Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I have had visitors from Hay River all week in the gallery, so I have put off recognizing the two Pages from Hay River South. They are doing a wonderful job here this week, and that is Terry Rowe. He is the son of Greg and Karen Rowe of Hay River, and, of course, Cole Miltenberger. I take full responsibility for there being two Miltenbergers here.

---Applause

Thank you, Mrs. Groenewegen. Item 5, recognition of visitors in the gallery. The honourable Member for Frame Lake, Mr. Dent.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I would like to recognize the chair of the WCB Governance Council, Mr. Denny Rodgers, from Inuvik.

---Applause

Thank you, Mr. Dent. Item 5, recognition of visitors in the gallery.

Speaker's RulingMembers, before we go on to the next item on the agenda, I would like to provide my ruling on the point of order that was raised yesterday by the Member for Range Lake, Ms. Lee. Ms. Lee rose on a point of order, following comments made by the honourable Member for Thebacha, Mr. Miltenberger, in his Member's statement. While she did not indicate the appropriate rule, or identify the offending comment specifically, your Chair, in reviewing the unedited Hansard, has determined Ms. Lee's point to be that the Member for Thebacha had contravened Rule 23(j) by suggesting she had uttered a deliberate falsehood. I quote the Member for Range Lake, from page 1174 of the unedited Hansard, "The Member of Thebacha is suggesting, somehow, that I am speaking a falsehood, or that I am somehow suggesting that he is not being a good Member, or that I am saying things that are not true."

In order to provide the context for Ms. Lee's point of order, your Chair will need to quote from Mr. Miltenberger's statement, from page 1173 of the unedited Hansard. I quote, "The Member for Range Lake made reference to an e-mail that I sent to the executive director of the day care that is currently experiencing some trouble. It wasn't addressed to her. She imputed some interpretation to that e-mail that is grossly incorrect. Referencing e-mails that weren't sent to the individual, and misinterpreting them, is not appropriate. I think it creates a false impression that is far from the truth."

To provide further context to the matter, I will now refer to the concluding portion of the Member for Range Lake's statement, and I quote from page 1166 of the unedited Hansard, "I can also tell you that I received an e-mail from Minister Miltenberger on this issue, that basically states that what I say here, or what we say, is completely irrelevant."

Your Chair is of the opinion that this is a case where, in the absence of any other factors, the House is prepared to accept two views of the same matter. In essence, there are two truths, and they are largely a matter of interpretation. Therefore, I rule that Ms. Lee does not have a point of order. In addition, I propose that this House take a further step to prevent this type of issue from being raised. I know our rules state that Members should refrain from citing documents that are not before the House, unless they are prepared to table them. In this case, the document in question was tabled later in the

day. In the future, your Chair, and the House, I am sure, would appreciate it if Members would refrain from citing from documents until they are tabled and, even then, I caution Members to be very careful in their interpretation and characterizations. In fact, I would encourage all Members to quote directly from the document, rather than attempting to summarize and paraphrase passages.

Before I conclude, I feel compelled to share some thoughts with you. In past rulings, I have cautioned Members to remain respectful of each other, regardless of their opposing views, but I'm sure that it has not done much good. Over the course of the past two weeks, your Chair has noticed an alarming number of instances, on both sides of the House, where Members have shown a complete lack of respect for each other and our institution. Members' statements have been used as vehicles to debate with one another and fire verbal volleys at each other. The language being used and, more importantly, the tone of the language being used, both in statements and in question period, is often disrespectful and inciteful.

I would like to remind Members, with all due respect to other parliaments in the Commonwealth, we are not a partisan politics political institution. Our consensus system of government demands more from each of us in our dealings with each other, both inside and outside the Chamber.

I would also like to note that the conduct of Members and the heckling that occurred at the time Ms. Lee was trying to articulate her point of order was extremely troubling. It is the duty of the Chair to decide whether there are points of order, and I would appreciate complete silence when Members have risen on points of order or points of privilege. You owe this much to your colleagues and to the Chair.

Members, when bringing a point of order to the attention of the Chair, a Member should first state that he or she has a point of order, and then wait for the Chair to recognize you to state your point of order. I also remind you that in rising on a point of order, a Member should clearly and concisely state the point of order and cite the rule or practice that has been infringed upon. It is not the time for explanation or for the purpose of clarifying something said. That will come later when the Member being complained of is called to explain or, if the Chair permits, debate on the point. Thank you for your attention, Members.

