Yes. Thank you, Mr. Chair, a few comments. I tried to catch most of the statements that were being made along the way. Firstly, with respect to the notion that the government was "fine" back in March and April when COVID-19 first hit, respectfully, Mr. Chair, things were not fine. The entire government shut down. At one point, I think we peaked with 188 staff who were redeployed in the course of the entire fighting of the pandemic. When 188 staff are redeployed, those staff members are not working in housing; they are not working in addictions; they are not working in social services; they are not working in some of the other departments where they are needed. Much of the work that needs to get done in the course of government does not get done. I think the point was made: stop using COVID as the excuse. However, the excuse was that the entire government was shut down and staff were being asked to do other work and other things.

At the same time, we were being asked: why aren't there more people at the border? Why aren't there more people at the airports? Why isn't there more enforcement? Why isn't somebody answering the phone line at NWT protect? The response to that was to create temporary positions, term positions, not permanent positions, within the GNWT to help fill up or to maintain some of those redeployments but to ensure that the other work still gets done by having people available.

Within the COVID secretariat, the 150 positions right now include 22 at NWT protect as of the moment, 16 over at NWT 811, 23 at the isolation centres, 21 in regional compliance, 44 at border compliance. Mr. Chair, that is one of the areas that does distinguish the response here in the Northwest Territories as compared to other jurisdictions, which right now are all facing a very serious second wave of the pandemic, with the exception, really, of a lot of the jurisdictions who, like us, have actually made an effort to have border compliance, to have isolation in place, and to really avoid bringing a lot of waves of travel.

Mr. Chair, really, the positions that have been created here are what answers that, are what provides the actual ability to implement the orders of the Chief Public Health Officer. To the extent that this is now before the House, Mr. Chair, it's here because that is our ability to actually continue to do the things that the Chief Public Health Officer has put in place. It's our ability to actually implement those orders.

As far as engagement, the Premier may want to speak to it, but I can also assure the House that I was involved in a lot of those calls in the early days. There were weekly calls in the early days of the pandemic. Those calls have slowed down over the summer, but to my knowledge, they actually have begun again. No, not everyone is going to agree on exactly the right way to fight the pandemic, but not everyone is agreeing across Canada or across the world, either, Mr. Chair. What we are doing is following the Chief Public Health Officer and ensuring that her orders are being implemented. The secretariat is one part, but one part, of making sure that we are doing that. It is one, and it is the part that is obviously right here. There is over $175 million being spent on the pandemic, a large proportion of which has funding coming from the federal government, including a large proportion of which is being funded from the COVID secretariat for the pandemic from the federal government, with the result that we wind up with only around $8 million that is actually required right now to the COVID secretariat to maintain the functions that are happening as border compliance, regional compliance, isolation centres. The calls that I was on, Mr. Chair, around the COVID secretariat, around the COVID response, they do not want people back in a lot of the communities. Some of the communities continue to be quite afraid of having travel cross the borders.

With respect to the question of whether the public and what the public reaction has been, Mr. Chair, I am sure we have all heard different things from our constituents, but I have certainly heard a lot of people saying that they are happy with the response that the territorial government has initiated and maintained and are not looking to have reopening particularly quickly. Thank you, Mr. Chair.