Mr. Speaker, can the Minister indicate what other individuals, or individual, that he may have released this report to? Thank you.

Mr. Patterson.

Mr. Speaker, the only people that I know of who have received this report, are the former Chairman of the Board of Management of the Fort Smith Health Centre, Mr. Pete Fraser, to whom the report was submitted, since it was that board that commissioned the report: Mr. Don Ellis, the Public Administrator, who has in effect, replaced the Board in overseeing the operations at Fort Smith Health Centre; Dr. Covert, for reasons that I have just discussed, and I have seen it, Mr. Speaker, as Minister of Health, my Deputy Minister has seen the report. It has been given to Madam Cournoyea, the Premier, but otherwise, Mr. Speaker, to my knowledge, the circulation of the report has been very restrictive respecting the sensitive and very confidential nature of the matters reviewed, including information about treatment of individual patients.

Oral questions, supplementary, Mrs. Marie-Jewell.

Mr. Speaker, I would like to advise this House a quote of a letter that I got from our legal counsel for the Legislative Assembly, and I certainly hope that I am not out of order, but you would advise me accordingly if I am.

Mr. Speaker, I asked legal counsel for the Legislative Assembly to determine whether or not the court records regarding this, are available to me as a Member, to advise my constituents as to what is going on, and they indicated to me, and I would like to quote, "They confirm that the court record pertaining to Dr. Uma Viswalingam's suit against the Fort Smith Health Centre Board of Management have been sealed pursuant to the Court Order Justice Award granted August the 10, which the Minister indicated in this House. After all parties to the litigation indicated that they were in agreement with the entire file being sealed, the only portion of the file that is available to us are the Clerk's notes. However, the writer was advised they were unable to photocopy the Clerk's notes. A review of the Clerk's notes indicate that there was an application made in late July, for an injunction to prevent the Board of Management from dealing with the report. This application was denied by Justice Richard, however, leave was granted to the parties to renew their applications at a later date, and the matter was subsequently heard in the chambers on July 27, and adjourned to August 10. On August 10, the court file was sealed, and the remaining matters pending before the courts were adjourned. The only way to unseal the file, is consent of all parties involved, or a court order. So, I would like to ask the Minister, since the file was sealed, how does he take it upon himself to release this report accordingly?

Mr. Patterson.

Mr. Speaker, I believe the honourable Member is assuming that the Saskatchewan College Report, the investigation into the Fort Smith Health Centre, is one of the documents in the sealed court records. Mr. Speaker, my understanding is that the Saskatchewan College Report is not one of the sealed documents. To answer the honourable Member's question, I do not believe that the very limited release of the Report of the Saskatchewan College as I have outlined it, would in any way conflict with that court order, since that report is not one of the documents that was placed under seal. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Supplementary, Mrs. Marie-Jewell.

Mr. Speaker, I nearly called the Minister what I believe is an unparliamentary name, so I will not say it. Mr. Speaker, the Minister in this House, and I have the unedited Hansard for Thursday, September 10, stated "Mr. Speaker, on July 15 of this year, Dr. Viswalingam's request and injunction to prevent release of the College's Report," so now how can he indicate to this House that report was not part of the documents sealed? Thank you.

Mr. Patterson.

Mr. Speaker, the issue before the Court, which is still before the Court, is whether the document in question should be released to the public, as I understand it. Mr. Speaker, I believe the rules of this Legislature state that when a matter is before the Courts, and the matter is whether this document should be released, it would be inappropriate for Members of this Assembly to take action which could, in any way, effect or prejudice those proceedings. That is my understanding of the sub-judiciary rule, Mr. Speaker. So, I referred to this judiciary rule, because the Member was asking me to take action that was presently under review by a Court, namely whether the document would by released publicly, and I believe that would be prejudicial to the eventual outcome of the court case. In no way, in responding to the question, Mr. Speaker, was I suggesting that the actual document was part of the sealed court records. Rather, the issue of the release of the document is before the court, and taking action one way or the other would be, in my view, prejudicial to the rights of the petitioner in that very court proceeding. Thank you.

Mr. Patterson.

Mr. Speaker, my understanding is that, no, it was not one of the documents sealed by the Court. Thank you.

Item 5, Oral Questions. New question, Mr. Gargan.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I would like to direct my question to the Minister of Municipal and Community Affairs. Mr. Speaker, last week on September 9, 10 and 11, the Deh Cho Regional Council met at the Hay River Reserve. The Ministers have relied strongly on acts to respond to Members. The Territorial Hospital Insurance Act, the Medical Professions Act and the Public Inquiries Act.

However, Mr. Speaker, last week the Deh Cho Regional Council met. I have no objection to it, but under the Regional Councils Act under section five of the Act, it provides that every council must meet at least once each year, half of every calendar year. Each council is to determine, at each meeting, the dates of the next meeting. The council may hold meetings at any time, except when the Legislative Assembly is in session. Mr. Speaker, I did inform the Minister of the meeting, and whether or not it was legal for the council to meet.

Unfortunately, he did not respond to me. I would like to know if the meeting did take place and whether or not, since the Ministers are so keen on referring to Acts, why the Minister, in this case, did not act?

Mr. Allooloo.

Mr. Speaker, I will take the question as notice.

Mr. Pollard.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, it is up, it is running. We are starting to get some data back, and I would hope to have some financial statements available before the end of this session, Mr. Speaker. Thank you.

Item 5, Oral Questions. Supplementary, Mr. Dent.

Mr. Pollard.