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

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I want to start off by reiterating my thanks to public servants who worked very hard during the outbreak here in Yellowknife.

During the outbreak, even constituents who were isolating and were confused were very -- you know, the very first thing that they always said was how thankful that they were because everybody had a friend who was working long hours, everybody knew somebody who was directly working with the outbreak. So our thanks for that.

My first question for the Minister of Health and Social Services today is who is responsible for COVID communication, and what is the approval process that takes place? Thank you.

Thank you, Member for Kam Lake. Minister responsible for Health and Social Services.

Yes, thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the COVID Secretariat has a small communication staff that provides material to do with the public health orders. And on the other side, the NTHSSA provides communications and materials on the operational side of things, like testing and vaccinations. Thank you.

Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, it appeared that during the pandemic that there was a large requirement on those two entities to come together and do communication together. There was a lot of influx of calls to Protect NWT, to Public Health, and to the CPHO's office, and there was a need for those to come together and to work in unison.

So how does Health and Social Services or the office of the CPHO ensure that those communicating bodies are able to work together and pass the same and consistent information on to residents. Thank you.

Yes, thank you. These two branches are not in silos. They do speak to one another. The work they're doing is connected.

The perceived lack of consistency is actually because not everyone got the same advice about how long to isolate or how many tests they needed and so on. I found that there's been some confusion between the general advice given to the public and the specific advice given to individuals. And there's been a mixup of those two, and the result is that it looks confusing. And I understand that people did experience it as confusing.

And so I think that there are lessons to be learned going forward about how we can try to make that distinction between individual advice and general advice clearer and sooner. Thank you.

Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. I'm glad that the Minister mentioned "lessons learned" because my next question is about lessons learned and how does the Minister intend to ensure that lessons learned are captured from this outbreak so that we can better prepare how we will communicate future ones. Thank you.

Yes, thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, it's standard for the department, the Health Authority, and the Secretariat to do a debrief after an outbreak is over.

The outbreak at MJ McPherson is not yet over. But when it is, those three entities will meet and will go over what they've learned and what they could do differently next time. Thank you.

Thank you, Minister. Final supplementary. Member for Kam Lake.

Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. I'm happy to hear that and also happy to participate in any way that might be useful to the department as well if any feedback is useful.

Mr. Speaker, the World Health Organization publishes simple clear documents titled "I just found out I tested positive for 19" and "I just found out I am a contact of positive 19". Straightforward guiding documents like these would have been useful during the Yellowknife outbreak and especially where the Minister did acknowledge that there was some confusion over what category people fell into.

So I'm wondering will Health and Social Services commit to creating guiding documents for residents based on lessons learned from the Yellowknife outbreak that they could use in future ones. Thank you.

Yes, thank you, Mr. Speaker. Since the pandemic began, the COVID Secretariat and NTHSSA have created videos, social media material, news releases, FAQs, a range of different kinds of documents that are available on the GNWT COVID-19 site. It covers things like self-isolation, testing, vaccination, and so on.

So I wonder if some of the things the Member is looking for is already in place. I'm not familiar with the World Health Organization material.

What we do know is that in the course of the pandemic, information has changed. We've learned so much more, for example, about variants and how infectious they are, that we have been updating our guidance documents to reflect that. Thank you.

Thank you, Minister. Oral questions. Member for Yellowknife North.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The current public health order which restricts many of the NWT's activities was drafted one year ago. That's the order that prohibits having five people in your home. It prohibits singing. It prohibits indoor funerals. And, in fact, many of the things it prohibits in that order are no longer relevant, as we've since allowed exceptions and variances of that order that was drafted one year ago.

Mr. Speaker, when that order was drafted, the context and the justification for those impositions were that our health care system had this risk of being overwhelmed. There was talks of waves. There was talks of ICU beds, ventilators. And given we are now at a 60 percent vaccination target, much of that language has disappeared. And so I'm confused as to what the main goal we are trying to mitigate is.

And I would like to being with having the Minister explain to me is there still a risk, given our vaccination targets, given that I believe 100 percent of people over 80 are now vaccinated, of filling up our ICU beds in the NWT, or have we now moved beyond a risk of overwhelming the health care system. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Member for Yellowknife North. Minister responsible for Health and Social Services.

