Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Currently, now, in Paulatuk, we don't have any units available. All of them are occupied. For the communities of Tuktoyaktuk, Ulukhaktok, and Sachs Harbour, those communities I will provide the Member with the numbers. I do have them here, but it will probably take me 20 minutes to name them all. I will follow up with the Member with the list. Thank you.

I thank the Minister for that. I just want to ask the Minister: would the units be available to have as a warming shelter in the community? A lot of times, when people are unable to go home, if it's too cold to get to Reindeer Point, which is seven kilometres away, they have nowhere to go, other than staying with family. They don't want to put the burden on family. Are they able to go and utilize these shelters, and who would they contact to utilize the shelters in the community?

I thank the Minister for that. Would the Minister commit to working with me and the communities in Nunakput for a warming shelter or emergency shelter, whatever they want to call it? They just need a shelter, a warm place for these people to go and have a place to go. Would she commit to that?

This would be a collaborative approach, and I would have to speak with my colleague for the department of health, as well, and really strategize and identify the needs for the specific community that the Member is referencing and the need specifically in his riding, as well. I will follow up with the Member.

Thank you, Minister. Oral questions. Member for Inuvik Twin Lakes.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions are for the Minister of Health and Social Services. On February 18, the Chief Public Health Officer recently announced a travel exemption for those arriving from Nunavut, and I'm sure the Minister knows what I'm going to ask next: can the Minister confirm that there are discussions with the Yukon for an NWT-Yukon bubble, as this was on the table before Yukon opened to BC in July 2020? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Member for Inuvik Twin Lakes. Minister of Health and Social Services.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I can't say I'm surprised by that question. I knew, as soon as that news release came out, the Delta crowd would want to know about getting to the Yukon. What I can say is that those discussions are not happening at my level. I am aware that the people in the Delta would like to be able to travel to and from the Yukon without the two-week isolation, and I am also aware that the situation is different now because Yukon has its own isolation protocol. It doesn't have the open border that it had before Christmas. What I can commit is that I will raise it with the CPHO at my regular weekly meeting with her. Thank you.

Since November 20, Yukon has halted its bubble with BC and has put in place a designated corridor for Alaskan residents travelling to the rest of the USA. Those were the thing that were of concern when we discussed it in June, so I will ask again: will the Minister continue to have this discussion sooner than later with the CPHO?

I am very happy to have this conversation with the CPHO. My next meeting with her is this week on Wednesday, and I certainly will raise it with her at that point and find out the status of the discussions that are going on around this. I just want to highlight that what we have with Nunavut is not a bubble. If people from the NWT go to Nunavut, they have to isolate. If people come to the NWT from Nunavut, they don't have to isolate, except in very specific circumstances, so it's not a two-way, open process. What I think the people in the Delta want is a bubble, where there is free movement across the border without isolation in either jurisdiction, so that's what I need to ask the Chief Public Health Officer about when I meet her this week.

Again, the Dempster Highway is a vital lifeline for the Beaufort-Delta and access to essential services, services they cannot get in the NWT by road, and it's too expensive by flight for most families. Will the Minister consider exemptions for members travelling to Yukon as there have been exemptions for NWT people travelling into Yukon? Pointing to what the Minister responded to last, we're looking for exemptions; we're looking for anything.

I am looking forward to the Member inviting me to drive down the Dempster to Whitehorse. I've never had the pleasure of doing that. The thing about travel restrictions is that we can only control our own border. The Yukon can put whatever conditions in place they feel they need. We put our conditions in place to meet our own circumstances. It's not as easy as just throwing the border open and saying, "Look, it's all going to be good." The Yukon needs to decide that it is good for them. I recognize the Member's passion for this, that she would like this corridor to open as soon as possible. I would like to tell her that it will open, but there is a process here that we have to follow.

Thank you, Minister. Final supplementary. Member for Inuvik Twin Lakes.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. With the large community uptake of the Moderna vaccine in the Beaufort-Delta, we've heard from most of the communities that we've had high uptakes of the vaccine, first and second in most. Can the Minister tell us if this will assist or increase the possibility of any decisions on a Yukon-NWT bubble? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

It's my understanding that having a fully vaccinated population, or an almost fully vaccinated population, on both sides of the border would be very helpful in this situation. I am aware that Yukon has a similar number of doses available as we do with the same kind of timing and goals for vaccination, so I think that that will be useful in making the case to make free travel available between the two jurisdictions. This is a live issue. We hope to have all of our vaccine rolled out by the end of March, so I'm hoping to be able to ask the CPHO, as I mentioned, this week and have the good news prepared for the end of March. Thank you.

