SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE - Premier Floyd Roland failed to reveal the fact he was having an intimate relationship with a then-clerk Patricia Russell when Speaker Paul Delorey questioned him about lengthy and frequent visits to her office.

Delorey took the stand Thursday on the third day of testimony at an inquiry in Yellowknife to determine if Premier Floyd Roland had used his relationship with assembly clerk Patricia Russell to get information deemed confidential by committee rules.

Delorey revealed that sometime in the first two weeks of October 2008, he met privately with Roland to inquire about his frequent and "extended" visits to Russell's first floor office. Delorey said he felt there were only three reasons Roland would have been there so much - one being the two were having a "relationship." He said Roland didn't admit he was intimately involved with Russell at that meeting.

"I was very concerned at the time that we may be on the verge of losing Ms. Russell as one of our table officers due to the fact the premier ... may have been trying to recruit her to the executive branch," he said, adding he wanted a heads-up if that was happening.

Delorey said Roland "assured me I had nothing to worry about and Ms. Russell was very happy working as a table officer."

During a trip to Vancouver sometime in mid-November, Roland called Delorey briefly to tell him he was, in fact, having an affair with Russell and wanted to give Delorey the courtesy of hearing it from him first.

Roland publicly admitted to the affair Feb. 6 in the legislative assembly and later apologized "for the effect this has had on the work of this assembly," insisting no information passed between the clerk and himself.

His confession sparked a heated ethical debate and led to accusations that Russell shared confidential information from committee meetings with Roland.

Russell was working as committee clerk at the time, and regularly attended daily planning meetings with regular MLAs during legislative assembly sessions where strategy and ministerial performance were frequently discussed.

Thursday's proceedings focused on whether or not Roland was in a conflict of interest by not revealing his relationship for some months.

"You go back in your mind over a period of time and where myself and other members were calling into question the governments performance and we didn't hold anything back (during committee meetings)," said MLA Dave Ramsay during his testimony on Thursday.

"I just felt (the relationship between Roland and Russell) was an opportunity for what members said in confidence to actually get outside of that room and into the hands of the actual person we were talking about."

Suspicions came to light on Dec. 5 when Abernethy met with Roland privately to discuss the relationship with Russell. According to Abernethy, it was during this meeting Roland repeated "word for word" a statement made in a priorities and planning meeting.

The comment related to a question posed to Ramsay by Hay River South MLA Jane Groenewegen as to whether or not he would take over as health minister if current Health Minister Sandy Lee were to be removed.

Abernethy said Roland denied the information came from Russell, saying instead that it came from another regular MLA.

Abernethy said his concern is not Roland's affair, but the premier may have breached the oath he took when he entered office and lied by omission. "(Roland) said he knows everything that goes on in those meetings," said Abernethy.

Roland and his lawyer, Kathy Peterson, argued an unnamed regular MLA is the source of leaks and not Russell as argued by the six MLAs who filed the conflict of interest complaint against him earlier this year.

The premier's lawyer raised that possibility with Yellowknife MLAs Ramsay and Glen Abernethy during testimony Thursday, both acknowledging they knew one regular MLA was passing information from their confidential meetings to the premier.

News/North asked Friday morning why the name of the MLA was not revealed, Peterson said it wasn't relevant to making the case for Roland.

"I don't care who it is," she said. "The only thing I cared about was if there was a leakage from committee through means of members in that committee.

"The credible evidence is already there from every witness that says information was leaked from committee by one or some elected members. That's all I need."

Abernethy and Ramsay both admitted they had no evidence leaked information was coming from Russell. They said she became a suspect after her extramarital relationship with Roland was revealed last November.

Peterson argued frequently that any information revealed from those meetings could have come from the rogue MLA and not Russell.

"I find it hard to believe (Roland and Russell) didn't talk about anything that went on in those meetings," countered Abernethy.

Peterson questioned the motive and timing of the complaint filed by the six regular MLAs against Roland, suggesting the complainants were after seats on cabinet, specifically Ramsay and Abernethy. The complaint was filed shortly after a vote failed to remove Roland and his entire cabinet last February. Ramsay said if the government had been defeated, he planned not to seek a seat on cabinet.

During last week's proceedings Roland avoided an in-depth examination of his affair with Russell by admitting to keeping it secret from MLAs.

In a written submission to sole adjudicator Ted Hughes, Peterson said the premier won't dispute that accusation, part of the findings made earlier this year by NWT conflict of interest commissioner Gerald Gerrand. Gerrand's judgment that Roland may have been in a conflict of interest led to the present inquiry.

"Regardless of the commencement date of the intimate relationship between Premier Roland and (Patricia) Russell, it is clear it extended in secrecy for a period of some months," said Glen Tait, legal counsel to Hughes, reading from the submission.

The inquiry will reconvene Oct. 6.