What the end of the COVID Secretariat will mean for the N.W.T.

When the COVID Secretariat shuts down at the end of this month dozens of workers's contracts will end, but the 811 phone line will remain.

That's according to government officials who this week gave Northwest Territories MLAs a little more insight into what the secretariat's closure will look like. 

"We are working on winding down the COVID Secretariat in keeping with the expected timing for ending the public health emergency" on April 1, Russell Neudorf, the secretariat's associate deputy minister, told the Legislative Assembly during budget deliberations on Wednesday.

He added that some of the division's activities will continue into April "just so that we can properly wrap things up."

The COVID Secretariat was set up in September of 2020 to manage the territory's response to COVID-19.

It's responsible for territorial border patrols, isolation centres and the enforcement of public health orders. It also runs ProtectNWT, which reviews travellers' self-isolation plans, and the 811 COVID information phone line.

But when the end of the public health emergency ends and public health orders are rescinded, the COVID Secretariat will no longer be necessary, Premier Caroline Cochrane said on Monday.

"It is now time to give residents the responsibility to manage their own risk tolerance and make their own choices," she said.

"The existence of the secretariat was intended to be temporary, and its closure was always anticipated."

The secretariat, which is headed by Cochrane, cost about $26.3 million in 2020-2021, and an estimated $34.6 million this fiscal year.  

Even though the division is set to dissolve in three weeks, there's still an estimated $11.9 million budgeted for secretariat operations in the upcoming fiscal year. 

The government says that's because certain functions will continue in order to deal with future outbreaks and variants of concern.

Neudorf told MLAs that about 130 people work at the secretariat. The contracts for around three quarters of them expire on March 31. 

The remaining quarter are government employees who were transferred from other departments.