Mr. Valcourt, to raise his question of privilege. In stating his question of privilege, Hon. The Leader of the Opposition then claimed that it is a breach of privilege for the public to be privy to certain budgetary information while it is denied to Members of the House. The Leader of the Opposition contended that Members of the Legislative Assembly must be given the same opportunity as the media. In support of his submission, Hon.
Parliamentary privilege is the sum of the peculiar rights enjoyed by . . .
Members of each House individually, without which they could not discharge their functions and which exceed those possessed by other bodies or individuals . Privilege is what sets Hon. Members apart from other citizens giving them rights which the public does not possess. In speaking to the question of privilege, the Government House Leader cited a 1969 precedent of Speaker Lamoureux in the House of Commons which dealt with a complaint that opposition party representatives were being denied the opportunity to receive confidential briefings on the budget prior to its presentation in the House by the Minister of Finance. He noted that the decision before the House in that ruling was whether the decision by the Minister of Finance to deny party representatives access to advance budget briefings constituted a breach of parliamentary privilege.