Paul Bickford
Northern News Services
Published Monday, June 9, 2008

SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE - The Supreme Court of the NWT has dismissed former MLA Bobby Villeneuve's bid to get money he claims he's owed by the legislative assembly.

The former member for Tu Nedhe was seeking judicial review of a board of management decision to withhold his transition allowance, paid to MLAs upon leaving office.

In a decision filed Friday, Justice Louise Charbonneau ruled the court does not have jurisdiction to review the decision. Charbonneau said the board's decision is protected by parliamentary privilege.

In essence, parliamentary privilege covers matters under the exclusive jurisdiction of a legislative body.

The issue was whether the board of management had the right to withhold Villeneuve's transition allowance - valued at just over $29,000.

It was withheld to offset part of the $76,874 in capital accommodation allowance the board claims was incorrectly paid to Villeneuve based on inaccurate information he provided as MLA.

"In my view, decisions that the board makes about MLAs allowances and benefits are truly internal to the legislature, and it is necessary that those decisions be privileged and free from review by the courts," Charbonneau wrote.

"While Mr. Villeneuve was no longer an MLA when they were made, the subject matters of those decisions were inextricably linked to the period during which he served as a MLA," she wrote.

Villeneuve's lawyer, Steven Cooper, said he was studying the justice's decision and had no comment.

Attempts to reach Villeneuve were unsuccessful.

Speaker of the Legislative Assembly Paul Delorey is pleased with the ruling.

"Needless to say, we were quite happy with the decision the court came up with," he said.

Delorey said the court agreed with the legislative assembly's view that it is free to govern its affairs as a separate branch of government outside of judicial review.

Asked what the legislative assembly intends to do to recover Villeneuve's remaining debt, Delorey said, "We haven't dealt with that yet."

In 2004, Villeneuve swore a statutory declaration he resided in Fort Resolution, making him eligible for a capital accommodation allowance for time spent in Yellowknife.

The board terminated his allowance in October of 2006 after information emerged that his place of residence had changed.

In February of last year, Villeneuve swore another statutory declaration he had resided in Yellowknife since Oct. 1, 2006.

The allowance was reinstated for the appropriate time period.

However, an audit last year of nine regular MLAs' statutory declarations resulted in more questions about Villeneuve's residency prior to October of 2006.

In November, the board of management demanded Villeneuve, an MLA from 2003 to 2007, repay the accommodation allowance to which he was not entitled.