Thank you, Mr. Hawkins. I’m not going to allow any debate. I’ll get back to the House on that point of order.

Thank you, colleagues. I will allow the Minister to reply on that point of order.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The Member is taking offence to the comments that I made by telling the truth, I will withdraw that comment and apologize. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. McLeod. Apology. Okay, oral questions. I’m not allowing any debate on the point of order. Mrs. Groenewegen, a point of order.

Mr. Speaker, I’m not really sure what this is under, but I mean I didn’t know that we could stand up and ask Ministers in this House about things that are not within their purview as their department. I mean, Mr. McLeod is the Minister responsible for Municipal and Community Affairs. I don’t think that his personal attendance in this House or where he was on any given day is within the purview of his department. I think the question is out of order. Thank you.

Thank you, Mrs. Groenewegen. To the point of order, Mr. Hawkins.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I don’t believe Mrs. Groenewegen respectfully has a point of order. I think it was more of a statement, as she just said here a second ago. The reality here is I’m asking the Minister about their office and their ability to do their responsibilities that fall within them.

I won’t go at further length, but I will remind Members I just read a statement from page 32 and 33 of the House of Commons Procedures and Policy Manual and it does speak to the fact that they have to be accountable to Members and they have a responsibility to do that, and you cannot do that if you’re not here. Thank you.

Okay. To the point of order. To the second point of order. Mr. Miltenberger.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’ll try not to get these points of order confused here, but what we have is a questioning of the integrity of a Minister who has duties outside this House, who was on legitimate government business, representing us at an international event, that he was driving, and while I haven’t personally made that drive, I know it takes a considerable amount of time. I think the questioning of the integrity of the Minister that somehow he was out of this House for false pretenses is not really constructive. It is a point of order and Minister McLeod acted with the full knowledge of this House and the authority from Cabinet and the Premier. So it’s an unfortunate line of questioning that I think has already sort of coloured the early days of this session. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Miltenberger. To the point of order, Mr. Hawkins.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’m glad to be given an opportunity because I did forget to mention earlier that it is the normal practice of the Cabinet to inform all Members of the absence of a Minister. I have inquired through our process and channels to see if that was that ever given. We were never given notice that this particular Minister would be absent from the House, hence not being prepared to be able to ask and certainly get the answers to the question.

As for the other aspect of travelling on duty, I’m going to say that I have a different perspective on that, especially because when the Premier says, “I wish to inform Members of this House, R.C. McLeod will be absent from the House today to attend personal matters,” not work-related matters, not responsibility or duties of the House, but he said “personal matters.” So, hence my line of questioning about being responsible and able to ask questions in the House. Thank you.

Mr. Hawkins, I already drew judgment on that first point of order and Mr. McLeod did apologize to the House and he is travelling on duty as a Member in his position. To the second point of order, that’s what we were talking about on Mrs. Groenewegen. So I should have cut Mr. Miltenberger off at the time, but now on the second point of order, Mrs. Groenewegen, that’s what we’re speaking on.

For the first point of order, there is no point of order. He did apologize to the House. Mr. Bromley, to the second point of order.

Absolutely, Mr. Speaker, and thank you for that. I think there has been some confusion here and I believe the first point of order was taken care of. That’s my understanding.

I’m speaking to the point that Mrs. Groenewegen has raised. I do believe that all Members of the House have a role in bringing accountability and for every Member to show up to the best of their ability and so on. If that requires asking questions respectfully, there should be an opportunity to do that.

So I just wanted to make sure that there is agreement that accountability is part of our role, as long as we do it respectfully and so on. I would expect that the Ministers would be able to respond to questions on accountability very well. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Bromley. The Minister did respond very well. To the second point of order, Mrs. Groenewegen, would you like to speak to it?

