Thank you, Ms. Bisaro. A motion is on the floor. The motion is in order. To the motion.
Question.
Question has been called.
---Carried
Mr. Speaker, I move, seconded by the honourable Member for Monfwi, that Bill 11, An Act to Amend the Workers’ Compensation Act be read for the first time. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Bill 11 has had first reading.
---Carried
Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I move, seconded by the honourable Member for Range Lake, that Bill 10, Exemption Act, be read for the second time.
Mr. Speaker, this bill repeals and replaces the existing Exemption Act. The categories of property that are exempt from seizure under the right of execution are described in contemporary language and are expanded to include types of property essential for subsistence of the debtor and his or her dependents. Transitional matters are provided for and Public Service Garnishee Act is consequentially amended. Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.
Bill 10 has had second reading.
---Carried
The honourable Minister responsible for the Workers’ Safety and Compensation Commission.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I seek consent to proceed with second reading of Bill 11, An Act to Amend the Workers’ Compensation Act.
Nay!
Thank you, Mr. McLeod. The Minister is seeking unanimous consent to deal with Bill 11.
Nay!
Do I hear any nays?
Nay! Nay!
I hear a couple of nays. Item 21, consideration in Committee of the Whole of bills and other matters: Bill 2, Forgiveness of Debts Act, 2009-2010; Bill 4, An Act to Amend the Child and Family Services Act; Bill 7, An Act to Amend the Summary Conviction Procedures Act; Tabled Document 62-16(4), NWT Main Estimates, 2010-2011; and Minister’s Statement 47-16(4), Transfer of the Public Housing Rental Subsidy, with Mr. Krutko in the chair.
I’d like to call Committee of the Whole to order. We have several items to deal with: Bill 2, Bill 4, Bill 7, Tabled Document 62-16(4) and Minister’s Statement 47-16(4). What is the wish of committee? Mrs. Groenewegen.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. The committee would like to continue with the Department of Health and Social Services in Committee of the Whole and then move on to conclude Education today. Thank you.
Does committee agree?
Agreed.
With that, we’ll take a short break and begin with the Department of Health.
---SHORT RECESS
I’d like to call Committee of the Whole to order. At this time, I would like to ask the Minister of Health and Social Services if she’d like to bring in witnesses. Ms. Lee.
Thank you. Yes, Mr. Chairman.
Does committee agree the Minister brings in witnesses? Mr. Beaulieu.
Mr. Chairman, I move that we report progress.
---Carried
I will now rise and report progress.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The committee has been considering Tabled Document 62-16(4). I would like to report progress. Mr. Speaker, I move that the report of Committee of the Whole be concurred with.
The motion is on the floor. Do we have a seconder? The honourable Member for Hay River South, Mrs. Groenewegen.
---Carried
Item 23, third reading of bills. The honourable Member for Mackenzie Delta, Mr. Krutko.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I rise on a point of privilege and feel my privilege as a Member has been threatened in which I feel that a Member has the ability to do his job without being threatened.
Mr. Speaker, as I left the Chamber after requesting a short break in Committee of the Whole, as I walked out the back of the Chamber with the Premier, Minister Miltenberger, Mr. Robert McLeod and other Members of the Cabinet, after stepping out of the doors, I was told by Mr. Robert McLeod, I hope you feel good. As I walked away, Mr. McLeod called me a bitch. Mr. Speaker, I mentioned that I will be bringing this issue into the House and I proceeded to the washroom to go to the washroom. Mr. McLeod came into the washroom and asked me what I said. I said I will be taking this matter into the House. Mr. McLeod stated, “If the shoe fits, wear it.”
