Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The Dempster Highway is the only way in and out of the Beaufort Delta by road. It's our lifeline to the rest of Canada. Yes, we are NWT residents, but there is no way for us to get to the rest of the NWT unless we drive through Yukon, BC, and Alberta at this time. Or if we can afford to pay the high cost of an airline ticket, and many cannot.

As many in this House are aware, the Yukon has opened its borders without isolation restrictions to those who are vaccinated. Everyone at home is waiting patiently for the ferries to go in, Diane, so they can hit the Dempster.

But some still cannot afford this trip because they can't afford to drive because even if they did a weekend trip, they would have to isolate 8 to 14 days when they return. And I know when questioned, the Minister and the Premier have stated in the past, and will continue to state, that it's up to the CPHO to change this order between the Yukon and the NWT.

In the beginning of the pandemic, we did not know anything, nor did we have anything in place, to protect the NWT and the residents but that is not the case now after 14 months of being in a public health emergency state. The NWT and the Yukon have crushed the curve like they were asked to early on by using masks and socially distanced and staying put. We have vaccines in both territories that are leading the country in vaccination rates. We have excellent public health and healthcare staff on the ground to do contact tracing and testing. Residents have shown they can manage an outbreak despite communication confusion. There must be lessons learned if it was to happen again. There was no community spread and we are down to two cases, and I am happy that none of the cases in the YK school outbreak ended up in the hospital, Mr. Speaker.

We have the COVID Secretariat monitoring the borders and we know who is arriving in the NWT and have staff to investigate. We have 8-1-1 and Protect NWT set up for residents to contact and put plans in place. We have testing throughout the Northwest Territories with quick turnaround now. We have medical travel. Patients continuing to go for appointments in Alberta over the past year with no reports of medical travel patients returning with COVID. People are wearing masks in most public indoor spaces in Inuvik and the capital as I am witnessing.

At this point, we need to know what risk measurements are being used to make decisions. When will we have a NWT-Yukon bubble where NWT residents can travel back and forth without isolation when they return. I do not want answers now-- or I do not want stats on COVID. The stats are NWT three, Yukon zero. There are the stats. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.