Good afternoon, colleagues. Welcome back to the Chamber.
Colleagues, I will now provide my ruling on the point of privilege raised by the Member for Hay River South on Thursday, February 5, 2009. An unescorted visitor to the Legislative Assembly entered her office without permission and is alleged to have seen confidential documents about which that visitor allegedly spoke to the media. My role as Speaker is to determine whether a prima facie breach of privilege took place. I quote Mrs. Groenewegen from unedited Hansard from Thursday, February 5, 2009: “Unauthorized access to the private office space of any Member is a breach of that Member’s parliamentary privilege. Mr. Speaker, this is particularly so when confidential and sensitive information acquired as a result of such unauthorized access is released to the public. In fact, Mr. Speaker, I view the release of this type of sensitive information to be contempt of this House.”
Breaches of Members’ privileges are very serious. Privileges of Members include freedom of speech and freedom of obstruction and intimidation in relation to their duties as elected representatives. The question here is whether the Member’s ability to do her job was compromised by these events. I find that it was not, as these events did not prevent her from acting in the House as she had planned. A proven violation of the privacy of Members’ documents could be seen as a breach of privilege. However, there is no evidence that the visitor viewed the confidential documents or released information thus obtained to the media. Yes, he entered Mrs. Groenewegen’s office, but there is no proof that he saw any of her documents or spoke about them to anyone. In the absence of any evidence that the Member’s private documents were viewed, I find there was no prima facie breach of privilege.
However, there has been a breach of the Legislative Assembly’s security policies on visitors and on Members’ offices. In reference the Legislative Assembly of the Northwest Territories Members’ Handbook, point 135(2), Visitors:
“Visitors, while in the Legislative Assembly Building, are required to display their visitor’s pass on their person at all times and be accompanied by the person or staff of the person they are visiting at all times”
I will also reference 135(4), Access to Offices: “Other than an emergency situation, access to any office by anyone other than the occupant is only permitted by invitation or prior permission of the occupant.”
This is a very serious matter and it is not to be dismissed lightly. I would like to remind all Members of the importance of adhering to the security policies of this Legislative Assembly. They are there for your own protection and for the protection of the workings of this House. This is a serious matter, but I rule there is not a prima facie breach of privilege. Thank you, colleagues.
Orders of the day. Item 2, Ministers’ statements. The honourable Minister of Education, Culture and Employment, Mr. Lafferty.