Thank you. The honourable Member is seeking unanimous consent to deal with his motion today. Are there any nays? There are no nays, Mr. Braden, you may deal with your motion.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Thank you, colleagues. This motion is for the request for a special audit by the Auditor General of Canada.

WHEREAS the Legislative Assembly recommends the appointment of the Premier and Members of the Executive Council to be responsible for the overall management and direction of the executive government of the Northwest Territories, including matters of policy;

AND WHEREAS one Minister may be appointed to have authority over more than one department or to hold more than one title;

AND WHEREAS a Minister has responsibility for all matters arising within a department over which the Minister has authority;

AND WHEREAS the Auditor General of Canada is the auditor for the Northwest Territories by virtue of the Northwest Territories Act and Financial Administration Act;

AND WHEREAS section 31 of the Northwest Territories Act gives to the Auditor General all the powers that the Auditor General has under the Auditor General Act;

AND WHEREAS each department and its officials are responsible for co-operating with the Office of the Auditor General and with the Comptroller General and for responding to and acting on the observations raised by the Office of the Auditor General relating to concerns arising from audits;

AND WHEREAS subsection 13(1), of the Auditor General Act describes the powers of the Auditor General to be entitled to free access at all convenient times to information that relates to the fulfillment of her responsibilities;

AND WHEREAS the Auditor General reports directly to the Legislative Assembly;

AND WHEREAS there is significant concern by the Legislative Assembly that the public interest requires the Auditor General to conduct a special audit into all matters and circumstances surrounding the Financial Management Board and Executive Council's approval of a special warrant in the amount of $696,000 approved on January 21, 2002 and presented to the Legislative Assembly in Bill 9, Supplementary Appropriation Act, No. 3, 2001-2002.

NOW THEREFORE I MOVE, seconded by the honourable Member for North Slave, that the Legislative Assembly requests the Auditor General of Canada to undertake a special audit into all aspects and approvals of the process that lead to the payments for termination, compensation and benefits to former employees as provided for in the special warrant approved by the Financial Management Board on January 21, 2002;

AND FURTHER that the Auditor General investigate and consider any other factors in her opinion she feels relevant;

AND FURTHERMORE requests that all employees and officials actively cooperate with the Auditor General in providing all appropriate documents, papers, and information;

AND FURTHERMORE that the Auditor General is requested to complete this special audit as soon as practicable and provide a report to the Legislative Assembly.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

-- Applause

Thank you, Mr. Braden. We have a motion on the floor. The motion is in order. To the motion. Mr. Braden.

Some context I think is in order to provide some information to the public about this motion, Mr. Speaker. The issue of conflict and/or process has been before this Assembly and the people of the Northwest Territories for many months. We have dealt with many aspects of the issue and we are now, I hope and I believe, in its final stages, and that is Bill 9.

Mr. Speaker, we are still frustrated though and I think this frustration is shared between Members and the Executive because our process and our rules and our practice imposes a necessary degree of confidentiality on some information and some documents that pertain to the termination issue.

We have probed these issues at some length, Mr. Speaker, and we have reached something of a stalemate. The bottleneck is not being able to see and verify information as provided for but also as protected under process and confidentiality.

Mr. Speaker, this motion will bring in an independent and well-qualified agency, that of the Auditor General of Canada that has the trust of this Assembly. The Auditor General can then, in confidence and on our behalf, see that this information can be brought forward and verified in a report to the Assembly.

Mr. Speaker, in concluding my remarks I urge all Members, including Cabinet, to support this motion as a credible and authoritative way of determining what happened and satisfy this matter in a timely matter and beyond any further doubt. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

-- Applause

Thank you, Mr. Braden. To the motion. The honourable Member for Range Lake, Ms. Lee.

Mr. Speaker, my comment is not going to be very long, I just want to put on record my position on this motion. Mr. Speaker, I will not be supporting this motion. I do not have a problem with the principle of asking for the assistance of the Office of the Auditor General in cases where it is necessary, but I am not convinced that in this specific case it warrants that sort of review. I believe that, given the information that we got from the committee and we were privy to a lot of information in regard to the details of the separation packages in the proceedings that transpired here for a couple of days, I do believe that I have enough information that is satisfactory to me.

I take it from the pretty reasonable responses from the officials and the Ministers and whoever else who answered to this, I am not sure there are questions remaining.