Mr. Speaker, as Members of this House, we do not have to be threatened by any Minister or any Members of this House in doing our job. More importantly, Mr. Speaker, I believe as a table officer of this House, we should at least show some respect. As a Minister who you respect, all should hold up this House to the best standards that we can. By calling another Member this name is demeaning. It is belittling and, more importantly, it is a threat. Mr. Speaker, as a Member I feel I was threatened. Mr. Speaker, I will leave it to you to make a ruling on this matter. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Krutko. I am going to allow for the debate on this point of privilege if anyone else wants to speak to it. The honourable Mr. Miltenberger.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. There was, as we left the House, an exchange of words, some proceeding as those outlined by the Member for Mackenzie Delta. Subsequently, I didn’t catch all the exchange. I do know that we were coming out of the session. There was a fairly raised and elevated level of tension it seemed like. There was an exchange of words that followed into the washroom. I think it was an unfortunate turn of events. I hope this can be resolved. There was I don’t think any intent on anybody’s part. I didn’t think anything was a threat. I saw it too. Tempers flare. A circumstance unfortunately escalated beyond where I think anybody wanted it to. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Miltenberger. To the point of privilege. The honourable Member for Inuvik Twin Lakes, Mr. Robert McLeod.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As we left the Chamber, I felt that I made no threatening gestures. There was a heated exchange as we all have exchanges here in the Chamber, some a little more animated than others. If the Member feels that he was threatened, it was not my intent. I apologize for it. But we have to understand that the work that we do, sometimes there are things that we disagree on. There are things that happen in this Chamber. I showed poor judgment. I should have just took it for what it was and walked away from it, but we do have a lot of exchanges here in the Chamber. We have disagreements in and out of the Chamber. I don’t feel that my words were threatening in any way. It was just a heated exchange between two Members. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. McLeod. To the point of privilege. The honourable Member for the Sahtu, Mr. Yakeleya.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Certainly there are times where there is a perception as to how we push or move or debate or work through issues that sometimes emotions do come to a level where we bite our tongue or we say something. Sometimes that is the nature of the business we are in here. We have some very good heated exchanges.
One time I had made apologies to Mr. Miltenberger when I made a reference to a dictatorship. I didn’t feel good. However, this was done in the House.
Mr. Speaker, I guess what I want to say in terms of this type of discussion, there are only two people that know what happened. Mr. Krutko gave his view and Mr. McLeod gave his view. However, this is the House where we are able to rise above these types of issues here and not have the perception that stops us from doing our job on behalf of our people. That is not a good thing to have. After we leave the Chamber, work in an office, we work with all Members and Ministers especially in committee meetings or when we have meetings in our communities, that we are here to do our job on behalf of our people with no perceived threats or any type of things that happen that stops us from speaking on behalf of people.
Thank you, Mr. Yakeleya. To the point of privilege. The honourable Member for Hay River South, Mrs. Groenewegen.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I did support the motion to report so that I could support my colleague Mr. Krutko from the Mackenzie Delta. Mr. Speaker, emotions were obviously running very high in this House today on the issue that was at hand. I heard Mr. Krutko speak with a great deal of emotion. Mr. Yakeleya speaks with a great deal of emotion. It is the nature of the work that we do that sometimes. That is the kind of impassioned debate and dialogue that takes place in this House.
Mr. Speaker, I supported Mr. Krutko to have the opportunity to raise this point of privilege at the earliest opportunity even though it meant delaying Committee of the Whole because I, myself, have been on the receiving end of comments from time to time, not lately mind you, but from time to time earlier on in my term by a Member that I perceived to be less than professional.
I do believe we, as Members, have an obligation to try to uphold a very high standard of professionalism and good conduct in how we treat each other.
I would also like to say to Minister McLeod that I do thank him very much for his very quick recognition of this exchange and his apology so as not to protract this matter. I thank him for having the good common sense and the humility to make an apology so quickly into this event. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mrs. Groenewegen. The honourable Premier, Mr. Roland.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, it’s unfortunate that we do, from time to time, rise on such issues in this House. It seems to be the nature of the beast, in that sense. As the particular area of privilege has been raised by Mr. Krutko, he mentioned that there were a number of us walking out, including myself, and there was the exchange of words.
For the record, as I was walking out of the Assembly itself, the House, Mr. Krutko made some comments on his way out and gestured in a way that may itself not been received as appropriate for what had happened. Mr. McLeod had just tried to advance a piece of legislation on one of his departments that had nothing to do with the debate that happened in this House. Mr. Krutko made mention that, as he left this Assembly, that I don’t believe you even tried to ask for unanimous consent, and chuckled as he left the back of the Chamber. Mr. McLeod was already out and made reference and made some comments back. I didn’t hear a response back and wasn’t aware of what occurred at that point.