Thank you, Minister. Oral questions. Member for Kam Lake.

Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. My questions today are for the Minister of Justice. It's no secret, I think, at this point that I am definitely a supporter of integrated service delivery, and I know that we've heard it mentioned time and again in this House. I want to better understand what the goal is of this Cabinet, during this Assembly, for integrated service delivery and what timelines we can expect to see. Thank you.

Thank you, Member for Kam Lake. Minister of Justice.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The idea of having a full-government approach to integrated service delivery and rolling this out across the GNWT is a big aspiration, and it takes a lot of work. It's an entire culture shift. It's not something that can be done overnight, although I wish I could snap my fingers and have it done. I share the Member's passion on this, so perhaps I can talk a bit about what's been done and some potential timelines.

In January, the territorial director for integrated service delivery engaged with over 100 GNWT staff to provide information on the fundamentals of integrated service delivery to start getting information out there. As well, the Territorial Senior Management Committee, which is comprised of senior managers from the various departments, are advocates for integrated service delivery within their departments. Most recently, a visioning exercise was completed with the management committee on February 2^nd and 3^rd to focus on change management and readiness and resulted in a solid understanding by all members of the committee of what the conceptual framework could look like for integrated service delivery. By April of this year, the department will have the conceptual framework finalized, and this work is critical to developing a real work plan, where we can actually start rolling things out. Working groups will be formalized based on the framework, and they are going to be likely linked to specific actions, to carry out specific actions. These working groups will develop the key milestones and timelines related to each of the actions.

Some of the actions could include things like privacy and information sharing. Right now, that's a bit of a barrier, and the Member knows all about it. Our legislation requires us to really create agreements between departments so that we can focus on the individual instead of focusing on the barriers that stop us from helping the individual. The actions could include internal and external stakeholder engagement, and that has to happen. We have to talk to communities. We have to know what services are needed and what services communities can help us with. There could be demonstration sites. What I mean by that is sites where perhaps we could pilot some things that we are not a hundred percent sure will work yet but we figure it's worth a shot.

One example is integrated case management. There are other places in the territory where they are doing some interesting things to integrate service delivery, for example in the Tlicho region, so perhaps there could be a demonstration site there, as an example. We have not had those discussions yet, but I am just throwing that out there. It's also the development of standards of practice and training. There is a lot of work that needs to happen, but I can assure the Member that I am fully committed. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

I appreciate that it's a big aspiration and will require an entire culture shift, but I think that there are some pieces that we can start working on right now. I appreciate the Minister laying out some of the ones that they are working on. The City of Yellowknife drafted a homelessness plan, and it indicated a need for coordinated access to front-line services, so I am wondering: how is the Department of Justice creating government-wide coordinated access through common intake and access points to better serve NWT residents? That is so that people are not running from department to department to department to put together the pieces that they need, not only to survive but thrive.

As to the city's initiative, the territorial director of integrated service delivery has committed to joining any of those discussions and participating and contributing and learning. What we are looking at is seeing how we can perhaps co-locate services and collaborate in other ways immediately instead of waiting for this giant shift to take place, so that work is happening right now. There are some examples. There are things like the child- and youth-care counsellors; obviously, integrated case management; family preservation workers; the territorial-based support teams in ECE. There are a bunch of things that are happening, but we are not waiting for the final plan. We are trying to do what we can now, understanding that there is a need.

I am really happy to hear that because I know it's a huge undertaking, but I think it's a really important undertaking for us to make as many steps forward as we can on. I am wondering if the GNWT departments will be signing an integrated service delivery MoU between social envelope departments and relevant stakeholders and if that is part of the plan of the working group and the framework that they are putting together in April.

The departments have already signed an MoU. All of the social envelope departments, the deputy ministers have signed an MoU committed to carrying this forward, and partnerships with communities and community organizations are essential. Going forward, I am not sure how they are going to formalize those or what is needed, but they are essential. We will be working with them, MoU or not.