Yes, we have had this issue of purchasing of video equipment come up several times, Mr. Chairman. There are a few issues here which -- although it's not a huge capital item -- always seems to cause controversy.

At one time, it was Renewable Resources which wanted to have its own propaganda, and the argument was that there was somebody in the department that knew how to operate these things, so at least the government has moved away from every department wanting to have their own to centralizing things in one department that could act as a service to the other departments of government.

The question still remains that very often these things are toys, and you wonder how many days a year they are actually used. Every individual who makes a capital purchase in his or her own private life, I suppose, has learned from that experience that you want to have something and then when you have it, you use it so many days a year and then it just sits somewhere, not being used.

So my own preference would be that we look at where the advantages are of owning as compared to leasing. Maybe you are better off to lease, and we may learn from that experience that the government then doesn't have to have stuff which is used briefly and then ends up in the government warehouse because it's surplus and not being used any more, especially when new models are coming on the market all the time.

This is the big problem. You own something. It becomes obsolete, and you say, oh, there's a better model. And the big complaint I have heard from the private sector is that they can't afford to keep up with all the trends to buy the latest equipment, because almost every year or two there's a new model that comes out that's bigger, better, more versatile and so on. That's the big beef I hear from the very few people who are involved in this business locally. They would be far better off if the private sector could buy something for which they knew there would be a use in several different phases of government operations and wouldn't have to fight every year because they see the government buying all the latest stuff to keep up to speed.

So I am very much in support of what the committee wants to do, which is to see if we can't find a better way of deciding what we want to own and what we want to lease or rent and so on. So I will be supporting the motion.