Does committee agree we have concluded general comments?

With that, I will allow the speaker to respond to general comments before we get into detail.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I certainly do appreciate the kind comments that Members have made and the comments on different issues that we are preparing to take on.

With the paper issue, I know it’s been mentioned that it seems like a pretty high target of 80 percent. We are certainly not in a position where we want to try to eliminate all paper in the building or short change the amount of paper that Members need to do their jobs. However, we have already taken some steps and there are some areas where we can increase that number or get closer to that percentage target that we want by doing some very simple things here. There are areas where we use a tremendous amount of paper and we think we can eliminate a lot of that without affecting how Members do their jobs and their ability to do their job. So we will be working forward. Any of the initiatives that I have announced in the budget, of course, will only be attainable with the cooperation of all Members, and I sense that there is a willingness of all Members to head down these avenues that we are looking at and I really appreciate that.

I know it was mentioned that we are having the fall seminar for the CPA conference this year. I think that that is one of the paybacks. Sometimes we hear questions about what we get out of these parliamentary seminars and that kind of thing. I think they are very informative and important for us to attend. When we get an opportunity to host one of those meetings and bring outside politicians to the North and see how we operate and how our system of government operates, I think that is a very valuable vote for us and for the rest of the country, for that matter.

So, again, we are looking forward to being able to implement a lot of the things that I mentioned. Certainly I know that some of the Members here won’t be as easy to drop the pop as other Members. I don’t think it’s going to be a situation where we are going to have somebody at the door stopping people from bringing pop in the building,

but more or less that we aren’t going to be the ones supplying it for them.

I think with the cooperation of Members, I think we can go a long way towards achieving this goal. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We can move to page 1-6, 1-7, from there we’ll defer that. Moving on to page 1-8, information item. Page 1-9, revenue summary, infrastructure investment summary, information item. Page 1-9, revenue summary, information item. Agreed?

Page 1-10, active position summary, information item.

Page 1-12. Office of the Clerk.

Page 1-13, activity summary, Office of the Clerk, operations expenditure summary, $7.640 million.

We are moving on to page 1-14, information item, Office of the Clerk, activity positions.

We are moving on to page 1-16, Office of the Speaker.

Page 1-17, activity summary, Office of the Speaker, operations expenditure summary, $353,000.

We are moving on to page 1-18, information item, Office of the Speaker, activity positions.

We are moving on to page 1-20, expenditures on behalf of Members.

Page 1-21, activity summary, expenditures on behalf of Members, operations expenditure summary, $5.998 million.