Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, this is an exciting day for me because I have been trying to promote the use of laptops in Committee of the Whole for a long time. I’ve looked around Canada and I’ve seen that most Legislatures, including the House of Commons, allow the use of laptops in their proceedings and allow them to do the work required at the same time as normal House business goes on.

Mr. Chairman, I think this is a bit scary for some Members and it certainly would be new for others, but the thing here is it would allow Members to do work at the same time. I see it as a working tool brought into the House during what I would perceive as the least disruptive manner. Thinking green, Mr. Chairman, this allows us to type our Member’s statements instead of writing them out by hand, then taking them upstairs and retyping them. It also allows us to look towards the future through an e-process which allows us to get motions e-mailed to us as well as other committee documents, so it would mean less printing of paper in a needless way.

Mr. Chairman, in a working matter, this would also allow us to respond to e-mails while we are sitting here in Committee of the Whole and other Members are questioning the Minister through that process. So this could save a lot of additional time. At this time if we proceeded in this manner, this wouldn’t cost the Assembly anything additional in any way because it would simply be a test to the

process and Members can bring their own personal laptops down to the House.

As I understand it, it’s already wired, which means it can facilitate laptops to be done in a seamless way…Sorry, brought into the process in a seamless way and, of course, if the test proved to be worthy of proceeding further in the future, then we could look at logistics, working with the Board of Management.

I am just going to close and allow Members to have some debate, but this really opens the door to a new way of thinking and a new way of doing business. In my view, this doesn’t detract in any way from how we do business. This just enhances it with the tools we have at our fingertips now which would simply be a laptop and, of course, the BlackBerries. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I will close debate at that time.