Thank you. I will remind the Member from Yellowknife South, I will rule the question out of order and this is why. A question must not be addressed to the Speaker. Information relating to a matter under the Speaker's jurisdiction must be obtained privately. The question is ruled out of order. Do you still have a supplementary, Mr. Henry? Oral questions. Mr. Krutko.

The Minister of Finance, Mr. Todd.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Let me, first of all, say that what I was trying to do earlier was to bring clarity to the rules, to be specific in the policies of this government. I alluded only to Mr. Bailey because he seems to be the only person who seems to be getting public attention these days, for a variety of reasons. I am not aware of any other tribunal, or whether it is even necessary.

What I was trying to explain in a pragmatic way is the policies of the government, how they are policed in terms of individual contractual departments and the criteria, if you want, that is set for public servants who leave office and want to come back and work for this government. There is a fine line here between collective rights and individual rights. That is all I was trying to provide clarity on. If my honourable colleague is asking, is there an independent tribunal that he can go to if he is concerned, like an ombudsman, et cetera, I am not aware of one. Thank you.

Questions. Supplementary, Mr. Krutko.

Mr. Todd.

Not that I am aware of, Mr. Speaker, but I will look into it.

Oral questions. Mr. Todd, did you take it as notice or what?

No, Mr. Speaker. I had better not do that, I want to give my honourable colleague the right to finish his supplementaries. I am not aware of any other mechanism to address the concerns that have been addressed by my colleague, Mr. Krutko.

Supplementary, Mr. Krutko.

Mr. Todd.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I think what is important is, again I wish my honourable colleague would really take the time if he will permit me to read my address. Mr. Bailey did not, did not infringe upon any conflict within relationship to the criteria set for the Aurora Fund as he alludes to. The Aurora Fund appointment was done by a board of directors outside of government, government and non-government, and Mr. Bailey, as far as I am aware, and I have double-checked this because I know this an important issue with everybody, did not breach the government guidelines. That is my point I was trying to make in my comments earlier. Repeat, did not.

Oral questions. Final supplementary, Mr. Krutko.

Mr. Todd.

I will try and do it from memory but, you know, given that everybody wants to go down to the fine line these days, but I will do it from memory. I believe I was there. I believe some of the deputies were there who sit on this board because that is the mechanism on which we put it in place. I believe the other three members, the outside members, were there. The only person who was not there was Mr. Kakfwi, who at that time was probably not appointed. I want to qualify it by saying that I will check the minutes and the records so we have got it clear, et cetera. I want to reiterate again, he never broke any guidelines as set out in the criteria by the GNWT. I am sorry, but he did not.

Oral questions. Mr. Picco.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, just following up on Mr. Todd's earlier statement on contracting of former employees. Mr. Todd, in response to Mr. Krutko's questions, stated that there was no contradiction of the policy. I am wondering why did Mr. Todd not be forced to follow the policy with regard to Mr. Bailey. That is why we have policies in place. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

The Minister of Finance, Mr. Todd.

I thought I had kind of answered it in my statement. There was no requirement to enforce any policy because Mr. Bailey met the criteria and the guidelines set by the GNWT. It is fact. I cannot say it any more than that and that is the reason why I spoke to it today.

Again, just to remind the Members with regard to questions about members or people who are not in the House, contain an inference or impute motives or cast aspirations upon any persons; but I would also like to remind the Minister that by mentioning an individual, he has, he did open, so we cannot protect the person since he did make that mention of an individual. Mr. Picco.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, following up on Mr. Todd's statement on the contracting of employees, on page 80 of the tabled document, the Conflict of Interest report by Ms. Crawford, she states that Minister Todd, the Minister of Finance, the Chairman of the Financial Management Board, testified that he did not know it was his responsibility to enforce that policy, nor did he know what was being done about enforcement. Yet, Mr. Speaker, I will quote from Hansard, February 23, 1998, Mr. Picco speaking here, "I would like to suggest that the people should not be able to opt out of the policy by running to the Chairman of the Financial Management Board." I wonder, Mr. Speaker, could Mr. Todd finally set this record straight? Does he indeed understand the policy and does he enforce it? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.