HON. JAMIE BAILLIE: Mr. Speaker, I rise on a point of privilege in accordance with Rule 29(1) of the Rule Book.

MR. SPEAKER: Order, please. On the matter of the point of privilege, after consulting with the Clerk and considering comments from both sides of the House, it is my interpretation that the Premier earlier in the media scrum was merely stating his position and his government's position, but there were no comments made as to how he was instructing anybody to vote.

House Galleries: Public Access - Restriction (Pt. of Order by Hon. C. d'Entremont [Hansard, p.3506, Apr. 9/15]) Not a point of order.
House Galleries/Chamber - Press Exclusion (Pt. of Privilege by Hon. M. MacDonald (Hansard, p.3506, Apr.9/15]) Not a breach of privilege.

HON. CHRISTOPHER D'ENTREMONT: Mr. Speaker, can you indulge me on a point of order, please, or a couple of points of order?

Number one is the accessibility of our public gallery. This is the people's House and yet for a while, probably through three-quarters of the minister's speech, there were two people sitting in the west gallery. I was wondering if you could have a quick look at why people were restricted in joining us to listen to this important speech where they are finding whether they are being affected or not by the minister's budget.

The second point of privilege was raised on October 21st by the honourable member for Kings North who complained that the honourable Minister of Agriculture had misled the House on October 8th with respect to an interview he had given some time before that date. The particulars of which interview the minister might have given were not set out in the debate on October 8th, but the member for Kings North tabled a transcript of a September 30th interview when he raised his point of privilege on October 21st.

MR. SPEAKER: Order, please. Before we begin the daily routine I'm going to provide the Speaker's Rulings on the outstanding three points of privilege.

The first point was raised on October 16th by the honourable Minister of Finance and Treasury Board who complained that the honourable Interim Leader of the NDP had misled the House in quoting from a briefing note during Question Period on October 15th. The point was raised the next sitting day, so there are no issues of timeliness, the matter having been raised at the earliest opportunity.

HON. MAUREEN MACDONALD: Mr. Speaker, I rise on a point of privilege today, and in accordance with Rule 29(2) I have given you notice of my intention to rise on this question of privilege.

Tuesday, October 21st, during Oral Questions Put by Members to Ministers, the Premier stated, ". . . I want to remind this House that in 2006 it was the New Democratic Party that voted against a national child care plan that would have dealt with this issue not only for this province but indeed the entire country."

MR. JOHN LOHR: Mr. Speaker, I rise on a point of privilege today, and in accordance with Rule 29(2), I have given you notice of my intention to rise on this question of privilege earlier today.

HON. DIANA WHALEN: Mr. Speaker, I rise on a point of privilege today. In accordance with Rule 29(2), I had given you notice of my intention to rise on this question of privilege earlier today.