Finance and Government Services - Issue No. 20 - Wednesday, November 14, 2001

2001 Legislative Session: 2nd Session, 37th Parliament
SELECT STANDING COMMITTEE ON FINANCE AND GOVERNMENT SERVICES
MINUTES AND HANSARD

Present: Blair Lekstrom, MLA (Chair); Tony Bhullar, MLA (Deputy Chair); Ralph Sultan, MLA, Harry Bloy; MLA, Kevin Krueger, MLA; Barry Penner, MLA; Lorne Mayencourt, MLA; Ida Chong, MLA; Brian Kerr, MLA.

Unavoidably Absent: Jeff Bray, MLA; Joy MacPhail, MLA.

1. The Committee considered its report to the House on the matter of Pre-Budget Consultation in the Province.

2. Resolved, that the Committee consider its report in-camera.

3. Resolved, that the Committee deliberate in public forum.

4. Resolved, that the report be adopted as amended.

5. Resolved, that the Chair deposit a copy of the report with the Clerk of the House pursuant to the Committee’s Terms of Reference.

6. Members were advised of the next phase regarding Statutory Officers, a schedule of meetings to begin within two weeks and conclude before Christmas.

7. The Committee adjourned to the call of the Chair at 3:14 p.m.

REPORT OF PROCEEDINGS
(Hansard)

SELECT STANDING COMMITTEE ON
FINANCE AND GOVERNMENT SERVICES

Chair:	* Blair Lekstrom (Peace River South L)
Deputy Chair:	* Tony Bhullar (Surrey-Newton L)
Members:	* Harry Bloy (Burquitlam L) Jeff Bray (Victoria–Beacon Hill L) * Ida Chong (Oak Bay–Gordon Head L) * Brian Kerr (Malahat–Juan de Fuca L) * Kevin Krueger (Kamloops–North Thompson L) * Lorne Mayencourt (Vancouver-Burrard L) * Barry Penner (Chilliwack-Kent L) * Ralph Sultan (West Vancouver–Capilano L) Joy MacPhail (Vancouver-Hastings NDP) * denotes member present

B. Lekstrom (Chair): Good afternoon. I would like to call the meeting of the Select Standing Committee on Finance and Government Services to order and welcome everybody to the meeting this afternoon. It is our intention, hopefully, to have a discussion surrounding the draft document that is before the members with regard to what we have to deposit with the Clerk by tomorrow. It is my hope that, having gone through this and through our discussion, our deliberations will be finalized this afternoon, if that's possible, and we will carry forward and deposit our report.

I think it would be appropriate, though, with the discussions that will take place this afternoon, that we move in camera to discuss the report and the recommendations prior to the filing. It is a confidential document until filed, which certainly follows standard parliamentary practice in our discussions on this. With that, prior to entering the discussions on the draft report as circulated to each member, I would entertain that motion at this time.

We will now go in camera for the remainder of this session and rise with a report at the end of that. We will leave the tapes running for our consideration at the end, but it will not be a public Hansard document.

B. Lekstrom (Chair): We are now back to our session. There are a couple of things that I would like to touch on. We will have to move that this report be adopted as amended. I would look, and I'll just go through a number of things we will have to do to formalize this. Also, I would need a motion that the Chair deposit a copy of the report with the Clerk of the House, pursuant to the committee's terms of reference, and there's a second one. Then I will go into some issues surrounding our statutory officers meeting that we have to have with the seven statutory officers of the Legislature.

B. Lekstrom (Chair): Discussion on the motion now before the members. I see none. I'll call the question.

B. Lekstrom (Chair): I would now look for a motion for the Chair to deposit a copy of the report with the Clerk, pursuant to the committee's terms of reference.

B. Lekstrom (Chair): Discussion on that motion. Seeing none, I'll call the question.

B. Lekstrom (Chair): Okay, that concludes the formal portion of what we need to accomplish under that.

Another part of our mandate as a committee is to meet with the seven statutory officers of the Legislature. I know they are going through budget issues right now, and it's quite incumbent that we try and act as quickly as we can to meet with these members. I will work towards setting meeting dates, hopefully, within the next two-to-three-week time frame. I would like to, and there has been a request that we try and conclude this by December 12, at which time their budgets are certainly on the floor for discussion, I know, with Treasury Board and so on. I will work in the coming days to get you the information as to when these people can meet with us. As well, I will try and accommodate everybody's schedule. We do have lists of the committee meetings, and I will work towards that. If anybody has any concerns with that or is going to be away, please contact me. We will try and accommodate as many as we can under this.

I. Chong: Can I just ask whether you would be able to accommodate all the seven statutory officers in one day — whether we would schedule that for a full working day to ensure that we can because of all the conflicting schedules?

B. Lekstrom (Chair): Yes, definitely. If we can accommodate them all in one day, I would do that. I think that may be a long day. We do have a lot of information they have to put forward to us. Giving them only an hour apiece, I'm not sure…. I will do my due diligence on that. It would be my hope that we do it as quickly as we can. If it's possible to do it in one full, long day, I think that would probably fit everybody's schedule best versus spreading it out.

H. Bloy: This is the letter that was sent to you from Gary Collins. Is it to review the service plan, the service reports and the budgets all at once?

H. Bloy: It would take them an hour, if not longer just to lay it out in front of us, I would believe.

H. Bloy: But two days or maybe even going into an evening…. For us, the sooner the better.

Before adjournment of this meeting, we do have to do a news release. I guess we don't have to, but the formality of the Select Standing Committee on Finance and Government Services concluded and met the requirements as given by the Legislative Assembly. I do have copies.

