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SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE - The GNWT finance minister has been cleared of any wrong doing after allowing his brother to roam unattended through the legislative assembly.

Jane Groenewegen, MLA for Hay River South, accused Michael Miltenberger of a breach of privilege when Jean Marc Miltenberger - who is also the mayor of Hay River - was allowed into her office with an escort.

Hay River South Jane Groenewegen said Finance Minister Michael Miltenberger should keep better track of his brother in the legislative assembly - NNSL file photo

Although he called it a "very serious matter," Speaker Paul Delorey ruled Michael Miltenberger did not breach privilege, though Groenewegen accused Jean-Marc of leaking confidential information, contained in a document on her desk, to the media.

Groenewegen said Jean-Marc, who was visiting his brother at the time of the incident, saw a draft of the non-confidence motion before she raised it against cabinet on Feb. 6.

According to government policy, any visitor in the restricted-access area of the legislative assembly must be accompanied at all times by the person who signed them in.

Delorey said "there was no evidence that the visitor viewed the confidential documents or released the information thus obtained to the media."

However, the Speaker did say there was a breach of the legislative assembly security policies.

On Tuesday, after the decision, Groenewegen said the facts spoke for themselves.

She said she raised notice of the motion on Wednesday around 3 p.m. and found out the next day from a reporter at the Hay River Hub newspaper that Jean-Marc had spoken about the issue at approximately 1:30 p.m. Wednesday. The Hay River Hub confirmed this was true.

A note left on Groenewegen's desk from Jean-Marc was signed at 12:24 p.m., she said.

Jean-Marc confirmed he left the note.

In response to the accusation, Michael Miltenberger said the motion was already fairly well-known around the NWT and said Groenewegen was making some "fairly damning accusations against the mayor."

He said his brother was simply paying Groenewegen a "courtesy call."

Groenewegen said Michael's choice of words were interesting, "considering the venomous comments to the Hub about my 'blind political ambition'."

She also said it was ironic that Jean-Marc would pay her a courtesy call in Yellowknife.

"I live in Hay River," she said.

"I don't get any courtesy calls from the Mayor."

Jean Marc called Groenewegen's allegations false and offensive reiterating they were driven by "blind ambition" to reclaim her cabinet position. The Mayor added that the MLA's bid to bring down the government was a disservice to Hay River.

"His brother should keep better track of him," added Groenewegen of Jean-Marc.

Groenewegen said Jean-Marc frequently gets information from his brother, adding she has received calls in the past from the mayor about things she had yet to hear about.

Jean-Marc narrowly lost to Groenewegen in the October 2007 election, 423 to 384.

--with files from Paul Bickford