Thank you. I would like to thank Mr. Campbell for joining us this evening. If I can get the Sergeant-at-Arms to please escort the witnesses out of the Chamber. Thank you to the Minister.

Committee, noting the clock, I will now rise and report progress.

I will call the House back to order. Before I call the report of the Committee of the Whole, I have been informed that you would like to do some more work to consider matters before the Committee of the Whole. By authority given to me as Speaker, by Motion 1-17(4), I hereby place you back in Committee of the Whole to consider business before the House until such time as you are ready to report, with Mr. Dolynny in the chair.

I would like to call Committee of the Whole back to order. Does committee want to continue with the Legislative Assembly?

Thank you, committee. Mr. Speaker, Jackie Jacobson, do you have any witnesses that you would like to bring into the House, please?

Yes I do, Mr. Chair.

Thank you. Does everyone agree?

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. If you would like to introduce your witnesses, Mr. Speaker, in the Chamber, please.

Mr. Chair, to my left I have Mr. Ouellette. To my right I have the Clerk of the House, Ms. Colette Langlois.

Thank you. Mr. Ouellette, Ms. Langlois, welcome to the House. Mr. Speaker, do you have any opening comments?

Yes I do, Mr. Chair. I am pleased to present the 2014-2015 Capital Estimates for the Legislative Assembly. I want to thank the Board of Management of the Assembly for assisting me to develop the budget.

The Legislative Assembly is seeking funding this year of $329,000 for two projects. The first is a replacement of our telephone system, which is about 15 years old and starting to have more issues as time goes on. We can keep it going for a short term, but it does need to be replaced as soon as possible.

The second project is some signage on our roadway. Every year we have a lot of tourists that want to see our building and it is terrible finding it because we have no signage and it’s not clear on the side of the highway; there are not enough signs. The same goes on for the museum and the visitors

centre and we will be working with them to oversee the project.

I would like to thank you for the opportunity to provide my opening comments. I welcome any Members’ questions. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you. Mr. Speaker. We are going to go to general comments. Mr. Hawkins.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I do have a question about the phone system. Many Members have stumbled across a problem lately where it’s interrupting, and you can swear – whether lines are crossed or whatever – you will dial the phone, you will have somebody else on the line, you will have a conversation, somebody calls in on the line like a third party. You would think it was like the old party line back in the old days. Most of Cabinet knows what a party line is, they’re pretty old, but we young people over here wouldn’t know what a party line is. That said, you did highlight in your opening comments about the phone system. Perhaps you can give us some detail as to when it will be replaced, because it is turning into quite a significant issue. I would say beyond significant. It is a huge security issue and could create other types of liabilities that we’re not aware of. I wouldn’t mind some insight from the Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Hawkins. For that answer we’ll go to the Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. We have been having some issues with the phone lines being crossed through individuals, Members talking with constituents and somebody picking up the phone and somebody able to listen to conversations. We have been really having issues with that. We’ve put a notice out to the Members that we’re going to change the phone lines as soon as possible. As for a timeline, maybe I will get Mr. Ouellette to answer that.

Thank you, Mr. Jacobson. Mr. Ouellette.

Thank you, Mr. Ouellette. Mr. Hawkins.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I appreciate both the answer from the Speaker and certainly Mr. Ouellette. One thing I would like to say, though, is for them to consider innovative technologies, whereas down south, if you call an office, when you leave a message it actually e-mails people the message. There may be an opportunity to look at innovation this time.

As we can see, this building is just at its 20-year cycle, so the phone system hasn’t been touched in 20 years other than, obviously, maintenance. That said, chances are the next phone system will be around for hopefully at least 20 years or more. I would encourage them to take advantage of those types of technologies that exist out there on various platforms. It’s our one chance to be innovative, because I’ll tell you, we won’t be coming back to this. Who knows when somebody will be coming back to this? This is more of a comment, Mr. Chair. I thought I would just put that on the record. Thank you.

Thank you. Mr. Hawkins. I will treat that as a comment. Committee, we are on general comments. Is committee prepared to go into detail?

Thank you, committee. We are going to defer 1-2 here. We will return to that in a second. Page 1-4 in your capital estimates, Legislative Assembly, activity summary, Office of the Clerk, infrastructure investment summary, infrastructure investments, $329,000. Does committee agree?