Halifax, NS - History was made in the House of Assembly on April 4, that had nothing to do with legislation. 

At 1:12 p.m., MLA Alan Mitchell sent the first E-mail message from the floor of the House of Assembly to his constituency office in Cole Harbour. 

Using his laptop computer and a wireless LAN connection, Mr. Mitchell was able to use the government E-mail system to send the message and receive a reply. 

Last year, Mr. Mitchell was the first MLA to establish a remote connection from his constituency office to the Government Caucus office. That connection has since been expanded and Mr. Mitchell's constituency staff now has access to the government E-mail system which supports over 5200 users and acts as a gateway to the Internet. 

Mr. Mitchell said, "This technology is another step to enhance communications with my constituents and increase my effectiveness as their representative in the House of Assembly. I am pleased to take part in this historic first and I look forward to expanding my use of new technologies with a home page on the Internet."