The Government of the Northwest Territories will conduct a post-mortem of its handling of the Covid-19 pandemic before the end of the year, according to a GNWT spokesperson.
On April 14, Todd Sasaki, manager of public affairs and communications for the Department of Finance, confirmed via email that the GNWT would “conduct a review of the internal management of the Covid-19 pandemic.”
He said this review, which will take into account factors like public health measures and emergency preparedness, will be used to design regulations and legislation for similar emergencies in the future.
“The GNWT expects to complete the review by the end of 2022 and a summary of key findings will be released to the public,” he said.
No other details about the timeline, cost or process of this review were immediately made available.
Other jurisdictions have already undertaken the initiative. British Columbia announced in March that it was launching an independent review of its pandemic response. The United Kingdom and Ireland have also announced inquiries into their pandemic responses.
The GNWT lifted its public health emergency on April 1, and with it the indoor mask mandate. Twenty-one people in the NWT have died of Covid-19 since the beginning of the pandemic, while about 11,700 have been infected.