The testy tone of the legislative session was evident again Thursday, and this time it involved an area MLA.
Cut Knife-Turtleford MLA Larry Doke ripped the NDP for “just making stuff up” in his remarks in the legislature immediately prior to Question Period.
His remarks were about concerns raised by MLA Buckley Belanger during an estimates committee meeting that week. Here is Doke’s speech in full, from the published account in Hansard from April 30.
Mr. Doke: — Mr. Deputy Speaker, almost every day the government has to correct misinformation brought forward by the NDP. A couple of days ago in Highways estimates, the member for Athabasca raised a number of concerns that he said came right from Saskatchewan Heavy Construction Association. Yesterday that same member received a letter from the association regarding his performance in estimates. The letter reads, and I quote:
“I am writing to express concern with your misrepresentation of our association’s working relationship with the Ministry of Highways and Infrastructure.
At no time has the Saskatchewan Heavy Construction Association or any member been contacted by the NDP opposition or any of your staff to provide an opinion on the current working relationship between the organization and our respective partners. Nor have we asked to comment on any particular aspect of the pavement quality index as noted by you during the 26th session of April.
The views and opinions highlighted during the meeting were not obtained through consultation with anyone within the Saskatchewan Heavy Construction Association and do not properly represent the views of our board.“
So once again, Mr. Deputy Speaker, the NDP is just making stuff up, and this time they tried to pass off their nonsense as coming directly from the Saskatchewan Heavy Construction Association.
Will the member opposite do the right thing today, correct his misrepresentations of their position and apologize? If he wants to take a moment before QP to do that, we would certainly give him leave. Will he do that today? We’re about to find out.
There was no apology from Belanger or from anyone else in the NDP caucus, and Question Period proceeded immediately. When it ended, aPoint of Order was raised by NDP MLA Warren McCall concerning Doke’s remarks.
Mr. McCall: — In his member’s statement right before question period, the member for Cut Knife-Turtleford used language which has been repeatedly found to be unparliamentary, using the same language that both the Premier and the Deputy Premier have had to apologize for in the last several weeks. And it’s the same language that the Minister of Social Services apologized for on March 25th, 2013.
I would ask you to make a ruling on the unparliamentary language used by the member for Cut Knife-Turtleford in his member’s statement. Thank you, Mr. Deputy Speaker.
In his response, Government house leader Ken Cheveldayoff disputed the NDP assertion that the rules had been broken.
Mr. Cheveldayoff: — Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. I was listening very closely to what the member had to say during members’ statements. Certainly I know that he used a series of quotes, and what he did say was in a letter that was certainly directly sent to the member opposite, the member from Athabasca, so I think the quotes were factual. The information that was brought forward was certainly in context and well within the rules of this Assembly, so I would suggest that the point of order is not well taken.
Deputy speaker Glen Hart said he would review the record and come back with a ruling Monday.
