Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I rise this afternoon on a point of privilege. I would like to speak to a point of privilege from a quote by Mr. Menicoche on Friday, October 18th. I did wait for this opportunity to bring the point up. I wanted to check unedited Hansard. I will quote from unedited Hansard, page 35 from Friday, October 18th. Mr. Menicoche says, “Thank you very much, Madam Chair. The media was quick up that in the capital plan there’s nothing for Yellowknife, and I’m glad.” Laughter.
I think the Hansard crew may have missed out a couple of words. I think it should say, “The media was quick to pick up that in the capital plan there’s nothing for Yellowknife, and I’m glad.”
Mr. Speaker, I want to say that I am offended by the comment from my colleague. I would like to also say that my constituents are offended and all the constituents in Yellowknife. Almost 50 percent of the population of the NWT is here and I don’t feel that that comment is one that they will take lightly.
In my view, this is against the very nature of our consensus government that we should be working together, and I don’t believe that comment indicates that we are working together and I think I will find it difficult to ensure that we work together in the future.
There is a code of conduct which all Members signed when we were sworn in to the Assembly in October of 2011. I will just quote a couple of things from the code of conduct: “As a legislator, I will do my best to fulfill my duties to the Legislature, the public, my constituents and my colleagues, with integrity and honour. To the Legislature, I owe respect. To my colleagues, I owe fairness and respect for our differences.” Those things, Mr. Speaker, I feel were contravened by the comment from Mr. Menicoche on Friday.
It’s one thing for us as Members and it’s well known that there is a bit of a competition, I guess, between Yellowknife and small communities, within the walls of this House and within the Legislature. It’s one thing for us to make these comments when we are in private when we are speaking with two or three of our colleagues, or when we’re in a committee meeting or a Cabinet meeting. It’s quite another, Mr. Speaker, to say it publicly and that’s what happened on Friday.
I think perhaps Mr. Menicoche was trying to be funny, but it was not funny. It was offensive. I would like to ask the Member to withdraw his remarks and to apologize to the Yellowknife residents of the NWT. Thank you.
Thank you, Ms. Bisaro. To the point of privilege, Mr. Menicoche.
Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. I take my role as MLA very seriously and when we are in the House, everything is certainly public, Mr. Speaker. But I do stand on my opinion on this matter. I regret that I have to stand in this House on a point of privilege by a Yellowknife Member and the community of Yellowknife because they were offended. I don’t believe I said anything out of the ordinary and stand by my opinion, Mr. Speaker.
Unfortunately, of all the good work we are doing together, this is not a vision I would like to see for a voice from a small community, an MLA from a small community, to be asked to withdraw his view that Yellowknife has benefited from capital expenditures over the years and, indeed, this fiscal year being proposed. I am glad that here we have a unique situation that finally our regions and communities have a major share of capital expenditures. Certainly this is my opinion and I would venture to say the sentiment of many across our great Northwest Territories. People can’t get everything all the time, Mr. Speaker. Mahsi.
Thank you, Mr. Menicoche. I will allow some debate on the point of order. Mr. Bromley.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I side with my colleague Ms. Bisaro in this discussion. As the Speaker knows, our Members’ conduct also says we will promote the equality of all our people, distribute resources fairly and justly, and to the public I owe the responsibility to work for the well-being of all residents of the Northwest Territories.
The Member has inferred that resources are unfairly distributed and that Yellowknife has over-benefitted. Now, he presented no data to back that up. There have been some summaries done, and I am willing to state that, in fact, on a per capita basis, there probably are more resources dedicated to those outside of Yellowknife, but that’s neither here nor there.
We need to be standing up for all residents of the Northwest Territories equally. I also have constituents who are personally offended by that statement in the House on Friday, so I seek the same recourse as Ms. Bisaro and I refute the statements by the Member Mr. Menicoche. Mahsi.
Thank you, Mr. Bromley. To the point of privilege. Any other comments? No comments?
My role on this point of privilege that has been raised is to determine whether or not this was at Ms. Bisaro’s earliest convenience, which was today. Now that that point of privilege has occurred, I will take this under advisement. Ms. Bisaro and Mr. Menicoche, I will reply back to you Thursday afternoon.
I want to remind Members again, and I said it the other day, we have a unique way of dealing with business, being we are not in party politics, so we have to work together for the betterment of all the people of the Northwest Territories. We are here for them. Let’s move forward.
