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.