Yes, thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the Public Health Act provides detailed guidance on the powers of the Chief Public Health Officer. And it is her role to evaluate risks. She has disclosed the documents that she uses. One particular one is from Johns Hopkins University. Another is from the National Chief Public Health Officers Committee that meets fairly regularly that she uses to consider what the risks are.

She is instructed in the legislation to balance the risks with personal freedoms, that the measures that she recommends need to be commensurate to the risk and not to necessarily restrict people from their daily business.

That said, risk assessments are completed by the CPHO. She tells me what she is recommending. We discuss it. She makes the public health order, and it is enforced by the COVID Secretariat at this point, and that is reinforced -- I've got these steps jumbled up.

She makes the advice. She makes a public health order. I sign the state of emergency. And we go on from there.

It's true that the Emerging Wisely Plan is now over a year old, and it is due for an update. And we can say what the Chief Public Health Officer has said, that she is working on it, and it will be available to the public the first week of June. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I recognize that. But I'm trying to get a risk assessment based on our specific situation. And it is my understanding -- and I recognize I can barely read a report from the Johns Hopkins, let alone make a decision on it -- that given our vaccination rate and what we know about the effectiveness in vaccination in reducing hospitalizations, that there's actually no path forward right now where COVID would fill up our ICU beds.

That's my understanding. But I am not an expert here. So I'm looking for clarification of whether there is actually a risk to the health care system or whether we have pivoted to a COVID-zero approach. I'm trying to understand whether there is actually a path where we could fill up ICU beds due to COVID cases given our vaccination rate. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Yes, thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, next Thursday evening at 7:00 p.m., the Chief Public Health Officer, myself, the Premier and others will be giving a briefing on the Emerging Wisely Plan to the Regular Members. And I invite the Member for Yellowknife North to ask his question at that time so the CPHO can give him a well-defined answer. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Previously the Minister drew into question the 75 percent vaccination target. This was kind of a light at the end of the tunnel for many people, and I recognize at that time there was some changing signs with variants. But I believe people now need a vaccination target. I think getting over this hurdle of 60 percent vaccination, people want to know if we get here, it will actually encourage more people to get vaccinated.

So my question for the Minister of Health is what is our current vaccination target. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Member for Yellowknife North. Minister responsible for Health and Social Services.

Yes, thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, we do not at this point have a specific number. We've been saying to people that they should get vaccinated if at all possible. The higher the vaccination rate, the better off we all are.

I think one of the lessons from the MJ outbreak is how vulnerable unvaccinated people are. Almost all of the cases there were children. The median age of those children was 8 and a half years old. So they're not eligible for vaccines at this point. And so having a vaccination rate is fine, but there are these pockets of people who are not vaccinated who we have to take into consideration as well. So we're saying to people, If you have the opportunity to get vaccinated.

The other thing I'll say is that it's not only the vaccination rate that the CPHO will be looking at. What the situation is in the provinces in terms of case counts and whether those counts come from variants are very important to her calculations. So vaccines are one very important part of the picture, but there are other parts as well. Thank you.

Thank you, Minister. Final supplementary. Member for Yellowknife North.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The last restriction which is a recommendation, actually, that there be no nonessential travel -- and a number of jurisdictions have now published what their summers look like, what their summers look like based on vaccine descriptions. We're talking about a travel bubble. And I know that this is a problem for our senior management who have been directed not to travel. It's a problem for many teachers and nurses who want to be role models but are struggling that they have not seen family members in almost two years now, Mr. Speaker.

So my question is does the Minister of Health expect there to be any change to the recommendation that people do not take nonessential travel. Perhaps if they're fully vaccinated, they could return, but take a nonessential trip. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Yes, thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the fact is we're not locked down here. Members of this House have travelled during the time that nonessential travel has not been recommended.

Just for your information, 48,183 self-isolation plans have been approved. So it's not really true to say that people are stuck here. People have made the choice to travel. And as of April 21st, the isolation time has been reduced.

So I can say that I cannot say when the Chief Public Health Officer will consider that conditions are right to lift her -- both restrictions, actually, or guidance. The one is travel inside and outside of Yellowknife is not recommended at this time, and the second one is inter-provincial travel is not recommended at this time. Thank you.

Thank you, Minister. Oral questions. Member for Nunakput.