Skip to content

Tuktoyaktuk Mayor sounds off on GNWT Covid-19 response

Tuktoyaktuk Mayor Erwin Elias is starting to lose his patience with the GNWT.
27866486_web1_220127-INU-ErwinSoundsOff-_2

Tuktoyaktuk Mayor Erwin Elias is starting to lose his patience with the GNWT.

With the hamlet now contending with its second Covid-19 outbreak in less than four months, Elias said the Office of the Chief Public Health Officer needs to have better communication with communities in-between outbreaks.

“I think timing is the new thing we’re going to have to go by,” he said. “When there’s no Covid-19 in the Beaufort Delta, then we have to be given an opportunity to gather. GNWT is going to have to work with the smaller communities to figure out ways on how to get the communities back to their gatherings. The mental health and social impact this has caused is tremendous.

“I think we’re really lucky the people are hanging in there. But there’s a storm brewing in mental health—how long are you going to keep people in their houses and not let them do anything?”

Having now isolated with his household who experienced a bout of the virus, Elias said he’s now less concerned about its deadliness than earlier variants.

Instead, he’s more concerned with the mental-health ramifications of not being able to have community gatherings, noting the OCPHO denied a request to have a holiday dance party while the community was Covid-19 free midway through December.

He added now that the community has dealt with Covid-19 outbreaks a few times, people have a better idea what they’re up against.

“It seems to be serious, but there’s been a lot of Covid-19 cases in our region and nobody’s gotten sick,” he said. “I had two of my family members with Covid-19 in the house and it was normal.

“I don’t want to downplay it because I know for people with health conditions it’s a different story, but why are we getting vaccinated? I thought we were getting vaccinated so we could gather? I thought that was an incentive for people to get vaccinated.”

Noting hamlet staff are working not stop to keep Covid-19 from spreading any further in the hamlet, Elias questioned why the GNWT couldn’t employ anyone to maintain updates to community and regional numbers over the weekend.

He also wondered why the GNWT couldn’t pay nurses to provide tests over the weekends in Tuktoyaktuk.

“On Friday of last week, I wanted to get tested,” he said. “If I didn’t get tested on a Friday, for some reason these guys are off until Monday. There’s another three days for me if I’m positive on Monday. So, I checked on Friday, I was told I was going to get called back on Saturday — nothing, nothing, nothing.

“On Monday I was tested, along with my boys and we were all negative. Thank goodness, because we’d have to start over.

“Covid-19 doesn’t take weekends off.”

One area irritating Elias is what has been allowed to be opened and what hasn’t.

In particular, he wondered aloud why the GNWT is allows bars and restaurants to stay open, but would not permit a community feast.

“The thing I’m pissed off about is we’ve got the pubs and the bars and everything like that open,” he said. “People are socializing, drinking, partying — but we can’t have a feast or a games night?

“It really makes me frustrated.”

Elias also questions why the GNWT is waiting until people arrive in the NWT to test them for Covid-19.

He suggested if people were tested before they got on a plane, it would save the GNWT a lot of work in contact tracing, investigating and posting notifications.

“You’ve got people sitting in the airport for one to two hours at least, which gives them plenty of time to be doing testing,” he said. “I don’t think testing at the airport would be 100 per cent, but I guarantee you’ll alleviate a lot of problems by catching it at the airport.”



About the Author: Eric Bowling

Read more