B. Lekstrom (Chair): Certainly, if you would. We will just take a moment for you to read it.

J. Schofield: I do stress that this is a draft. I just thought, as the committee was meeting this afternoon, it would be good to get some direction on possible changes.

H. Bloy: Even in the title…. I don't know if I'd like to be cautious in a 2002 budget, just when we release this report.

B. Lekstrom (Chair): I may do some work on this, if that's acceptable to the members of the committee, and come up with the news release. I think we could sit here for an hour fine-tuning a news release. With the indulgence of the committee, I would formalize one and make sure everybody gets a copy prior to release. I think we could do that within the hour or within a short time frame or entrust your Chair with putting out a proper press release.

R. Sultan: If I could offer a suggestion, Chair. In the fifth paragraph you are in effect commenting on the three options, saying: "Some people have patted the government on the back. Others say, 'Please slow down,' and another group says: 'Don't change your plans, but be more cautious.'" To be more consistent with the theme titles of the actual report, of course, some might suggest that the second comment you make, if it were to sort of replicate the opinions expressed in the report, would be: "You're going too far too fast." I just offer that as a comment.

B. Lekstrom (Chair): I was looking at that, and we can fine-tune that, Ralph. I think that's good.

Josie, just a question. I'll work with you on this to finalize it. I'm hearing that I'm gaining some acceptance from members of the committee, and we will do that. When would members have in their hands a copy of the final draft report with the amendments that we've just put in? When we deposit this, it then becomes a public document.

J. Schofield: As I understand the process — and remember, procedure isn't really my forte — once the report is deposited at the office of the Clerk of the House, it becomes public. At that point, it would be posted on our website and distributed immediately not just to committee members but to all the MLAs, which was a point Barry raised at our meeting at the end of October.

In terms of a print copy of the report, there is obviously going to have to be a bit of a time lag. I think our office was anticipating that the report with an accurate witness list and that kind of thing would be ready to be deposited with the Clerk mid-afternoon tomorrow, barring any unforeseen circumstances. That is our target date. Then it will be printed. Of course, the witnesses will receive copies too. Electronically, the MLAs will receive a copy more or less within the hour of it being deposited with the Clerk. You'll have to wait a while for the actual print version.

B. Lekstrom (Chair): Okay. They can download or whatever. My suggestion would be that if the print copy will be ready tomorrow for members of this committee….

B. Lekstrom (Chair): Yes. I do not want members of this committee to not have the document in their hands in print prior to it being deposited with the Clerk.

H. Bloy: We won't be able to get it unless it's electronic. I won't be here tomorrow.

B. Lekstrom (Chair): Okay, yeah. We'll deal with how you get it after. I think it's important that we, as members of this committee, have a copy of the report in our hands upon the filing of that with the Clerk. I don't want members of the committee having to go to the Internet or to the e-mail to get it. I want them to have a hard copy. Now, if they are somewhere where they can't get that, the individual members will have to look after that. I think it's vitally important.

J. Schofield: Are you, then, asking our office to arrange that we contact every member to find out how to get the hard copy to them?

B. Lekstrom (Chair): Before. What I don't want is that once it's deposited, if somebody walks in off the

street — it is a public document — they could be holding a copy prior to members of this committee holding it.

H. Bloy: When you do the press release, you do the press release at the time of filing, so you'll send it through the system. You won't be sending the document, but the press may call the Clerk's office and say: "May I have a copy of that?" Or will they get it e-mailed to them?

B. Lekstrom (Chair): I will leave that up to the Clerk's office, however they want to look after that process.

J. Schofield: If I could make a suggestion, Mr. Chair. I think perhaps we should talk this procedure through with Craig and Mary, because as I say, I'm not all that familiar with it.

B. Lekstrom (Chair): All right. I've had some preliminary discussions. I think what I'm reflecting here is how we'll deal with that. Okay.

Craig, just a question. We're just ready to adjourn. The amended report has been adopted. It will be filed with yourself. The process that I want is to make sure every member of this committee has a hard copy in hand as it's filed. Is that acceptable?

B. Lekstrom (Chair): Once it's filed, everybody has the document. All right. We'll do that.

Just in closing, I would like to thank all of the committee members. I think we had what was quite clearly a very hectic schedule in the time frames in order to do the job that was given to us by the Legislative Assembly. The committee members, I think, are to be commended for the work that they put in, the long hours that they put in and their dedication. This isn't something that was going to be accomplished without study and a lot of reading and a lot of time. I want to pay particular thanks to Josie, who I think put in a huge amount of work to allow us to get to the point we're at today. Josie, thank you very much.

As well, I want to extend my thanks on behalf of the committee to all of the members of research and Hansard and the Clerk's office for what I think was a tremendous job, right from the travel arrangements to the drafting to the recording. All of the information we needed was there when we asked for it. Again, I think it was probably one of the most well-organized committees I've had the privilege to sit on and certainly a privilege to chair. Once again, on behalf of our committee I want to extend that thanks to all of the people that helped make this what I think is a huge success. Thank you very much.



CONTENTS

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Draft Report		667

REPORT OF PROCEEDINGS (Hansard)

SELECT STANDING COMMITTEE ON FINANCE AND GOVERNMENT SERVICES

REPORT OF PROCEEDINGS
(Hansard)

SELECT STANDING COMMITTEE ON
FINANCE AND GOVERNMENT SERVICES