Fentie did not mislead legislature: Speaker
Last Updated: Friday, November 6, 2009 | 5:41 PM CT
CBC News
Yukon Premier Dennis Fentie did not deliberately mislead the legislature when he denied claims he was in negotiations to privatize Yukon Energy Corp. assets, Speaker Ted Staffen has ruled.
Without an admission by Fentie that he lied to the house, there is not enough evidence to prove he lied deliberately, Staffen told the legislature Thursday.
Staffen announced his decision a week after Liberal Leader Arthur Mitchell asked him to rule on whether Fentie should be held in contempt of the legislature.
Mitchell had accused Fentie of misleading the legislature earlier this year when he said there were no talks with Alberta-based ATCO about privatizing the public utility.
Staffen said Thursday that a member who accuses another member of misleading the legislature must support the charge with proof of intent.
"The leader of the official opposition supplied evidence that he believes supports that assertation.," Staffen said. "However, the evidence offered by the leader of the official Opposition did not, in the chair's view, establish a deliberate intention on the part of the Premier to mislead the house."
A discussion paper leaked to the news media earlier this year showed the government did talk with ATCO about possibly merging Yukon Energy with ATCO's Yukon Electrical Company Ltd.
Fentie later admitted he had mishandled communications about internal talks with ATCO but has maintained his position that he does not intend to privatize Yukon Energy.
The government's secret talks with ATCO prompted a former high-profile cabinet minister, Brad Cathers, to quit Fentie's Yukon Party government and sit as an independent.
Staffen said the rules of the Yukon legislature state that all politicians have to assume their fellow politicians are honourable, although this assumption can sometimes lead to tricky reasoning.
"There are times when the house has to accept two contradictory accounts of the same incident," Staffen said. "That, in the view of the chair, is the situation faced by the house in this instance."
As a result, Staffen said, Mitchell and others have to accept the claims of both Fentie, who said he did not enter into negotiations with ATCO over Yukon Energy's future, and the claims of those who insist he did.
"In the House of Commons of Canada, for instance, it is accepted that if a member denies having misled the House, the Speaker accepts the member's [assertion] and the case is closed," Staffen said.
Staffen said his ruling does not mean the subject is closed, however. Opposition politicians can continue to question Fentie and his caucus about their dealings with ATCO and Yukon Energy, as they have been doing since the fall session began Oct. 29.
