Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions today will be to seek information on a statement made in the House by the Premier on Thursday, March 13, 2014. To provide context to that, the Minister of MACA told me personally that he would be leaving on Thursday, March 13th, which is a session day, so he could go home and gas his truck up on his way to Whitehorse as he goes to the Arctic Winter Games. So I draw the House’s attention to page 5 and I quote the Premier in Hansard: “I wish to advise Members that the Honourable R.C. McLeod will be absent from the House today to attend to a personal matter.”
My question to Minister R.C. McLeod as Minister of MACA is: Is it to find that doing your duty by gassing up your truck so you can drive to Whitehorse, is it clear execution of your duties and responsibilities as a Minister to this House when you’re to be here, ready and able to answer questions of Members? Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Hawkins. Minister R.C. McLeod.
Thank you. No end to the surprises from the Member.
I did go back to Inuvik, gassed up my truck, drove down to Whitehorse on my way to Fairbanks to attend the Arctic Winter Games. Thank you.
Mr. Speaker, on page 32 and 33 of the House of Commons Procedures and Practices it says that in terms of ministerial responsibilities, Ministers have both the individual and collective responsibilities to the House, and as such, Ministers are expected to take responsibility and defend their decisions and all Cabinet decisions.
My question for Minister R.C. McLeod is: How does he reasonably expect to do this if he’s, as he stated earlier, not in the House, travelling on personal business?
Order! Minister of MACA, Mr. McLeod.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’m not sure what the Member is trying to prove, but I was representing the Government of the Northwest Territories at an international event and I stand by that statement. Thank you.
Mr. Speaker, Members had questions for the Department of MACA and I’m asking the Minister the fact that the Alaska games were several days after that particular day in question, so he could have reasonably been there. So I’m asking the question to the Minister: How does he make himself reasonably responsible and available to Members of this House so that we can ask pertinent questions? This has been stated on the record by the Premier. I’m just asking, how do we do our job if he doesn’t come to work? Thank you.
Mr. Speaker, it was going to take me a while to get to Fairbanks and the Member had five weeks prior to ask the Minister of MACA questions. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. McLeod. Final, short supplementary, Mr. Hawkins.
No problem, Mr. Speaker. It’s a Member’s privilege to ask a question when they choose to. It’s a Minister’s responsibility to be available for the question when the question is asked, so don’t make it my fault.
My last question, of course, to the Minister is: What are we going to do about this particular situation that he’s not coming to work? What type of responsibility, being available to Members so we can ask questions that are important to the constituency? I’d like to understand what will be done. Thank you.
Mr. Speaker, I had been here for five weeks prior and I’m not saying when the Members can or cannot ask questions, but the Member’s MO, as has been demonstrated in the past, is to ask questions of a Minister he knows is not here. I had gone to the Arctic Winter Games…
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