---Applause

Item 6, oral questions. The honourable Member for Hay River South, Mrs. Groenewegen.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, from time to time, I have occasion to visit the Public Works and Services warehouse out in Frame Lake South where obsolete and unwanted pieces of government equipment and furniture end up. Recently, Mr. Speaker, when I was out there, I had an occasion to see these very large, nice cabinets that were the cast-offs of the Prince of Wales museum. They used to use them as display cabinets in the Prince of Wales museum, but, of course, with the multimillions of dollar that have been spent on the Prince of Wales museum lately, they don't need these anymore and they ended up at the warehouse. So I saw them there and I tried to intercept them for our poor, struggling, fledgling little museum in Hay River. Kindly, the Minister of ECE did speak to Public Works and Services and said please do give them to the Hay River museum. The Hay River museum wants them; however, I have not been able to get them to Hay River. I would just like to ask the Minister of Education, Culture and Employment, in view of the very huge budget that has been expended on the museum here in Yellowknife, would he find in his heart to find $1,433 to have these six cabinets taken to Hay River for our museum? That is the quote from Matco transport. Thank you.

Thank you, Mrs. Groenewegen. The honourable Minister of Education, Culture and Employment, Mr. Dent.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I will do my best to see if we can help the Member out with that request.

Thank you, Mr. Dent. Supplementary, Mrs. Groenewegen. Item 6, oral questions. The honourable Member for Nahendeh, Mr. Menicoche.

Mr. Speaker, thank you very much. My questions today are for the Minister of Transportation, with respect to the ferry services in general, Mr. Speaker. I know that the reasons for converting all the contracts over to the private sector was to get local involvement, to benefit the communities, and to get local workers. Now that this situation in Simpson is resolved to some satisfaction, particularly to the residents, and I can say, for the record, that everybody is extremely pleased that we're getting supplies and much needed gasoline back into Fort Simpson, but this raises the question of what we are going to do about the ferry services in general for the long term, Mr. Speaker. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Menicoche. The honourable Minister of Transportation, Mr. McLeod.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, over the next several months, we will be taking a look at how we handle the ferry services. The issue over the Liard River ferry disruption was of concern to us. We'll also be looking at what the federal legislation allows us to do, and consider what we may be able to do. I think it's come to a point where we have to consider whether or not privatization of the services is something we're going to have to do. Is it new legislation that's required? I think we have to look at all the issues around it and make some decisions if those are required. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. McLeod. Supplementary, Mr. Menicoche.

Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. I know those are hard questions that the government's

going to have to ask and, hopefully, get them resolved before the next shipping season. I guess the next question is, is the government going to be looking at contracting out the Liard ferry service for next year, or is it too soon for the Minister to answer? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Menicoche. Mr. McLeod.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, right now, we're looking at trying to finish the season and have the resupply done for the community. We fully expect to continue operating the Liard ferry with our own forces throughout the next season, also. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. McLeod. Supplementary, Mr. Menicoche.

Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. I guess the one other question I would like to get some resolution around is, is the Cabinet going to be looking at all the ferry services throughout the NWT, like the Louis Cardinal, Johnny Berens, and Abraham Francis? Will that all be included in their consideration? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Menicoche. Mr. McLeod.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, we are actually quite happy in the situation we're in to allow for the resupply of fuel and other services to the communities of Fort Simpson and Wrigley. We will look at all the issues around this service, and the disruption, and all the issues that arose from this incident. It's too early to say whether we will review all the ferries. That may be something that we'll consider in the future, but, right now, we are still focused on the Liard River ferry service. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. McLeod. Item 6, oral questions. The honourable Member for Kam Lake, Mr. Ramsay.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, my questions today are for the Premier. I questioned the Minister of Public Works and Services, at length the other day, in regard to sole-sourced contracts, and, specifically, a contract for office space in the community of Fort Simpson. Going back to Hansard of last week, when the Premier was answering some questions from my colleague from Hay River South, he was quoted as saying that people would be dealt with with serious consequences, were the words that the Premier used. This was in relation to the Keyscarp contracts that went on sole source with the departments of Energy, Mines and Petroleum Resources and, later, RWED for seven years. That's what the context of that was. Here we have a situation that took place in Fort Simpson recently where office space was sole sourced. I want to know who made the decision to sole source that office space, and will they be dealt with severely. Did Cabinet know about that decision? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Ramsay. The honourable Premier, Mr. Handley.

Mr. Speaker, it's my understanding that the decision on sole sourcing that contract was made by Public Works and Services and that it was within the policy. So there is no other recourse to be taken now. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Handley. Supplementary, Mr. Ramsay.