Mr. Speaker, Cabinet acknowledges the role of Mr. Lewis and the other Members who support recall; for advancing the recall accountability issue on this Assembly agenda in recent months. As directed by the Standing Committee on Rules, Privileges and Procedures last October, the government is preparing a legislative action paper on recall which will be tabled during the June session.

The terms of reference for the legislative action paper contain all of the issues and questions which the standing committee recommended for consideration in the action paper.

Mr. Speaker, Mr. Lewis's bill and other proposals which he prepared for consideration at the April 1994 Fort Smith strategic planning workshop provide recall models to assess in the legislative action paper. However, Cabinet is concerned that Mr. Lewis's bill does not contain some of the standing committee's important recommendations; for example, identifying the grounds for initiating recall.

On the other hand, a preliminary assessment of Mr. Lewis's bill suggests that it may be difficult to initiate a recall petition, at least in some territorial constituencies. Cabinet also believes that it would be important to consider a number of legal and constitutional issues which we understand could still be factors in determining if British Columbia's recent recall legislation, for example, will be challenged before the courts.

Finally, Cabinet believes in order for there to be an informed debate, a legislative action paper is required to present all of the issues and the pros and cons of recall to the territorial electorate. Therefore, Cabinet has decided that it will not...