Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Politicians generally recognize that there is a tendency for the public to go out to public meetings when they are concerned that something may not happen, they want to see happen, or they are concerned that something has happened that they are upset about. However, if they feel that the right thing is about to take place there is often not many people who turn out to a public meeting. During the last election I heard, overwhelmingly, loudly and clearly, from people in my constituency when I knocked on their doors, that they expected to see access to information legislation. I heard that at almost every single door I went to. I heard it constantly at the public meetings. I promised them that I would work for that kind of legislation and support it. I did not hear from as many people that they wanted an ombudsman, but I did hear it from a significant number of people whose door I went to.

The public has heard most of the people in this House, at some point in time, say that one of the first priorities of government has to be legislation to allow access to information. If our Premier had not said that kind of thing in her campaign speech to become our leader, I might not have supported her. People, generally, have an expectation that this government is going to proceed with this legislation as recommended by the committee after the legislative action paper. On that basis, it is not fair to say because no one showed up at the public meetings there was no interest. I think the public was feeling that finally we were on the right road and demonstrating that we were headed towards accomplishing something which had been expected by the public, and that is one of the reasons they were not there. I think it is very important that we have this kind of legislation. I will be supporting the committee motion when it is presented.