Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I am not interested in giving any more forums for the Minister to make a speech on the same line, so I will just reserve that for tomorrow. Thank you.

---Applause

Thank you, Ms. Lee. Time for oral questions has expired. Item 7, returns to written questions. Ms. Lee.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I have a point of order on what transpired earlier in the House. Mr. Speaker, I know that the Member for Hay River South is very passionate about the debates we are having, and so am I, but there was something said there that is very troublesome to me.

I would like to ask your good office to review the transcript and see if I have a point of order. Mr. Speaker, I raise a point of order on Rule 23(c), (h), (i), (j), (k), and (n). Mr. Speaker, under the rules of the Assembly, there is a rule against needless repetition or raising matters which have been decided during the current session. Mr. Speaker, I should just point out the words that I am raising a point of order on.

Earlier, during the question period, Mrs. Groenewegen said something to the effect that if she had any support from Yellowknife Members against moving Dene K'onia, that we wouldn't be in this situation today. I have a problem with that, Mr. Speaker, because it is raising an issue that has already been decided in this House. It was in a budget item. The budget was debated. It went into Social Programs debate. The Social Programs committee reviewed it, and the House made a decision. That is one issue.

Another thing is under rule (h) and (i), I feel it is suggesting somehow that Yellowknife MLAs had anything to do with moving Dene K'onia out of Hay River. That is unfair to the people of Yellowknife, and the people of Hay River. We did not do any such thing. That was a government move. The government came to the committee with a merit of why they had to close this young offender facility in Hay River. That was that. It was decided. It was hugely debated. We had a huge debate on that. It was not Yellowknife Members moving this facility out of there. Certainly, I don't think Yellowknife people should, in any way, think that we are being somehow punished because Yellowknife Members did anything against Hay River, because I don't believe that is at all the case.

I want to raise my last point. It says on Rule 23(n) where a Member introduces any matter in debate that offends the practices and precedents of the Assembly... Mr. Speaker, as you can see, and the people can see, we have a lot of heated debates here. We have to feel free to make decisions on whatever decisions we make. We shouldn't have any fear of retribution against our members, or the people that we represent, because of decisions we make. I don't think that the Member had any ill will toward anything, but the way it was said, and the way she looked at us and said, "If Yellowknife Members supported..." I don't think is appropriate. I think, for the good of the debates that we need to have in this House, I would like her to apologize and retract. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Ms. Lee. The Member has risen on a point of order. To the point of order. The Member has spoken to the point of order. To the point of order. The Member for Hay River South, Mrs. Groenewegen.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I don't have the unedited Hansard in front of me. Ms. Lee could have read directly from what she had in her hand which, I believe, is an unedited Hansard. No? No, you didn't read it. You are going by what you remember. Going by what I remember, this is what I said. I said that if our kids had not been transferred from Hay River Dene

K'onia, and Dene K'onia closed and those kids moved to young offenders in Yellowknife, I said, we wouldn't be having this discussion today. And I said that if the Yellowknife Members had supported Hay River in all the same arguments that we made about Hay River losing our staff, losing the value to the community, losing the program, the kids from the South Slave, we made all the same arguments, we didn't get support for that in this House. I am saying if we had, and if that had affected the decision, I am saying we would not be having this discussion today, because we wouldn't have an empty building to be moving TTC into. That is what I was saying. I guess, Mr. Speaker, I was making an observation. I don't think it was particularly offensive, but I guess I will await your ruling on it. Thank you.

Thank you, Mrs. Groenewegen. To the point of order. The honourable Member for Yellowknife Centre, Mr. Hawkins.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I am just going to say that all Members on this side of the House supported Mrs. Groenewegen's plight. I think we did support a motion of some form that spoke to the need of that. All the Members from Yellowknife always speak in favour of Hay River so...

---Laughter

...in the context of establishing brand-new services, not ripping them out. I take offence to the offence, I guess. We are very supportive of Hay River and its industry.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I don't think it is fair. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Hawkins. To the point of order. Ms. Lee, you have spoken at length on the point of order, but I will allow you a very short comment on it. Ms. Lee.

Thank you. Just one more point that I wanted to make, I think, which is germane to what I am trying to say, in her sentence; that is, that if Yellowknife MLAs had an ounce of support against moving Dene K'onia. That is the important part. I submit to you there is no suggestion here that we were trying to move it. It was a government initiative. I think that is imputing motive on the part of YK MLAs, that we were somehow trying to take something out of Hay River and we are being punished for it. That is a very serious allegation that we should not condone in this House, because we should be free to debate without being intimidated or threatened in any way. Thank you.

Thank you, Ms. Lee. To the point of order. The Member for Great Slave, Mr. Braden.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Briefly, I think, to the point of order, I personally don't see that there is something amiss here or that I would say has changed or set any new threshold in the kind of debate that we have here. Mr. Speaker, in committee, in one-on-one discussions, hallway discussions here in the Legislature, one of the biggest and strongest dynamics that we have is the friction sometimes, the contrast, the conflict between big and small communities, regions, and the kind of discourse that we are having here is one that I try to be very sensitive to. But the kinds of remarks that have been made, yes, I certainly took notice of what Mrs. Groenewegen was saying at the time, but I do not find it out of the course of the kind of thing that we talk about, and how we talk about it on an almost daily basis here. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Braden. To the point of order. The honourable Member for the Sahtu, Mr. Yakeleya.

Mr. Speaker, the issue here is that, as legislators, we represent our people, and sometimes issues get heatedly debated. However, I feel some level of comfort, as a Member here, that we can stand up and say whatever we have to say in representing our people. I do not think that sometimes this causes something we may feel that hinders us, or stops us from speaking on their behalf. I look forward to the ruling on this point, because it will have some impact on how we conduct ourselves as legislators in the future. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Yakeleya. To the point of order. There is no more debate on the point of order. I will take the point of order under advisement, and come back with my ruling. Item 7, returns to written questions. Mr. Clerk.

Thank you, Mr. Clerk. Item 7, returns to written questions. Item 8, tabling of documents. Item 9, replies to opening address. Item 10, petitions. The honourable Member for Great Slave, Mr. Braden.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I stand here today very proud to carry a petition signed by 707 people here in Yellowknife. I would like to present this petition, Mr. Speaker, dealing with the matter of children's treatment programs for Yellowknife. Mr. Speaker, the petition contains 707 signatures of Yellowknife residents and, Mr. Speaker, the petitioners request that the Government of the Northwest Territories continues Yellowknife-based residential programs for children. Mr. Speaker, this petition was originated by people with concerns about continuing care here in Yellowknife and in communities north, and that the decision to relocate the program to another community would not interrupt the service that the community has spent a long time building and wants to continue. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Braden. Item 10, petitions. Item 11, reports of standing and special committees. Item 12, reports of committees on the review of bills. Item 13, tabling of documents. The honourable Minister of Finance, Mr. Roland.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I have two documents for tabling. Further to my Return to Written Question 7-15(4), I wish to table a document entitled 2005 Summer Student Employment Program, by region and affirmative action hires.

As well, Mr. Speaker, I wish to table the following document entitled Performance and Accountability Report 2004-2005. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Roland. Item 13, tabling of documents. The honourable Minister of Industry, Tourism and Investment, Mr. Bell.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I wish to table the following document entitled NWT Development Corporation 2004-2005 Annual Report: Investing in the Future of Northerners. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.