Follow chief public health officer’s orders, Nunavut’s MP tells residents

Nunavut’s member of Parliament is urging residents to follow the orders of the territory’s chief public health officer during the COVID-19 pandemic.

In Nunavut, the impacts of COVID-19 could be devastating, Mumilaaq Qaqqaq told Nunatsiaq News.

“If you look at the rate of TB, the lack of health care services, the need for housing, the need for affordable living … we have the potential to lose lots of people because of these glaring basic human rights gaps. Increasing testing kits, increasing personal protective equipment, having ventilators come up to communities, more soap, more sanitization products. These are items that we need immediately,” said the NDP MP, who was elected last October.

Nunavut has no confirmed cases of COVID-19 in the territory and has some of the strictest travel regulations in the country.

“We’re super fortunate to not have a case as of now. But, when it does hit, it has the potential to spread like wildfire,” Qaqqaq said.

Qaqqaq also said she supports the decisions made by the territory’s chief public health officer, Dr. Michael Patterson.

“I think that Dr. Patterson has been doing a great job. It’s a lot of responsibility, it’s a lot of pressure. It’s decisions for potentially vulnerable people, whether they’re in crowded housing or down south in quarantine. Kudos to him because we have had no cases, fortunately, so far.” she said.

“I think all the preventative aspects that have been put in place through Dr. Patterson and the GN are necessary and they’ve been keeping us safe.”

Qaqqaq, who is currently in Ottawa, said she has regular meetings with Premier Joe Savikataaq, Nunavut Tunngavik Inc. and Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami to discuss Nunavut’s response to the pandemic.

“I’m also in contact with Dr. Patterson frequently and trying to have an understanding of this process and how it’s evolving and what it’s evolving to. I’m working on trying to figure out what the best way to get this information out so it’s accessible.” Qaqqaq said.

Qaqqaq and her office are also creating documents with information for Nunavummiut about things like how to apply to different federal funding programs during the pandemic. Those documents will be shared with communities and posted on social media, she said.

“The child tax benefit, for example, has been increased, so what does that mean? So it’s having that information clearly … [laid] out in a document and then the first steps on how to access that benefit,” Qaqqaq said.

“It’s a stressful time and people are trying to figure out what’s going on and what this means, so we’re trying to create documents that can help people understand, and … people should feel like they can access this funding easily. It can get confusing and a little bit messy with all the policy lingo and the procedural lingo.”

Right now, social media and email are the best ways for people to get in touch with her, Qaqqaq said. While she finally has a full team of staff, her phone line was not up and running before the pandemic, she said.

“I’m trying to encourage people to directly contact me because that helps me to be able to answer questions and ask questions. And to communicate these real-life experiences happening on a federal level. It makes it a little bit more difficult when people don’t do that because I’m just going off either by word of mouth or somebody that may have been really upset at the time by something…. But it just makes it a bit harder to be able to communicate messages as effectively as I could if people aren’t directly giving me information,” she said.

Qaqqaq also stressed the importance of mental health during the pandemic.

“Spend time outside, get away from your phone. Work on sewing projects, work on your skidoo. Although it’s fine to be on your device, it’s also important to do physical distancing. It’s great to go for a walk, but not if you’re interacting with 10 people,” she said.

“But if we can all come together and work together and practise those necessary safety precautions, we should all be able to come out of this fine. I think as time goes on people will be able to practise social distancing, while still interacting with each other. And I think it’s okay that people are feeling scared or stressed. We need everybody to do their part to be able to keep everyone safe and healthy.”