Message to our clients on OKT LLP’s response to COVID-19

In response to the global coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, OKT wants to share information about the steps we are taking to protect the health and safety of our First Nation and Inuit clients, as well as our staff and their families. 

All operations in OKT’s Toronto and Yellowknife offices continue uninterrupted. Our focus, as always, is the well-being of our client communities. We remain committed to meeting our clients’ needs through this difficult time. We have implemented measures to ensure the communities we work for continue to receive high-quality and timely legal advice and support from us. 

In addition, if you have specific inquiries about funding to respond to the COVID-19 pandemic and access to planning resources in your communities, we recommend you contact Indigenous Services Canada who is coordinating with the Public Health Agency of Canada.  Information in this regard can be accessed via the following link: 

            https://www.sac-isc.gc.ca/eng/1581964230816/1581964277298

The health and wellbeing of both the communities we work for, as well as our staff and their families, is of the utmost importance to us. We have implemented a number of precautionary measures across our organization and continue to monitor and evaluate the situation as it develops.

As part of our detailed contingency plan, we have implemented the following measures:

• Provided resources and tools to our staff to work remotely and continue to provide high quality legal service. 
• Instituted restrictions in our offices that allow us to maintain business continuity, while taking all prudent steps to protect the communities we serve, our partners, and our staff and families
• Evaluated the necessity of continuing with any in-person conferences, events, or meetings, and whether alternatives such as audio or video-conferencing would be effective replacements.
• Requested everyone in our organization to avoid non-essential travel and implemented travel restrictions to communities to ensure no transmission between the urban centres where we work and the communities we work for.

One of the strengths of our firm is our creativity and flexibility in finding ways to get the job done for our clients. This has served us, and our clients, well across all sorts of challenging settings over the past 20 years. We are confident that the same skills will allow us to handle the challenge of COVID-19 over the coming weeks. 

We will continue to closely monitor the situation and evaluate our measures to support our clients and firm colleagues as necessary. OKT’s Management Committee is on hand to help with any of your questions during this time, and we are always available to assist with any issues you may face.  

If you have any questions or concerns, please do not hesitate to contact me or a member of the firm’s Management Committee (Oliver MacLaren, Matthew McPherson, Cathy Guirguis, and Renée Pelletier). 

Sincerely,

Renée Pelletier

Managing Partner, OKT LLP

A pdf version of this note can be found here.