Madam Speaker: I have a ruling for the House.

During Question Period on October 10, 1996, I took under advisement a point of order raised by the honourable member for Kildonan (Mr. Chomiak). His point of order was that the honourable Minister of Health (Mr. McCrae), in answering a question, was not specifically answering a question and was provoking debate.

I took the matter under advisement in order to review Hansard. The question posed was, will the minister release the list of people who are supposed to be on those boards and give a guarantee that in future the boards will be elected? In his reply the minister listed a number of organizations which had raised concerns about the proposed regional health boards.

I am ruling that the minister was not dealing with the matter raised, and I would encourage ministers to comply with Beauchesne Citation 417, when answering questions to be brief and to deal with the matter raised.

However, in respect to the other part of the point of order raised by the honourable member for Kildonan, I do not find that the minister was provoking debate.