Mr. Speaker, I just didn’t know that we could stand up in the House and start asking Members across the floor about where they were and what they were doing. I could understand perhaps if there was a concern that maybe the Premier might be asked a question, but I didn’t know we could stand up and ask questions that are out there that do not relate to the matters or the mandate of the department. I mean, this is a very personal question. This is a personal question about Minister McLeod’s whereabouts when the House was sitting. I may be wrong, Mr. Speaker, and if I am I apologize, but I normally have been of the understanding that we can stand up and ask questions about what these Members oversee in their mandate and in their role as Ministers of departments and we could talk about those things that were within their knowledge under that purview, but to ask personal questions about their whereabouts, I just don’t think this is the forum for it. I could be wrong, and if I am I apologize. Thank you.

Thank you, Mrs. Groenewegen. Under which rule in regard to the question came in under, but at the end of the day the line of questioning really quickly, it is a line of questioning that is privy for the Member. So on the second point of order, I will advise you, there’s, no, the ruling number, Mrs. Groenewegen, okay. So thank you, Mrs. Groenewegen. Mr. Hawkins.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. In the most polite, respectful manner, I’m not sure we have a point of order because we don’t even know what infraction it made. So I’m just going to leave it at that, I’m not going to go at length. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Hawkins. There’s no point of order. I just want to remind the Members it’s good to be back…

---Laughter

…and see that everybody is ready to do their work. So where were we? The Member for Deh Cho, Mr. Nadli.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My question is in regard to accountability and I want to know who is accountable for the tiny morel mushrooms.

---Laughter

So my question is to the Minister of Environment and Natural Resources. I just became aware recently, to be quite honest, in terms of the significance of mushrooms. I wasn’t very aware. I knew they existed and I have actually personally seen them in the bush when you walk through the bush and come across these small vegetative growths on the ground and sometimes you find them in trees. I didn’t understand their significance until recently.

Of course, in that exercise in finding out the significance of the mushrooms, there is a growing interest in terms of their monetary value, and recently there have been discussions on another form of mushrooms, which is chakra that grows on trees.

Because of the growing interest and need for some interim steps so that the department regulates and manages perhaps the onslaught of people that might come up to the NWT, my question to the Minister is: Can the Minister explain what his department has achieved in addressing the motion since it was passed in March 2014? Mahsi.

Thank you, Mr. Nadli. The Minister of ENR, Mr. Miltenberger.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As a government, we have been aware of this issue now for some time. It was brought up in this House, if I recollect, very clearly in the last government. There was a commitment made that once the Wildlife Act was passed that we would be moving on to the Forestry Act. It is outdated and right now does not give us legal authority to manage things like the morel mushrooms. We recognize that.

At the same time, we’ve worked with the communities, we’ve worked with ITI, ITI has been providing business support to the Member’s constituents and we as a department have been working with the communities to try to make sure that the pickers that come in from out of territory at least have a business licence and that they are complying with all the local laws of the land. At this point that type of coordinated effort is what we are doing as we look at coming forward with a legislative proposal to modernize and update and redo the Forestry Act. Thank you.

I’d like to thank the Minister for working with communities in terms of trying to get a handle in terms of the growing interest in these mushrooms that grow abundantly in the wild and especially this time of the year.

In developing the interim measures, can the Minister state to the House who was consulted in coming to the interim measure that have been put in place at this point? Mahsi.

As we’ve dealt with this issue, it has evolved over the years. The morel mushrooms tend to follow the season after the fire season. So as fires have come and gone across the Northwest Territories, the issue of morel mushrooms has come up in the South Slave, outside of Yellowknife, in the Member’s constituency, and we’ve been looking at ways to try to deal with and make sure we can manage within the incoming of significant numbers of pickers, given the amount of morel mushrooms. But it is a very transient, intense industry that’s tied to the brief lifespan of the morel mushrooms. We’ve been working with communities. The Member himself has been very active in writing to the department, to myself, to Minister Ramsay at ITI, so we’ve been working collectively over the years with the MLAs, with the various regions and centres, Fort Smith, Yellowknife, wherever the issues have come up. In this case now in Fort Providence, to see how we could best manage this as we try to improve the arsenal, we have tools available to deal with this issue in the most effective way possible.

Part of the measures that have been put in place is a price, and I want to ask the Minister what is the cost of a business licence for mushroom harvesters and how were those rates determined?