Mr. Chairman, this recommendation basically instructs our people drafting up the new rule book. If recommendation eight is approved, we are going to redraft a new rule book which will have to be dealt with in this Assembly, line by line. What this recommendation does is instructs our staff to redraft a rule book into the simplest language, so that Members can understand it. With regard to
the section on petitions, we notice that the current practice of the House is that petitions can only come through the Members elected and there are no provisions for the general public to lay a petition in the Assembly. So, what we were trying to do is to say that if the general public wishes to table a petition without going through an MLA, then that provision should be available to them. The MLAs have an option to either file it with the Clerk or to present it from their seat in the House. I realize that the government has to respond to it within a certain time, but this does not mean that the petitions which are being laid by the Speaker would have to be responded to. We could instruct the drafters of the new rule book to draft a rule so that provisions would not apply to respond to petitions from the public. It could be addressed in that manner. I do not see a problem with that.