Supplementary Estimates (Operations Expenditures), No. 2, 2020-2021, Department of Health and Social Services, COVID secretariat not previously authorized, $31,677,000. Does committee agree? Member for Monfwi.

Masi, Mr. Chair. This is a whopping millions of dollars here. We can't just approve it just like that. In this House, maybe the Minister or the Premier can explain. The Premier did indicate that there was a strong support from Indigenous leaders across the North. I've been making a call to my leadership. I don't see the same note as the Premier alluded to. Just wondering if the Minister or Premier can elaborate more if there is overall support from Indigenous leadership across the North, and also the mayors and the NWTAC, are they in support? If so, can I have those in writing if they do have that in writing, Mr. Chair? Masi.

Thank you, Member. Minister.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I know that the Premier's office has engaged in a pretty wide variety of conversations and engagements over the last little while, so I'd ask that we direct that to the Premier, please.

Thank you, Minister. Premier.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Absolutely. We had an initial meeting with the Indigenous governments, I can't remember if it was Friday. I believe eight Indigenous governments were there. Out of the eight, seven accepted. The Tlicho government was not there at that time. We did reach out to other governments, as well. Unfortunately, not all governments have had a chance to get back to me on that. I can say that the Tlicho government hasn't given their support, but they haven't said they're not supportive, as well. That is because we haven't had the opportunity to talk to them on that.

I can say that $31 million is a lot of money for this year, absolutely. Twenty-three million dollars, almost, is covered by the federal government, so that leaves almost $9 million. We have asked the federal government for more support for the COVID secretariat. The federal government, talking to Prime Minister Trudeau, has promised to support us further so we've just put in the ask for the additional monies. Once we hear back, which will probably take a little while, I'll report to committee on what that looks like. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Premier. Member for Monfwi.

Thank you, Member. I will take that as a statement, but if the Minister has any comments?

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.

Thank you, Minister. Premier, do you have a comment?

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Absolutely. I will talk about the engagement. The MLA is correct that we did not have good engagement at the beginning. We did offer AOC a briefing on it back in April; that never happened. We offered one again a couple of months later, and it got deferred. When we finally did get in, it was open camera, and it was our first chance to present to AOC. It happened to be public, so it wasn't the way I expected it to go. It's just how it went. That is just how things go when we try to be transparent. We all learn from our lessons.

Since then, I did engage with the Indigenous governments, I talked to the municipal governments, we talked to the business community. More and more people are getting on board when they understand what it is. Mr. Chair, it's $87 million, but people always make the assumption that that's for this year. That is not for this year. That is for two and a half years. We were asked to provide a four-year budget. If the pandemic goes on, we are projecting $87 million, worst case. However, as stated in the Assembly today, we are already looking at the major costs. It's our isolation centres, Mr. Chair. I think that, although I did not reach all Indigenous governments, most Indigenous governments -- I stand to be corrected if not, but I think most Indigenous governments would say that our isolation centres are one of the key things and our border control is one of the key things. Again, I can stand to be corrected because I have not gotten to them all.

The other thing, too, Mr. Chair, is that we don't have a choice. The $23 million that has been allocated to the COVID secretariat is not an option we can just say to the federal government, "We want to take that money back, and give us money for housing or use it for homelessness or addictions." That money had been earmarked. It had defined areas that we were allowed to use it for. Within the Speech from the Throne, I think that Members would know that COVID-19 is an item within the Speech from the Throne; it's not an afterthought. There will be more money coming for COVID-19 is my assumption, and there will be more money for the other areas. This was money specifically to address COVID-19 in specific categories, and we did not have the option to say we wanted it for addictions or any other thing. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Premier. Member for Frame Lake.

Thanks, Mr. Chair. I do have some questions and some comments I would like to make about this particular item. The first thing, though, I will start with some questions. I have had mixed reaction from some of my constituents about this COVID secretariat, and there is a lot of concern about the amount of money that we are being asked to put into this. I want to get a commitment out of the Minister of Finance or the Premier about some kind of regular reporting of the expenditures for the COVID secretariat functions to year-end and maybe into the new year, as well. Can I get some kind of commitment about what kind of periodic reporting can be made to Regular MLAs and to the public about the expenditures for the COVID secretariat functions from now till year-end? Thanks, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Member. Minister.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I am happy to make a monthly commitment. The Department of Finance will be collecting monthly variance reports on the COVID secretariat spending and can make those public as they are available. It does take some time, so September 30^th, it does not mean we necessarily put it out on September 30^th, Mr. Chair. When it does get gathered and reported and analyzed, it can take a couple of weeks, but we will be getting them and putting them out on a monthly basis. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Minister. Member.

Thanks, Mr. Chair. Thanks to the Minister for that commitment. In the monthly variance reporting, presumably it's not just going to be a bunch of numbers, that there would be some attempt to explain the changes or differences from what is anticipated in terms of places where there might be extra spending that was unanticipated or, hopefully, reductions in spending moving forward. Is that going to be kind of documented in these monthly reports? Thanks, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Member. Minister.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I am inclined to just give the simple answer of yes, but rather than use hand signals, perhaps I'll turn it over to the deputy minister. He can describe in a little more detail what the contents of the report might be.

Deputy minister.

Thank you, deputy minister. Member.