Thank you to the Member of Yellowknife Centre. I want to remind -- the motion was mentioned -- Members, please stay focused on the motion at hand.

Moving on to the motion. The Member from Frame Lake.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I certainly don't have as nearly as passionate opinion on this one as my previous colleagues but I would just say that, you know, as a Member of the committee, committee had a discussion about this, made the recommendation that we did and, you know, I was in favour of it there, and so I'll support it here and would just note that I think my experience of referrals of matters -- sorry, of Members' statements to Committee of the Whole so far is that a bunch of them have been referred. We've yet to actually debate one. It does seem like something that is not a big issue right now. And, certainly, as a Member of the committee, I would be happy to see a referral of this back if need be because the rule is being abused in some way or it's not providing the opportunity for the fulsome debate that my colleagues are speaking about. Certainly, this is something that can easily be referred back to the committee. It's definitely not the busiest committee in the Assembly, and we have the time to review such things. So I'd be happy to review it again. But I would just say, you know, committee made the recommendation. I'm in favour of following the committee's recommendation. I don't think that this one is going to cause as much trouble as some of the Ministers feel it might. And, you know, if there's any indication to me that that's starting to become the case, I'll happily be a part of reviewing it again and taking a second look at it.

But as the Member pointed out, the Member for Range Lake, I mean the rule exists already that Ministers' statements can be referred to Committee of the Whole so this is just putting some parameters around that and the debate itself that might ensue could potentially be more useful to the Assembly. I think it stands to be seen whether or not it's going to be used very much at all. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Member of Frame Lake. To the motion. Recognizing Inuvik Boot Lake.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Yeah, I was a Member of this committee as well. I will be supporting the motion. Again, I'm not going to reiterate what all my colleagues have already said. I'm shocked that we're spending this much time on it given the, you know, the other fish that we have to fry in this building. Again, the opportunity to do it has already been there as my colleagues have said. I support the motion, and I'm hoping that we can move forward and have a vote. And, again, as Member from Frame Lake said if it gets deferred back, we'll take it back to committee (audio).

Thank you to the Member Inuvik Boot Lake. To the motion. Recognizing the Member Hay River North.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I just want to make clear that Cabinet doesn't have a position on this. All the Cabinet Ministers may vote the same way but there is no Cabinet position; this is a -- these are motions about how this House functions, and Members are allowed to vote as they please. We all have different experiences, and it's all very procedural.

My issue with this motion is that, you know, I've -- like one of the previous speakers, I've been a Regular Member, I've been a chair of Committee of the Whole, I've been a Minister, and so I have some perspective on things. And my concern about resourcing, it's not so much external resources; it's our resources here, it's our time. We often spend late nights in this House and often we're up against the wall rushing through very important things that we actually should be discussing, that could only be discussed here in this House. Things like the budget. Things like bills when we're at second and third reading. And what this is proposing here -- and you know, we don't know what's going to happen. Maybe it's never used. But we are talking about potentially adding more into Committee of the Whole when Committee of the Whole is time that can only be used for certain things. We have a number of standing committees. I think I see five chairs in front of me right now of five different standing committees. And so there's plenty of opportunities to have these discussions in public. Ministers are happy to get in front of standing committee. You know, there's always options to get in front of standing committee. Always happy to have the public briefings on different topics. And there's no concern about us having to -- Cabinet having to answer questions in the House related to statements. That's what we do in the House. That's pretty much the whole job of being a Minister in the House, is answering questions, whether it's about bills and budgets or during question period. So I actually agree with the Member for Range Lake. Let's get rid of the rule. We're trying to do something with it. Well, we can get rid of it. I think that's probably more utility than tacking this additional rule on here and basically taking something that can be done in standing committee and transporting it -- transplanting it back into this House. So I think that's about all the notes I have here. And I will agree with the -- I'll just leave it at that. Thank you very much, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Member of Hay River North. To the motion.

Question's been called. I'm going to back up here, committee, and allow Member from Yellowknife South. Yes, please, go ahead.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, I appreciate the work of committee. I was relatively agnostic towards most of the recommendations and quite happy to just accept them and to -- yes, again, I'm not on the committee. It's a lot of work to go through these things. I'm glad they've done it, and I appreciate the recommendations. This one, obviously, has come up now, and there's been a lot of discussion. I have had a lot of opportunity over the last five years to sit in the witness chair during committees of the whole between different departments, particularly the finance. It is actually a great opportunity for me to talk all about government because I get asked quite a range of conversations and quite a range of topics. I don't necessarily mind that, Mr. Chair, and so with respect to the idea that the rule as it exists would be one-sided. Mr. Chair, I'd probably find it pretty hard to sit on my hands if I had a room of Members making comments about a statement I had made, so I -- you know, I'm happy to try to see if the rule could work as it is, but outside of that I have to say I am swayed that this is not about deputy ministers' times. This is literally their job to come and do this stuff, and it's sometimes their job to come to this House and be in this House. I'm not worried about that. I am sometimes, though, worried that we do wind up -- and I've seen it happen repeatedly that right at the end of session -- we are rushing through things because it's taken so long to get through the items that are in COW. Not that the things that we're talking about aren't important but just that there's other places that we could have those conversations, not the least of which is question period, but also all the committee work that can happen throughout the entire year. And wouldn't it be a wonderful thing if the public had opportunities throughout the year through those processes to have a bit of meat on what is happening in this Assembly and in the government. And so I think I am swayed by that and will be voting accordingly. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you to the Member. To the question -- to the motion.

Question's been called. All in favour? All opposed? Any abstentions? The motion is carried. 7 in favour, 6 opposed.

---Carried

Member of Great Slave.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I move that this committee recommends that the following rule be added to chapter 9: 9.1(16) when Committee of the Whole is considering a Minister's statement, the Minister may have witnesses appear to supply information as required. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Member of Great Slave. The motion is in order. To the motion. Before I move on, Member for Hay River -- I keep getting them confused -- north, please go ahead.

You can be forgiven, Mr. Speaker. We've only worked together five years, come on.

Or Mr. Chair, I apologize. I'm just joking, of course. That's what happens. I get a little cheeky, and I get my comeuppance.

I just have a question, actually, and I know that it's not question period, we can't refer to questions here. But "as acquired" are the last two words here, and I was wondering what that means, "supply information as required." Is it referring to the Minister -- that witnesses may be there as required or that information may be supplied as required? I'd just like some clarity on this. Thanks.

Okay, thank you. I will take that comment and provide an answer to -- similar to the other processes we have with the Committee of the Whole where Ministers can bring in witnesses and witnesses are able to appear and supply information as required.

Okay, I shall go back to the motion. Okay, Member of Hay River North.

Thank you, Mr. Chair, for using your discretion, giving me another chance. I guess I was just -- it just, it seems redundant, and so I was wondering if there was something that I was missing. But maybe the chair wants to address that in closing comments on this item. Thank you.

Thank you, Member of Hay River North. Member of Great Slave, to the motion.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Yeah, I certainly am happy to try and clarify, but I believe, Mr. Chair, what you said is accurate. It's simply to say that if witnesses appear, they can supply information at the witnesses' table. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you to the Member of Great Slave. To the motion.

Question's been called. All in favour? Any opposed? Any abstentions? Motion has been carried.

---Carried