if you looked around and found them. Then we could have had, we could have shortened isolation stay for many residents if we were to do that, but no, no, we don't want to do that. We want to show the people of the NWT that we've got money to play with.

When I first come into this Assembly here, we were already at a debt level. We need to thank the federal government for raising it from 1.3 to 1.9. It was mentioned yesterday, one forest fire in the summer will wipe out our debt level again, and we are in financial trouble. It's just the way the government spends. Cabinet spends on that side of the House without real consultation with Regular Members on this side of the House, who represent many of the residents of the Northwest Territories. Madam Speaker, having said that, I support all the other items on there. It's just the COVID secretariat that is stuck in there, so I have to vote against this bill. Mahsi.

Thank you, Member. To the motion. Member for Deh Cho.

Masi, Madam Speaker. [Translation] This supplementary, we had a long discussion yesterday. Some supported it; some did not. I want to say a few words on this topic. Yesterday, there was an election going on in the USA, so some of them may not have listened to our proceedings yesterday. Madam Speaker, when we are here in this House as MLAs, the people are the ones who voted us in, and we, in turn, say whatever they want us to say. It's not my own words; it's my people's words. Once I leave this building, we talk to people, and we get feedback from people; we talk to the people who we represent. Some days, it's really difficult, how many times I have mentioned this. We have a lot of alcohol and drug problems, homelessness in all our communities, and we have talked about this so many times. They are the ones who are giving us this information. They want us to bring it up to this session here, and I bring those forward for them.

Madam Speaker, recently, we have been losing a lot of young people. They are passing on. Even last week, from my region, we lost a young lady. Even though those things are happening in our communities, we still have to deal with all the issues that we have to deal with here. Now, we have this important motion in front of us. I'm having a difficult time to support this motion. I am talking on behalf of the people who are not able to say anything in this House. It seems like we're creating a situation. We've hired all these people with all this money, and when we think about the amount of money we're going to spend for this department and look at home, where we have all these problems, it's really difficult. We are representing the people who are supporting us. Some days, it's really difficult to listen to what's happening here. The amount of money that we're spending, and our people are suffering. Once I leave this building, I go to a coffee shop. I would see people staggering around, and some of them will be asking me for money for coffee or a sandwich. I ask them, "Where are you staying?" or, "Do you have a home?" They have no idea that we're meeting here, so a lot of times they are having difficulties. They have nowhere to go, and they say that, "I have no one to help me, so I'm on the street." I am numbing myself in this way. How many times have I come across people like that?

Madam Speaker, we have this bill in front of us. We had a long discussion yesterday. We did talk about this, and maybe a lot of people didn't hear what we had to say yesterday. [End of translation] [Microphone turned off] ...some of the things I said in my Tlicho language. I'm just going to summarize some of them. I simply cannot support this supplementary as it is. As you know, we had a deliberation last night, late into the night, on one specific item: the secretariat budget of $8.277 million of new funding, new funding for employees of the secretariat. I have no other issues with the supplementary. On the other supplementary items and such, I have no issues, but it is very unfortunate that they're all lumped together. It's all bundled in one package. It should have been a separate item. This is a very controversial issue, but if the government of the day want us to approve one package, then that's what it is.

Madam Speaker, I've been talking about this for the last couple of weeks now. We need to invest into our communities. What is it that our communities need? I did speak in my language about the homeless people out there, homeless people who cannot speak in this House. That's why we're their voice here. I was elected to represent my people. It's not my voice. Once I walk out of here, I usually run into my constituents or other people from the North, and they question, "What are you guys doing? Why are you guys spending so many millions on this so-called secretariat?" They may not use the word "secretariat," some of them, because they're having a hard time speaking English, but in the Tlicho language there is another form. They do not like the bureaucracy.

Madam Speaker, I would just like to reiterate that, due to the US election that was happening at the same time last night, throughout the night, we'd been deliberating this supplementary, a lot of people may have probably missed our broadcast here. I feel that it's very important that they know where we stand on this particular subject matter, on the supplementary, so I just want to reiterate what I said yesterday, just a couple of paragraphs.

Just think of the $87 million over the next four years, what that could do for the people of the Northwest Territories. It could build 300 homes for the homeless who I referred to earlier. There are overcrowded Northerners throughout the Northwest Territories, especially in the most isolated communities. Some households have 15 to 20 people living in one- or two-bedroom houses. That's a real fact. It could construct three new addiction treatment centres plus six badly needed community health centres across the North. It is equal 100 classroom teachers employed over the next five years. It also amounts to cash value for those 3,000-plus struggling northern businesses to a tune of $29,000 per company. Just imagine the economic boost of that. That's just the tip of the iceberg.

Like I said yesterday, as well, I could go on and on and on, but we don't have much time this evening to deal with this. I'm just going to wrap things up by saying that we are losing lives out there. I've touched on this, as well, in my language. Almost on a daily basis, a weekly basis, especially in my region. The past couple of weekends, we lost two young individuals back to back. That was very sad. That was very hard. It's very difficult to be standing here to speak to that. It's very emotional. We need to turn our focus to those in need throughout the Northwest Territories, not create another form of bureaucracy within GNWT. Let's start making a difference for our Northerners. We have lost far too many people, our people of the North. Let's not lose any more, Madam Speaker.

Madam Speaker, in conclusion, for that reason alone, I cannot and will not support the current supplementary that is before us as presented, especially on the category of the COVID secretariat. Masi, Madam Speaker.

Thank you. The motion is in order. To the motion. Member for Monfwi.

Madam Speaker, I move, seconded by the honourable Member for Nahendeh, that Bill 21, Supplementary Appropriation Act (Operations Expenditures), No. 2, 2020-2021, be read for the third time. Madam Speaker, I would request a recorded vote. Thank you, Madam Speaker.

Question has been called. All those in favour? All those opposed. Motion is carried.

---Carried

Bill 21 has had second reading. Second reading of bills. Item 20, consideration in Committee of the Whole of bills and other matters: Minister's Statement 77-19(2), National Housing Co-investment Fund; Tabled Document 165-19(2), Government of the Northwest Territories Response to Committee Report 1-19(2), Report on Long-term Post-Pandemic Recovery, Recommendations to the GNWT; Tabled Document 166-19(2), Government of the Northwest Territories Response to Committee Report 2-19(2): Report on the Long-term Post-Pandemic Recovery, Recommendations to the GNWT; Tabled Document 167- 19(2), Government of the Northwest Territories Response to Committee Report 3-19(2): Report on Long-Term Post-Pandemic Recovery - Recommendations to the GNWT; Tabled Document 181-19(2), Capital Estimates 2021-2020, with Member for Hay River South in the chair.

Thank you. The motion is in order. To the principle.

Madam Speaker, I move, seconded by the Honourable Member for Nahendeh, that Bill 21, Supplementary Appropriation Act (Operations Expenditures), No. 2, 2020-2021, be read for the second time. This bill makes supplementary appropriations for operations expenditures of the Government of the Northwest Territories for the 2020-2021 fiscal year. Thank you, Madam Speaker.

Thank you. The motion is in order and is non-debatable. All those in favour? All those opposed? Motion is carried.

---Carried

Bill 21 has had its first reading. First reading of bills. Item 19, second reading of bills. Minister of Education, Culture and Employment.