Statement
May 8, 1986
Ministerial responsibility, conflict-of-interest guidelines
Hon. John Bosley
Speaker of the House
Ruling Text
Questions to a Minister must involve ministerial responsibility in some way. It follows that questions of a purely personal nature are out of order. The borderline between what is personal and what is ministerial is not always evident. While the benefit of the doubt can be given to Members of the Opposition, the Speaker must be fair to all Members.
Questions regarding conflicts of interest have sometimes been answered by the Deputy Prime Minister instead of the Minister to whom they were directed. The Chair will allow a question to be put to a certain Minister, but it cannot insist that one Minister rather than another should answer it..
References Debates, May 7, 1986, pp. 13036-48.
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Holding
"Questions must be about ministerial responsibility, not personal matters, and the government, not the Chair, determines which minister will answer a question."
AI Summary
A ruling clarifying that Oral Questions must pertain to ministerial responsibility and the government decides which minister answers.
AI Analysis
- Outcome
- Other
- Tone
- Educational
- Procedural Stage
- Oral Questions
- Significance
Low
High