Mr. Speaker, my last point is that as I stated before, I do not remember in all of my time in involvement with the government another case where something as private and sensitive as a separation package has been discussed to this detail. I have to put on the record the respect I have for the senior officials that come to serve the government and people who put their personal lives on hold to serve this government. I do not believe this is a way to show the respect and dignity that should be warranted to every citizen and every official that works for this government. I wanted to put that on the record. Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I request a recorded vote.

Thank you, Ms. Lee. To the motion. The mover may have the last word on it. Debate has ended. A recorded vote has been requested. All those in favour, please stand.

Thank you. All those opposed, please stand.

Thank you. All those abstaining, please stand.

Thank you. Voting has ended. The results of the recorded votes are as follows: those in favour, 10; those opposed, one; those abstaining, six. Therefore, the motion is carried.

-- Applause

The motion has been adopted by the House. Item 16, motions. The honourable Member for Tu Nedhe, Mr. Nitah.

Thank you. The honourable Member is seeking unanimous consent to deal with his motion today. Are there any nays? There are no nays, Mr. Nitah, you may deal with your motion.

Thank you, Mr. Nitah. We have a motion. The motion is in order. To the motion. Mr. Nitah.

Thank you, Mr. Nitah. To the motion. Question has been called. All those in favour? Thank you. All those opposed? Thank you. The motion is carried.

-- Applause

Motion 8 is carried and adopted. Item 16, motions. Item 17, first reading of bills. Item 18, second reading of bills. Item 19, consideration in committee of the whole of bills and other matters. Bill 2, Bill 4, Bill 9, Committee Report 1-14(5), Committee Report 2-14(5), Committee Report 3-14(5), with Mr. Delorey in the chair.

I would like to call committee of the whole to order. Before we deal with the matters at hand I would like to provide my ruling on a point of order raised yesterday in the House, a point of order raised Monday, March 11th, 2002 by the Member for Range Lake, Ms. Lee.

Chair's Ruling

In stating her point of order, Ms. Lee referred to comments made by the Member for Hay River South, Mrs. Groenewegen and I quote from page 1227 of the unedited Hansard:

I just heard the statements being made by my colleague, the Member for Hay River South, implying that somehow I had leaked information that was given to the committee. If I recall her quote correctly, she said ".... And God knows what else." I ask you to check the transcript.

Ms. Lee then proceeded to cite Rules 23(h), (i) and (j) which reference allegations against another Member, the imputation of motives and uttering deliberate falsehoods.

I have carefully reviewed the comments made by Mrs. Groenewegen, which gave rise to Ms. Lee's point of order, and they are contained on page 1227 of the unedited Hansard.

Mrs. Groenewegen does in fact quote from the March 8th edition of the Yellowknifer newspaper comments that are attributed to Ms. Lee. In addition, following this citation, Mrs. Groenewegen goes on to remark, and I quote from page 1227 of unedited Hansard, "It would appear that in fact, it was Ms. Lee who spoke to the media about the nature of the settlements, and heaven only knows what else."

As your Chair, I proceeded to allow debate on the point of order. While the debate served to illuminate many of the contentious issues surrounding the point of order, comments did not deal with the crux of the matter.

After careful deliberation I find that Mrs. Groenewegen's comment, "...and heaven only knows what else," is the one which causes concern and is particularly referenced by Ms. Lee in her point of order, although Ms. Lee did not quote correctly, as she did not have the benefit of the unedited Hansard.

In the context used by Mrs. Groenewegen, it is this comment which does infer that the Member for Range Lake had shared confidential information and while it does not impute motive, I find that it does constitute an implicit allegation against the Member in contravention of Rule 23(h) of the Rules of the Legislative Assembly.

Therefore, I rule that Ms. Lee does have a point of order and I now ask the Member for Hay River South if she is prepared to retract the offending comments. Mrs. Groenewegen.

Yes, Mr. Chairman, I am prepared to retract those comments. Thank you.

Thank you, Mrs. Groenewegen. The point of order is concluded. What is the wish of the committee? Mr. Dent.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I would like to recommend the committee continue consideration of Bill 9 and once we conclude that, resume consideration of Bill 2 and Committee Reports 1 through 3 concurrently, specifically to consider the budget of the Department of Education, Culture and Employment, followed by the Department of Justice.