And ahead of what will no doubt be an explosive House Meeting, the Speaker received a letter from the Leader of the Opposition, essentially asking that she remove Patrick Faber and Tracy Panton from parliament since he deems them as having "constructively resigned" from his party.
As we told you yesterday, that request was denied. Woods explained that the threshold for their removal was not met since the elected officials had not put in their resignation to the party. However, it's not the first time we've heard about "constructive resignation" so we asked her if this term actually exists. Here's what she told us.
Valerie Woods, Speaker of the House
"The request that was made was to invoke, if you will, section 59 three, 59 a3 of the Constitution, which is to have the speaker make a declaration that a member or members have so vacated and are no longer members of the House. That requires a certain threshold to be met. The threshold was not met as per the Constitution."
"So I responded and I laid it out based on the sections that the Leader of Opposition cited, why the threshold was not met, and therefore no such declaration will be made at the House. I have received no resignation that has been tendered to any of the party leaders regarding any of their members having resigned. A careful look at the Constitution, particularly at the sections cited, will demonstrate that the threshold has not been met, The criteria has not been met, and therefore I cannot."
"The Speaker is not in a position to make any such declaration."
Reporter:
"This idea of constructively resigned based on your knowledge of the Constitution. Does this actually exist? Is this a legitimate term?"
Valerie Woods, Speaker of the House
"The terminology used constructively resign does not appear anywhere in the Constitution, but more importantly, what appears in the Constitution under the sections cited that would be the 59. What appears there is a very clear indication of how one a member makes an announcement or pronouncement or a notification of his or her resignation. And that has not occurred."
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