Thank you,
Mr. Speaker. I, too, have reviewed Hansard. I’ve also reviewed Hansard from last February 18, when we were in Committee of the Whole. The Member for Hay River South called me on a point of order when I was speaking, stating — if I could quote from page 387 of Hansard: “I have a point of order. Is Mr. Miltenberger speaking to this as a Minister of the Cabinet, or he is speaking to this as the MLA for Thebacha?” The chair at the time, Mr. Krutko, said, “Mrs. Groenewegen, you do not have a point of order, since you didn’t specifically state your order. But to be fair to all Members, this motion is before the House, and every Member has the right to speak to the motion. To be fair to everyone, everyone has had the right to speak.”
When you look at the Hansard from Friday, clearly there’s a context here. The Social Programs Committee had come forward with a motion, in fact a number of motions. They had spoken about Arctic Tern. They spoke about the need to look at all options. They asked the Minister what plans were there for Arctic Tern. They made comments about thinking outside the box.
My one comment on that issue was that there’s an option that hasn’t been considered that I think is fully valid, and in fact, other Members, when it was discussed with them, agreed that it should be worth at least looking at.
In the course of the debate, which is the place to bring this issue to the floor, I raised that comment and I raised that option. It was done within the context of the broad debate. It was no threat. It was stated very calmly, quietly, briefly as something that should be considered.
The irony, if you look at the whole text of my comments, speaks not to that but to the other issue of the comments and concerns I had about this issue being brought forward by a Member for Yellowknife. So while I respect the Member’s right to stand up and raise those issues, very clearly I do not agree that there’s a point of privilege. It’s part of the debate, and I believe it was entirely within keeping within the context of that debate.