Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I appreciate the work of this committee and I know they’ve given lots of thought and debate and discussion to this controversial recommendation. I do not support this motion and I don’t take the use of it by other governments, all of which engage in party politics, as a model that we should necessarily follow or a reason for following this model.

Primarily I find the use of such devices to be disruptive and to reflect a lack of due diligence and due degree of attention in the proceedings of the Committee of the Whole in this House. Ultimately, of course, the most important tools we have to bring to the table are our minds, our awareness and our full attention and focus. The action proposed in this motion would detract from this focus either for those using it or those sitting adjacent.

There is one instrument that I have become aware of that I think would also address the expense of this approach and this would be an expensive approach and our communications, despite some of the challenges we face in this House are becoming more and more expensive as this government allows additional tools to be used. A tool to consider might be the e-readers, which are an electronic reader and can be embedded in the surface of our desk. They are very unobtrusive. We wouldn’t be typing on it but you could call up documents under consideration. It would allow increased focus and attention to the discussion.

I am a firm believer that we should be listening to others’ perspective on issues in their constituencies. After all, we are Members of the Legislative Assembly of the Northwest Territories. We have a responsibility to be addressing the concerns of all the people of the Northwest Territories and, of course, with particular focus on our constituents’ concerns.

So I do not support this motion for those reasons and thank you for this opportunity to comment, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Bromley. Next on my list is Minister Lee.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, I would like to speak in favour of this motion. The chair of the committee, Member Hawkins, mentioned that he’s been fighting for this since day one of his office. I can say that I wanted to have laptops be used in committees as well as in Committee of the Whole since I came into office in ’99. We’ve had numerous debates on this and I would like to thank the committee and chair for bringing this to this stage. I believe that this recommendation is about making the laptops available during Committee of the Whole, not during formal session, respecting the formality of the House here.

Also, I know that for many years the biggest argument or the largest critic of this proposal is we wouldn’t be paying attention to each other if the laptops were in use. I have to disagree with that notion. If we could have laptops down here, it would be great to have all the Members here all the time except when you have to take a break for biological reasons. I think we’ve all learned how to pay attention. We live in a computer age. Actually my dream for a facility like this is to be paperless sometime down the road.

I have to say it’s not just the Canadian Legislatures that are fully equipped with laptops and other technologies. I have had the occasion to visit other Parliaments in Asia and Europe. There are many, many Parliaments where votes are taken electronically and all the documents are transmitted and viewed electronically. If I just think about the papers we produce often, all the Members here get a piece of paper in the morning on the same document, same speech, same motion. There must be 10 or 15 copies of the same thing that gets circulated. You know, computers are here and they are here to stay. Of course, all technology requires us to be responsible. Having a laptop in front of us does not say that we leave etiquette; that we leave the respect we have for each other at the door. I think it is possible that we are adult enough and responsible enough that we will use this technology to help us do our work and not interfere with other people’s work or in any way decrease the respect and decorum that we expect to have in this House. I think this is an important first step.

When I was a Regular Member, I used to treat it as a policy where -- I can’t do that right now -- I had my CA scan every document into my computer because I didn’t want to have any paper. I put them on disc.

Technology is here to stay and I think we should maximize our technology. We can develop protocols as we go along so that we are not

interfering with each other. Our rules in the House are our rules and we are allowed to change those. I don’t think having access to laptops or a BlackBerry is any more disruptive than talking to each other loudly or reading newspapers or not paying attention. We could be looking at each other and not paying attention. We could have a laptop in front of us and pay attention to each other.

I think this is a step in the right direction and I support it. At least we are going to have an opportunity to have a pilot. I would ask all the Members, if this passes, to participate and try to make good use of it so we can have good recommendations coming out of it and move forward. Thank you.

Thank you, Minister Lee. Next on my list is Ms. Bisaro.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I, as a Member of the Rules committee, have debated this motion and the consideration of what motion to bring forward within the committee. I do support the motion. I have some reservations. I am willing to go forward with this at the moment especially because it is a trial and it’s going to be a trial period. I think we need to see whether or not it’s going to work.

