Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I rise this afternoon on a point of privilege. I would like to speak to a point of privilege from a quote by Mr. Menicoche on Friday, October 18th . I did wait for
this opportunity to bring the point up. I wanted to check unedited Hansard. I will quote from unedited Hansard, page 35 from Friday, October 18th . Mr.
Menicoche says, “Thank you very much, Madam Chair. The media was quick up that in the capital plan there’s nothing for Yellowknife, and I’m glad.” Laughter.
I think the Hansard crew may have missed out a couple of words. I think it should say, “The media was quick to pick up that in the capital plan there’s nothing for Yellowknife, and I’m glad.”
Mr. Speaker, I want to say that I am offended by the comment from my colleague. I would like to also say that my constituents are offended and all the constituents in Yellowknife. Almost 50 percent of the population of the NWT is here and I don’t feel that that comment is one that they will take lightly.
In my view, this is against the very nature of our consensus government that we should be working together, and I don’t believe that comment indicates that we are working together and I think I will find it difficult to ensure that we work together in the future.
There is a code of conduct which all Members signed when we were sworn in to the Assembly in October of 2011. I will just quote a couple of things from the code of conduct: “As a legislator, I will do my best to fulfill my duties to the Legislature, the public, my constituents and my colleagues, with integrity and honour. To the Legislature, I owe respect. To my colleagues, I owe fairness and respect for our differences.” Those things, Mr. Speaker, I feel were contravened by the comment from Mr. Menicoche on Friday.
It’s one thing for us as Members and it’s well known that there is a bit of a competition, I guess, between Yellowknife and small communities, within the walls of this House and within the Legislature. It’s one thing for us to make these comments when we are in private when we are speaking with two or three of our colleagues, or when we’re in a committee meeting or a Cabinet meeting. It’s quite another, Mr. Speaker, to say it publicly and that’s what happened on Friday.
I think perhaps Mr. Menicoche was trying to be funny, but it was not funny. It was offensive. I would like to ask the Member to withdraw his remarks and to apologize to the Yellowknife residents of the NWT. Thank you.