HON. KAREN CASEY: Thank you, Mr. Speaker and I rise today on a Point of Privilege. During Question Period, in some preliminary comments that were made by the Minister of Education about me, I found to be personal, found them to be uncalled for and I found them to have no bearing on the question that was asked or the response that should have been given. So, Mr. Speaker, I would ask you, as Speaker, to review those comments in the context in which they were given and to rule on the appropriateness of those comments. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

MR. MICHEL SAMSON: My question to the minister is, how are you improving access to justice for Nova Scotians of low income when you cut $553,000 from the Nova Scotia Legal Aid budget?

MR. SPEAKER: I would remind the honourable member for Inverness that there is no request from the House on this petition, so the petition is out of order and cannot be tabled. I would ask you to provide that proper information on the petition and we'll allow it to be tabled. Thank you.

MR. SPEAKER: Before I recognize the honourable member, I would like to bring the attention to the honourable member for Bedford-Birch Cove on an issue of tabling e-mails that were unsigned by the author. On October 16, 2003, Speaker Murray Scott, with respect to a letter, observed that information that would reveal the author had been removed. He ruled that any document that is not tabled in its entirety is incomplete, and, therefore, out of order. Unsigned or unattributed documents should not be put before the House.

Before I start the daily routine, on Wednesday, May 4th, immediately following Question Period, the member for Colchester North rose on a point of privilege. Her complaint was that during Question Period a preliminary comment that was made by the Minister of Education in answering a question was about the honourable member and that she found the comment to be personal, uncalled for, and of no bearing on the question that was asked.

MR. SPEAKER: Order, please. The time allotted for the Oral Question Period has expired.

Before I recognize the honourable Government House Leader, I would like to make a ruling on a petition that was tabled earlier by the honourable member for Yarmouth. It is not in order. What was tabled was not a petition addressed to this House; it was a bundle of postcards addressed to various Liberal MLAs. It does not request the House of Assembly to do anything, so it is out of order and will be returned to the member. (Interruptions)

MADAM SPEAKER: Order, please. I would ask that the honourable member retract the word "sleazy". It is deemed unparliamentary and we can proceed.

MR. MCNEIL: Madam Speaker, let me be clear that I was referring to the process of being sleazy, no individual, but I will remove, strike that word from the record and apologize for that.

MR. ANDREW YOUNGER: Mr. Speaker, on a point of order. The member for Cole Harbour-Eastern Passage had a resolution a few moments ago, and we had this discussion where I don't think anybody heard any Noes over here so I think that . . .

MR. SPEAKER: I most certainly did, sitting in the Chair. You're going to question the authority of the Chair are you?

MR. YOUNGER: No, I don't mean to, I just meant that perhaps . . .

MR. SPEAKER: Well, I did.

MR. YOUNGER: Well, okay I'm sorry for questioning your authority . . .

HON. MANNING MACDONALD: Mr. Speaker, I rise on a point of order. During Question Period today in response to a question from the Leader of the Official Opposition regarding the first contract arbitration, the Premier made reference to the member for Cape Breton South who was given an award by the International Association of Firefighters for that very issue, for promoting that very issue and promoting a bill to that effect in the House. He's right about one thing, I got a recommendation and a commendation, I guess, from the International Association of Firefighters. (Applause)

SPEAKER'S RULING: Veracity of comments by Premier (Pt. of order by Hon. Manning MacDonald [Hansard p. 3150, 10/03/11]) Disagreement of facts between members.