N.W.T. tourism operators ask: What does ending the public health emergency 'this spring' actually mean?

The N.W.T. government hasn't said what restrictions will end with the public health emergency, frustrating local tourism operators who said they wanted to know weeks ago whether borders will be open to leisure travel by the fast approaching summer. 

In a news conference last week N.W.T. Health Minister Julie Green said the public health emergency could be ending "this spring," but no details have been given on what that means.

Richard Makohoniuk, a spokesperson for the N.W.T.'s COVID-19 Secretariat, said in an email the territorial government is in the process of figuring that out. 

"Progress is being made on the development of a framework to ensure the GNWT takes appropriate steps moving forward, and is committed to ensuring the public is informed of its plan once it has been fully developed," he wrote.

CBC News requested an interview with Green to discuss the announcement, but this was unable to be arranged before the deadline. 

Health officials speaking with Loren McGinnis, host of CBC's the Trailbreaker, on Thursday said they are waiting for the Omicron wave to subside in the N.W.T. before allowing leisure travel.

Another summer with no business

James McPherson runs a tourism business in the Sahtu but said he won't be operating this summer.

McPherson said the most difficult part is not knowing. If he was told outright the borders would be open for the summer, he would be running his business.

"A lot of people are hurting out there and they can't depend on a hope that the borders will open up," he said. 

This is the second summer in a row he won't be running his business, which he said is disappointing.

As an Indigenous tourism operator, he offers educational tours for people from the south.  

"At a time that people want to start learning more about the Indigenous people," he said. "We still want to share our culture and share who we are… and at a time when people really want to learn these things and travel and learn these new cultures, they can't." 

McPherson isn't the only tourism operator feeling discouraged by the uncertainty. 

"It's very difficult to plan and organize and run a tourism business just based on the sketchy information we get from the government," said Gordon Gin, owner of Yellow Dog Lodge. 

"This latest one is no different, with no timelines given it's very difficult for a tourism operator to plan for the summer or beyond."

He said he recently had a group of clients cancel their trip for the upcoming summer, which means he'll be missing out on $55,000. He hopes the potential clients can reschedule for 2023, but he still loses out on immediate money that would've been spent in the territory.

"We are missing out on a lot of opportunities," he said. 

Gin said on Friday he got a call from people in New Jersey who wanted to see the northern lights and he redirected them to other areas of Canada. 

"I've fielded those calls at least two to three times a week for the last three to four months," he said.

Rob Warburton, the president of the Yellowknife Chamber of Commerce, said he thinks it's time for the N.W.T. to open to leisure travel. 

"We got a lot more tools than we even had in the fall," he told Lawrence Nayally, host of CBC's Trail's End on Wednesday.

"Once we get out of this outbreak I think it's time to not wait again for another couple of months and open up to leisure travel." 

Civil liberties group expects travel restrictions to end with emergency

Cara Zwibel is the director of the Fundamental Freedoms Program at the Canadian Civil Liberties Association. 

She said the travel restrictions in place in the N.W.T. are likely to end with the public health emergency. 

"So my view is that travel restrictions are a violation or a restriction on the constitutional mobility rights that Canadians have," she said.

"I think that probably it would be harder for the government to make a case that those kinds of restrictions are reasonable and necessary if they removed the state of emergency."

Zwibel said it's still possible the restrictions could remain, but unlikely.

Current restrictions under the health act

According to the public health act, Dr. Kami Kandola, the N.W.T.'s chief public health officer, is granted additional responsibility including the power to make any order considered necessary to protect public health. 

The public health emergency, which was first declared in March 2020 at the start of the pandemic, allowed Kandola to restrict or prohibit travel to or from any area within the Northwest Territories.

As a result, the N.W.T. closed its borders requiring anyone entering to submit an isolation plan and quarantine for 14 days upon arriving. 

The policy was successful throughout the first year of the pandemic. The territory saw among the lowest number of infections of any jurisdiction in Canada, and no deaths. 

The N.W.T. government has since loosened the rules so fully vaccinated N.W.T. residents can leave and re-enter without isolating. 

There is also an exception for leisure travellers visiting certain remote tourism lodges; the tourists complete their isolation while at the remote location. 

But both Gin and McPherson, the tourism operators, said this policy isn't enough as tourists need to visit for multiple weeks to isolate and many want to explore more urban areas, which the policy doesn't allow.

Additionally, the policy on travel restrictions hasn't been as successful in the second year of the pandemic — since August 2021 the territory has been dealing with consistent outbreaks.

The territorial government was initially planning to announce changes to leisure travel restrictions in December, but this was delayed due to the current Omicron outbreak.