I have my reservations because I am concerned that it will be a distraction for some Members to work on the computer instead of paying attention to the work before the Committee of the Whole, whatever that happens to be. But I also temper that by thinking about how many people are not in the House when we are in Committee of the Whole at any one time on a regular basis. So we play one off against the other. I am not sure which is worse.

I am concerned that somebody working on a laptop next to another Member could be a distraction. But, again, I think we need the trial period to figure out whether or not that’s going to be a problem.

Probably my main reason for supporting this is I am, like Ms. Lee, not wanting to contribute to the waste of our trees. It boggles my mind how much paper we use and how much paper we throw away and how much paper we unnecessarily print more than once.

So I see this as an opportunity for us to allow the Assembly, us as Members, to evolve towards e-documents, and e-documents hopefully on a constant basis. We wouldn’t be able to do that if we don’t have some sort of a communication device for us to be able to look up documents. But even the motions, these motions as they are presented to us, we don’t really need to see them on a piece of paper. We could be looking at them on a screen. Complicated documents, that’s a little different, but when it’s a simple motion…One of the examples

that just drives me crazy is the Premier will get up and announce the absence of a Minister and it’s a three-line statement but we have to have it on a piece of paper and we take that piece of paper and we turf it, hopefully recycle it.

So those sorts of things are a concern for me and I think for us to try it out, this particular suggestion, may prove that, yes, some things are okay and maybe there are drawbacks, but we’re never going to know if we don’t try it, so that’s why I am in support. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Ms. Bisaro. Next on my list is Mr. Beaulieu.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Just quickly. I will be supporting the motion. I think that if the laptops could make work easier for some of the Members in the House, doing Member’s statements on the laptop or whatever; it is to do some work in here as they wish to do. I have no problem with that. I am not sure that it would be disruptive. It may. I support it because it is for this session only. I think that if, like I said, it can make people’s work easier, than I am in favour of that. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Beaulieu. Next on my list is Mrs. Groenewegen.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I am going to support the motion, Mr. Chairman, for now. If I find anybody is not listening to me when I am talking and they are looking at their computer, then I will have to rethink my support. Thank you.

Thank you, Mrs. Groenewegen. To the motion. Minister Miltenberger.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. At the risk of disagreements with my Cabinet colleagues, I will as well support the motion. This is a trial period. I appreciate the concern of Mr. Bromley. I was once a traditionalist too.

---Laughter

I have accepted the reality of the IT generation that is upon us. So I will support this motion. Let’s see how it works. Thank you.

Thank you, Minister Miltenberger. Next on my list is Mr. Bob McLeod.

Thank you, Minister McLeod. To the motion. Minister Lafferty.

Mahsi, Mr. Chairman. Certainly there are some hesitations with respect to having technologies in this Assembly. At the same time, it is a trial basis. I am more concerned about the costs at a later time when it has been researched. I support it on a going-forward basis, on a temporary basis. Once the cost factor comes into play, I guess there will be debates on that. Mahsi.

Thank you, Minister Lafferty. Mr. Yakeleya.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I thought about this and am going to remain with my previous comments to this discussion that we had, that I am not going to be supporting this motion.

Thank you, Mr. Yakeleya. To the motion. Minister Michael McLeod.

Thank you. To demonstrate, I am willing to live with the will of this House. I was considering abstaining but…

---Laughter

Mr. Chairman, I think the time has come that we have to introduce new technology, whether it is BlackBerries or laptops. I think we should try it out and really monitor how well it works. If it is something that we need to introduce for the long term, then we will do that. We need to make sure that we police it well. Thank you.

Thank you, Minister McLeod. To the motion. As there are no other individuals on the list, we will go to Mr. Hawkins to conclude debate on the motion.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I look forward to the defining vote on this issue. I just want to thank the traditionalists who have changed their mind and are willing to give this a try. That is all I will say. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Thank you, Mr. Hawkins. To the motion.

Question has been called.

---Carried

To the next motion, Mr. Hawkins.