HON. CHRISTOPHER D'ENTREMONT: Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. I stand this morning on a point of order, and it is with regret that I rise on the point of order on a serious matter arising from yesterday's Question Period.

Yesterday, the House witnessed a minister provide various pieces of information about a client in the care of her department. Giving such personal information is not only a breach of the law but also is clearly unacceptable in this House.

SPEAKERS RULING: Comments by Com. Serv. Min., breach of Law and the custom of the House (Pt. of order by Hon. C. d'Entremont [Hansard p. 126, 03/28/13]) Not a valid point of order.

On Thursday, March 28th, the honourable member for Argyle rose on a point of order respecting remarks made by the honourable Minister of Community Services on the previous day in answering a question during Question Period.

MR. ALFIE MACLEOD: Mr. Speaker, my final supplementary will go to the Deputy Premier. It's surprising that no one seems to know who knew what, when, who didn't know or who should have known. Certainly Nova Scotians should have been told about this big mistake of $27 million.

What taxpayers want to know is, who knew and why did they allow a deliberate misinformation to take place?

HON. STEPHEN MCNEIL: Mr. Speaker, in accordance with Rule 29(2), I am raising a question of privilege in the House of Assembly at the earliest opportunity upon the first meeting of the House.

Additionally, I would like to highlight that I have served notice of this motion prior to the opening of this session in order to allow your full consideration of the matter. This is because of the severity of the matter - misleading the House, especially on matters as fundamental as the budget of the province, is one of the most serious breaches that one can imagine.

HON. KEITH COLWELL: Madam Speaker, it's unfortunate that (Interruption) how much time do I have left?

MADAM SPEAKER: You have 17 minutes.

MR. COLWELL: Does that count the extra time that it took to make the ruling?

MADAM SPEAKER: You have 17 minutes.

MR. COLWELL: Did that include the extra time?

MADAM SPEAKER: You have until 10:36 a.m.

MR. COLWELL: When did we start?

MADAM SPEAKER: At 9:36 a.m.

MR. COLWELL: I would ask to extend my hour to take up time for that.

MADAM SPEAKER: You have until 10:36 a.m.

MR. JIM BOUDREAU: Mr. Speaker, I hereby give notice that on a future day I shall move the adoption of the following resolution:

Whereas the Atlantic Premiers met yesterday at the Conference of Atlantic Premiers to discuss working together to strengthen the regional economy, create jobs and provide training opportunities for Atlantic Canadians; and

Whereas Premier Darrell Dexter chaired the meeting and was joined by . . .

MR. ALLAN MACMASTER: Mr. Speaker, the minister may be setting us up for, I guess, clearing this issue up if they have been over-inflating their FTE numbers by upwards of 700 a year in each of the last three years, and if magically that number is erased this year we'll know that they were fudging their numbers all the way along and if they balance the budget tomorrow this is one of the ways in which they've played with the budget to balance it. ...