MANITOBA MLAs were at work late Thursday night after Finance Minister Rosann Wowchuk failed to rise from her seat -- when called -- to vote on her own budget implementation bill.

Some Opposition MLAs later said that she had been fiddling with her BlackBerry at the time -- a charge she flatly denied.

Wowchuk's misstep led to an evening of procedural wrangling in which the Opposition Conservatives sought to have the record show her as opposed to -- or at the very least abstaining from voting on -- the bill.

Acting Speaker Marilyn Brick, filling in for a convalescing George Hickes, recessed the House for some time to consider her ruling. Hickes is recovering from lung cancer surgery.

Shortly before 10 p.m., Brick ruled Wowchuk's vote "would not be counted at all."

An hour later, Bill 31 and all other government bills -- as had been agreed to by the government and opposition earlier this week -- were passed and received royal assent. MLAs will resume sitting Nov. 16.

History will show that Wowchuk did not vote for her own budget implementation bill.

Opposition Leader Hugh McFadyen said at the very least the incident shows that Wowchuk was "asleep at the switch" in the House.

"It's a pattern of what we've seen since Greg Selinger became premier, which is a bunch of people who don't take their job seriously, who are inattentive, who are arrogant and think the rules don't apply to them," he said.

According to House rules, any member seated when a vote is taken is required to vote.

Government House Leader Bill Blaikie said Wowchuk had stood up to vote, thought that her vote had been recorded, but then sat down before a page called her name.

"In any other circumstance that I have been a part of, the member would have been able to get up and seek leave or unanimous consent to have her vote recorded," said Blaikie, who served 29 years in Parliament before winning the Elmwood seat for the NDP in a by-election last spring.

"There would have been an embarrassment, a bit of a chuckle" but she would have been able to have her vote recorded, he said.

Wowchuk later explained that she was getting ready to make other House motions when the vote was called. "I stood up and sat down too quickly," she explained.

Meanwhile, she said she is "quite happy" that she has now passed her first budget.