Madam Speaker: I have a ruling for the House.
On March 24, 1998, during Question Period, the opposition House leader raised a two-part point of order respecting an answer provided by the honourable Minister of Rural Development (Mr. Derkach) to a question posed by the honourable member for Swan River (Ms. Wowchuk). In the first part of the point of order, the honourable minister was called on to table a letter he referenced in the answer, and in the second part of the point of order, it was suggested that the latter part of the answer was inappropriate editorial comment.
In reading the Hansard record, it is clear that the Minister of Rural Development did not read from a letter; therefore, he is not obligated to table it. This is based on Beauchesne Citation 495(7) which indicates that when a letter, even though it may have been written originally as a private letter, becomes part of a record of a department, it becomes a public document and if quoted by a Minister in debate, must be tabled on request.
A Manitoba precedent in a Speaker's ruling given on September 18, 1989, reinforces our parliamentary practice that in order for a minister to be required to table a letter, he or she must have quoted from it. Therefore, there was no point of order respecting the tabling of the letter.
Concerning the "editorial comment" made by the minister, having read Hansard, I would concur with the opposition House leader and rule that there was a point of order. When answering questions, the minister should deal with the matter raised in the question and should not provoke debate.