Steinbach city council has voted down a motion that would have seen the city purchase a laptop computer for each member of council who wanted one. Councillor Jake Hiebert put forward the proposal at Tuesday's council meeting, noting they would improve efficiency.

"If granted, council members would utilize a laptop to take notes at meetings, research legislation and policy and for the purposes of studying for council meetings. Laptops would be utilized during council meetings. Many or most council members in Manitoba utilize laptops at their council meetings in order to conduct their official city or municipal business."

Councillor Damian Penner supported Hiebert's plan.

"This is a part-time job and we are expected to fit in council duties while we are still operating in our full-time capacities outside of council duties. Myself, just as a fine example, while I'm at work, I may find that I have a half hour of spare time. I am currently lugging around approximately 400 pages of (city) correspondence to be able to review that at any given time. That's a large, cumbersome strain to be moving around. It would be a lot more efficient to have a laptop that I could pull up."

But the other five councillors were opposed and defeated the motion.

Deputy Mayor Michael Zwaagstra says he cannot justify spending city money on laptops for councillors.

"We're talking about city tax dollars here. So we're basically looking at a request to spend a certain amount of city tax dollars in order to buy everyone a laptop. I just don't see that as a priority. We need to remember that this is a part-time job. We are part-time members of council. It should be noted as well that the information that we get in our (council) packages is emailed to all members of council. We do have the opportunity, if we do want to use it electronically, we can do so."

Mayor Earl Funk says officials at the Association of Manitoba Municipalities have told him many councils that used laptops are starting to go away from them because they tend to be a distraction at meetings. He adds that he personally is using computers less and less.

"I'm finding that the older I get, the further I get into technology, I hardly ever use a computer anymore. I use my handheld device for almost everything."

Hiebert's motion was defeated by a vote of 5-2.