As well, we try to govern ourselves in this Assembly and I think that we all have to look at how we have discussion both in this House and outside the House, that some words may be meant to be on the light-hearted side, but because of the moment that it’s taken or received, could be taken less or so in the sense of light-hearted and taken more seriously.
I, again, want to just put that for the record that there was an exchange and, as well, to Minister McLeod for coming back and apologizing as he had stated that there was no intention of a threat, but there was heated discussion and words shared, which he has apologized for. But I would say that we must all look at how we share our words. You want to talk about how we represent ourselves in this place. We must be fair on both sides of how we carry on the debate both inside and outside this floor. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Roland. The honourable Member for Range Lake, Ms. Lee.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I would just like to add a very brief comment on this. First of all, for the record, MLA Krutko mentioned that there were Ministers, the Premier, Minister McLeod and Minister Miltenberger and other Ministers. I just wanted to say that I’m not trying to exclude myself, but just for the record...(inaudible)... that I was still in the Chamber when all of this happened. I was in the back lounge with MLA Beaulieu. So, obviously, that’s the record. Well, we were talking. So I have no information whatsoever about what went on.
Now, I just want to say, Mr. Speaker, in my experience as an MLA for 10 years, I’ve had my share of raising a point of privilege. I’ve had situations where I’ve felt that my privilege to do my job and represent my riding as an MLA was breached by a lot of things. I had my share of people pressuring me and such, and that’s a very important part of our ability to do our job, so I take privilege of being a Member very seriously. I trust, Mr. Speaker, that you will look at the facts and make sure that MLA Krutko’s right to do his job is not in any way jeopardized. I have no doubt that MLA Krutko will continue to do his job, advocate for his people and speak on issues that matter to them. I’m not sure from the facts of the case that any of that had happened.
I just want to say, in closing, that exchanges do happen. We are passionate people. We believe in what we believe in. We want to do the best for our people. All kinds of heated exchanges do happen, but sometimes we do make a mistake. Sometimes we do say things that we would rather not have said. Sometimes things get misunderstood in the context of how it was said. I would like to just commend the Member for Inuvik Twin Lakes for being the big man that he is. He’s a very considerate man. I believe he has a very good working relationship with everybody here and he apologized, so I hope that this Speaker will take that into consideration when he is making his decision on this item. I’m glad, in a way, that we were able to put this on the floor and deal with this before we head out for the weekend. Hopefully, when we come back on Monday we can concentrate and get back to the business of the people. I believe that we will, because I believe that we all believe that this is important work to do and we’ll get it done. Thank you.
Thank you, Ms. Lee. Hearing no further comments on the point of privilege, colleagues, it’s my duty as the Speaker, when a point of privilege is raised, to determine whether a prima facie breach of parliamentary privilege has occurred.
I have listened very carefully to all the Members that have spoken on this point of privilege. Mr. Krutko, I know, is very passionate about what he is saying. I’ve also heard from Mr. Robert McLeod in his apology to the Member for what actions took place, and I think is genuine in what he’s saying how it happened.
I have spoken many times before session and encourage Members to respect the dignity of this institution and respect each other. What happened is a name calling, from what I’ve heard, although not one that I would encourage Members to take part in too much. We do want to respect each other and get the work that we have done. However, I do not feel that a name calling constitutes a prima facie of privilege. So I am going to rule that there is no prima facie breach of parliamentary privilege here. Thank you, colleagues.
The honourable Member for Inuvik Twin Lakes, Mr. Robert McLeod.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I seek unanimous consent to go back to item 6 on the Order Paper. Thank you.
---Unanimous consent granted.
The honourable Member for Inuvik Twin Lakes, Mr. Robert McLeod.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, it gives me great pleasure to recognize Mr. Charlie Furlong up in the audience. Charlie has been doing some treatments for cancer and we’re happy to report that things are going really well and he’s cancer free. So we’re glad to hear that. Thank you.
