Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions today are addressed to the Premier. I would like to follow up on the questions that I addressed to the Minister of Health and Social Services yesterday and the concept of policy by commitment. I gave an example yesterday of two statements made in the House by two different Health Ministers referencing a policy which was not written and not part of the Cabinet sanctioned official policy. I would like to know from the Premier, when a Minister makes a commitment in the House, if he could explain to me and explain to Members what kind of weight that carries. What does it mean when a commitment is made here in the House?
Thank you, Ms. Bisaro. The honourable Premier, Mr. McLeod.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I guess it depends which government you’re referring to. If it was made in previous Assemblies and it was inaccurate, I don’t see how anyone could expect it to be a commitment that would have to be followed up at this Assembly, especially if it was an incorrect statement.
If a Minister does provide information in response to questions in the House, and the Minister does provide information which is incorrect, and we as Members are advised of something that is incorrect, who is responsible? Will that Member then be advised that the information is correct and will that information then be corrected? Is it the responsibility of the Minister and/or Cabinet to correct it for us?
I guess my understanding of various interpretations of this House is if you believe it to be correct, it doesn’t necessarily have to be true. But if you make a statement and it’s obviously incorrect, then I guess what I expect would happen is that you would want to correct your statement at the first possible opportunity so that you don’t want to be seen as providing incorrect statements to this Assembly.
Thanks to the Premier. That’s good. I would like to see that. If a statement is made and a Minister or a Member believes it to be true – Ministers in particular, if it’s a policy commitment – what action takes place on the part of either Cabinet or staff to follow through and ensure that that information is correct or not?
I guess, first of all, we don’t go back and review all of the Hansard to make sure there were no incorrect statements. But going forward, if we have staff that track Hansard to make sure that if there are incorrect statements that are not consistent with government policy, they bring it to our attention, either to the individual Minister or to Cabinet. Then we take the appropriate action to make sure that the statements that we make are accurate, correct, and up to date.
Thank you, Mr. McLeod. Final, short supplementary, Ms. Bisaro.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Thank you to the Premier. I wasn’t going backwards. I was referring to the current Assembly. The Premier said that action would be taken. Does that action involve informing the Member that the information in the House is incorrect and advising the Member of what the correct information is?
Generally, the individual Ministers that make commitments, their departments will bring it to their attention. In other cases where we have Cabinet Ministers that have experience in the different departments and if they become aware of it, then we would bring it to the Minister’s attention. Then we would deal with it appropriately.
Thank you, Mr. McLeod. The Member for Hay River South, Mrs. Groenewegen.
