Technology in the legislature: a roundtable.

• Author: Buckingham, Ed
• Position: Discussion

This is an abridged version of the discussion at the 47th CPA Regional Conference held in Toronto in July 2009.

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Ed Buckingham (Newfoundland and Labrador): I came into the House of Assembly with some background in technology but like all new members I quickly found myself suffering from information overload. There were annual reports, strategic plans, business plans, activity plans. Where were these all coming from? It turns out that we have relatively new legislation called the Transparency and Accountability Act, the goal of which is "to enhance the transparency and accountability of the government and government entities to the people of the province."

In practice this means we get reports from some 160 bodies including departments, health authorities, school boards, the hydro board, the liquor control board at the higher level, down to all sorts of smaller boards like the one responsible for geographical names. Altogether some 9,000 copies of reports are produced and this mass of paper was starting to accumulate on my shelves. So being a bit of an environmentalist, and, having been a teacher, learning to conserve every resource that you possibly could, I decided to do something about it.

On May 28, 2008, I introduced a private member's resolution asking that the government explore ways to reduce the amount of paper that comes into the Legislature. I wanted to reduce this amount to the bare minimum. Another motivation was that, as a government, we talk about recycling, we talk about energy plans, and we have the legislative authority to act but do we have the moral authority? If we bring in something like this, we can say, "Look: This is what we are doing and here is the example," so we can claim some moral authority.

One of the things we did was make some changes to the way that tabled documents come into the House. Now the new policy requires that any submissions provide 10 paper copies, one for the Clerk to sign off on, maybe one or two for the Legislative Library, one for each of the House leaders. Also, the requirement is that documents be submitted in PDF or some other acceptable electronic format.

What are some of the advantages of this? The first is increased public access. Some jurisdictions provide a list of what has been tabled but no access to the content. By going down this road, we now have, through the Internet, the ability to have the public come in, see what it is we are dealing with every day, and they do not have to come in to the Confederation Building, make a request, wait, have it copied and then bring it home. This has certainly improved public access.

This has led to significant reductions in the amount of paper being used, the amount of postage, the amount of photocopying and printing. Not enough to change the world but we are setting a new standard. From a user's point of view I have found that when I am doing research the ability to cut and paste is very beneficial. Rather than having to photocopy something from one of these reports and have it retyped, I can just cut and paste. It makes my time more efficient.

Now let me say a word about the use of laptops in the House. My constituents think that when the House is in session, the MHAs must be around. This is when the phone calls start to ramp up. What they do not realize is that is that during a session I have the least amount of time to deal with their concerns. We have briefing meetings, caucus meetings and then the Legislature in the afternoon. By the time I get out of the House, officials I want to talk to have already gone home for the day. Could we not reduce the down time while the House is in session by being able to work on our laptops? Last session, the Speaker checked with the House leaders about introducing laptops in the House and got their approval. To my surprise, only three MHAs actually took up the offer. But I suspect as we get a bit more familiar with them people might start to use them a bit more.

Of course, there are protocol issues involved. You cannot read your speeches from your laptop. You...