Madam Speaker: I have two rulings for the House.
During Question Period on June 2, I took under advisement, in order to review Hansard, a point of order.
It concerned an answer given by the honourable Minister of Family Services (Mrs. Mitchelson) to a question asked by the honourable member for Swan River (Mrs. Wowchuk). The point of order raised by the House leader for the official opposition (Mr. Ashton) was that the minister was not responding to the matter raised. Having reviewed the Hansard transcript, I am ruling that there was not a point of order. The answer of the Minister of Family Services was relevant to the matter raised in the question.
During Question Period on June 4, 1998, I took under advisement, in order to review Hansard, a point of order raised by the government House leader (Mr. McCrae).
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The point of order concerned a question posed by the honourable member for Elmwood (Mr. Maloway) which the government House leader asserted was out of order based on past rulings of Manitoba Speakers.
The honourable member for Elmwood asked of the Minister of Government Services (Mr. Pitura): "Can he confirm that several companies, including at least one Manitoba company, quoted lower prices than IBM for the actual hardware provided? Can he confirm that?"
The government House leader was correct that there were instances in the past where such a question was ruled out of order. However, in Manitoba, the practice has evolved where questions seeking confirmation have been routinely asked and allowed since the early 1990s. This is in step with Beauchesne which, in the most recent edition, has dropped the provision of prohibiting questions seeking confirmation. As Citation 410.(2) of the current edition of Beauchesne reads "While some previous guidelines"--for Question Period-- "remain valid others have fallen into disuse."
The government House leader, therefore, did not have a point of order.