Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I draw the attention of 23(i), imputes false or hidden motives of other MLAs. Mr. Speaker, he just made a clear accusation to me that my MO is about asking questions to Ministers who are not available. That is imputing false motives on the way I’m doing my job. That’s the issue at hand here. I think there’s a point of order and he should apologize for it. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Hawkins. I’m not going to allow any debate. I’ll get back to the House on that point of order.
Thank you, colleagues. I will allow the Minister to reply on that point of order.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The Member is taking offence to the comments that I made by telling the truth, I will withdraw that comment and apologize. Thank you.
Mr. Speaker, I’m not really sure what this is under, but I mean I didn’t know that we could stand up and ask Ministers in this House about things that are not within their purview as their department. I mean, Mr. McLeod is the Minister responsible for Municipal and Community Affairs. I don’t think that his personal attendance in this House or where he was on any given day is within the purview of his department. I think the question is out of order. Thank you.
Thank you, Mrs. Groenewegen. To the point of order, Mr. Hawkins.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I don’t believe Mrs. Groenewegen respectfully has a point of order. I think it was more of a statement, as she just said here a second ago. The reality here is I’m asking the Minister about their office and their ability to do their responsibilities that fall within them.
Thank you, Mr. Hawkins. First of all to that point of order, I’m going to settle the first point of order. There is no point of order. The Minister was travelling on his duty as a Member to do his job to represent us in Alaska.
On the second point of order, Mrs. Groenewegen.
---Interjection
Okay. To the point of order. To the second point of order. Mr. Miltenberger.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’ll try not to get these points of order confused here, but what we have is a questioning of the integrity of a Minister who has duties outside this House, who was on legitimate government business, representing us at an international event, that he was driving, and while I haven’t personally made that drive, I know it takes a considerable amount of time. I think the questioning of the integrity of the Minister that somehow he was out of this House for false pretenses is not really constructive. It is a point of order and Minister McLeod acted with the full knowledge of this House and the authority from Cabinet and the Premier. So it’s an unfortunate line of questioning that I think has already sort of coloured the early days of this session. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Miltenberger. To the point of order, Mr. Hawkins.
Mr. Hawkins, I already drew judgment on that first point of order and Mr. McLeod did apologize to the House and he is travelling on duty as a Member in his position. To the second point of order, that’s what we were talking about on Mrs. Groenewegen. So I should have cut Mr. Miltenberger off at the time, but now on the second point of order, Mrs. Groenewegen, that’s what we’re speaking on.
For the first point of order, there is no point of order. He did apologize to the House. Mr. Bromley, to the second point of order.
Absolutely, Mr. Speaker, and thank you for that. I think there has been some confusion here and I believe the first point of order was taken care of. That’s my understanding.
I’m speaking to the point that Mrs. Groenewegen has raised. I do believe that all Members of the House have a role in bringing accountability and for every Member to show up to the best of their ability and so on. If that requires asking questions respectfully, there should be an opportunity to do that.
So I just wanted to make sure that there is agreement that accountability is part of our role, as long as we do it respectfully and so on. I would expect that the Ministers would be able to respond to questions on accountability very well. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Bromley. The Minister did respond very well. To the second point of order, Mrs. Groenewegen, would you like to speak to it?
Thank you, Mrs. Groenewegen. Under which rule in regard to the question came in under, but at the end of the day the line of questioning really quickly, it is a line of questioning that is privy for the Member. So on the second point of order, I will advise you, there’s, no, the ruling number, Mrs. Groenewegen, okay. So thank you, Mrs. Groenewegen. Mr. Hawkins.
Thank you, Mr. Hawkins. There’s no point of order. I just want to remind the Members it’s good to be back…
---Laughter
…and see that everybody is ready to do their work. So where were we? The Member for Deh Cho, Mr. Nadli.
