November 27, 2001 HOUSE OF ASSEMBLY

PROCEEDINGS Vol. XLIV No. 38

The House met at 1:30 p.m.

MR. SPEAKER (Snow): Order, please!

I want to inform hon. members that we are still experiencing difficulties

with the audio system. In order to correct it permanently, to have it fixed, it

will require some time. When the system is turned on, all the microphones come

on. There can be some manual control, but there is no guarantee that will work

at this point in time. I leave it up to the members as to how they want to

proceed from here, but it will take some time to have it corrected. I believe it

will take probably two to three days to have the system corrected, as I

understand, in talking to the people who are maintaining and looking after the

system.

The hon. the Government House Leader.

MR. LUSH: Mr. Speaker, we have talked about this and we have concluded

that, since the system is not working effectively or adequately, we should

adjourn the House until the problem can be corrected, so that we can be certain

that the House will be televised and that the audio and the video will be proper

for the viewing audience and for transcribing.

MR. SPEAKER: The hon. the Opposition House Leader.

MR. E. BYRNE: Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Obviously, I have spoken with the Government House Leader. It is clear the

decision that has to be made has been made for us, in our view. There is no

guarantee, even if we proceed, that we will not be interrupted every fifteen or

twenty minutes, that the proceedings would be interrupted from here on in. I

think the decision that was made was a wise one, one with which we concur, that

we give the appropriate amount of time to the technicians to correct the problem

so the proceedings can proceed in an unobstructed way, if I can put it that way.

We will leave it at the call of the Chair, and hopefully at the call of the

technical people involved to correct this problem as soon as possible.

I guess from a point of view of the legislative agenda, those are details for

the Government House Leader representing his caucus, certainly, and myself

representing our caucus, in terms of what we will do to make up the time. Fair

enough. We want to be on the record as well, Mr. Speaker, as saying that

anything that is reasonable, so that we can make up the time, we will certainly

concur with doing that so that the proceedings and the legislative agenda can

proceed as if this last couple of days were not lost.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

MR. SPEAKER: The hon. the Government House Leader.

MR. LUSH: Mr. Speaker, in that event, I move that the House adjourn to

the call of the Chair.

On motion, the House at its rising adjourned to the call of the Chair.