2006 Legislative Session: Second Session, 38th Parliament
SELECT STANDING COMMITTEE ON PUBLIC ACCOUNTS
MINUTES AND HANSARD

MINUTES SELECT STANDING COMMITTEE ON PUBLIC ACCOUNTS Wednesday, March 1, 2006 1:30 p.m. Douglas Fir Committee Room Parliament Buildings, Victoria

Present: Rob Fleming, MLA (Convener); John Yap, MLA; Harry Bains, MLA; Iain Black, MLA; Ron Cantelon, MLA; Adrian Dix, MLA; Randy Hawes, MLA; Maurine Karagianis, MLA; Joan McIntyre, MLA; Mary Polak, MLA; Bruce Ralston, MLA; John Rustad, MLA; Diane Thorne, MLA

Unavoidably Absent: Ralph Sultan, MLA

Others Present: Josie Schofield, Committee Research Analyst

1. Resolved, that Mr. Rob Fleming, MLA, be elected Chair of the Committee.

2. Resolved, that Mr. John Yap, MLA, be elected Deputy Chair of the Committee.

3. Resolved, that the Chair and Deputy Chair form a Subcommittee on Agenda and Procedure.

4. The Committee was further advised that the Chair would present the Committee’s First Report to the House for the First Session of the Thirty-eighth Parliament entitled Annual Review of Auditor General Reports, dated February 2006.

5. The Committee met in camera to receive a report from the Subcommittee charged with recommending an executive search firm to assist the Committee in recommending to the House an Auditor General for the Province of British Columbia.

6. The Committee met in public session.

7. It was moved by Mr. Yap,

That the Select Standing Committee on Public Accounts appoint Ray & Berndtson to assist the Committee in recommending to the House an Auditor General for the Province of British Columbia.

A debate arising it was agreed to on the following recorded division:

8. The Committee adjourned at 1:55 p.m. to the call of the Chair.

The following electronic version is for informational purposes only.
The printed version remains the official version.

REPORT OF PROCEEDINGS
(Hansard)

SELECT STANDING COMMITTEE ON 
PUBLIC ACCOUNTS

WEDNESDAY, MARCH 1, 2006

ISSN 1499-4259

[ Page 167 ]

WEDNESDAY, MARCH 1, 2006           

           The committee met at 1:34 p.m.

Election of Chair and Deputy Chair

           C. James (Clerk Assistant and Clerk of Committees): If I could have your attention, please. This being the first meeting of the Select Standing Committee on Public Accounts, and there not being a chairperson for the committee, I call for nominations for the Chair.

           J. Yap: I nominate Rob Fleming.

           C. James (Clerk of Committees): Any further nominations? Further nominations? No further nominations.

           I presume you accept the nomination.

           R. Fleming (Convener): I do. Thank you to my nominator.

           C. James (Clerk of Committees): That being the case, I call the question.

           Motion approved.

           [R. Fleming in the chair.]

           R. Fleming (Chair): Thank you very much. I will call for nominations for the position of Deputy Chair.

           A Voice: I nominate John Yap.

[1335]

           R. Fleming (Chair): Moved and seconded. Are there other nominations? Seeing none, I declare John Yap elected as Deputy Chair.

           Interjections.

           R. Fleming (Chair): Sorry. The proper wording was: all those in favour?

           Motion approved.

Election of Subcommittee
on Agenda and Procedure

           R. Fleming (Chair): Election of subcommittee on agenda and procedure. This is typically the Chair and Deputy Chair meeting with the Clerks, comptrollers, Auditor General. A motion to that effect is moved.

           Motion approved.

Committee Report to the House

           R. Fleming (Chair): On item four, you've had a couple of drafts and the final draft, in your possession, of the report that will be tabled at approximately 3 p.m. today. That's just an informational item.

           C. James (Clerk of Committees): There are copies of this report on your desks in the House as well.

Committee Consultant

           R. Fleming (Chair): Item five. Since the scheduling of this meeting Monday afternoon, I've been approached by some committee members who want to ask questions about this item.

           It is my assessment that that may take longer than ten or 15 minutes and may involve moving in camera and those kinds of things, so I will suggest — and have talked to the Clerk about this — that in order not to shorten or stifle discussion of questions of interest that members may have, we have a meeting Monday morning at 9 a.m. — nine to ten. We can move in camera if we need to, and that way we'll allow committee members to get a full update from the subcommittee.

           J. Yap (Deputy Chair): We do have approximately 25 minutes before we have to be in the House, so I'd suggest, for the committee to consider, dealing with this now and going in camera so that we can have a frank discussion but limiting it to ten minutes. If we find that those questions cannot be adequately addressed within that time frame, I certainly endorse having a further meeting to deal with this question.

           R. Fleming (Chair): Okay, there's a motion to move in camera, then, to discuss this item.

           Motion approved.           

           The committee continued in camera from 1:38 p.m. to 1:51 p.m.

           R. Fleming (Chair): We're back in public session.

           R. Hawes: I'll move that we accept the recommendation of the subcommittee.

           J. Yap (Deputy Chair): I have a motion….

           R. Hawes: I'll withdraw that.

           J. Yap (Deputy Chair): I move that the Select Standing Committee on Public Accounts appoint Ray and Berndtson to assist the committee in recommending to the House an Auditor General.

           R. Fleming (Chair): Okay? There you have the motion.

           Discussion?

           J. Rustad: Actually, I just wanted one point of clarification. So it will be a single recommendation coming

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forward? Or is it a number of recommendations that will be coming forward to us?

           J. Yap (Deputy Chair): The terms of reference likely will include having the search firm bring to the committee a short list of candidates.

           J. Rustad: Okay. Sorry, the motion, you said, was to recommend a candidate, as opposed to a list of candidates for us. That's why….

           A Voice: No, no.

           A Voice: This is just the firm.

           R. Fleming (Chair): To assist the committee….

           J. Rustad: Oh, just the firm? Okay. Thanks for the clarification.

           R. Fleming (Chair): Discussion?

           J. Rustad: I'll second the motion.

           R. Hawes: Just for a point of clarification, just so I know. All the names of every single applicant that the search firm has would also be brought forward — correct? I mean, there's a short list, and then there's a long list. We would also have access to the long list, if we so wish. Is that correct?

           R. Fleming (Chair): Yes.

           R. Hawes: Thank you.

           I. Black: There's a difference between a long list and a full list of applicants.

           R. Fleming (Chair): I think the subcommittee will report to members its recommendations for keeping the committee fully aware of every stage of this process.

           R. Hawes: I'm just trying to say that if a complete list of every single applicant that they receive is brought forward, I think that may bring some comfort to a lot of the members of this committee.

           R. Fleming (Chair): Okay. Well, that will be included in the terms of reference.

           J. Yap (Deputy Chair): Let's call the question.

           R. Fleming (Chair): The question is called, then. A vote on the motion?

           Interjection.

           R. Fleming (Chair): A call for division, then.

           Motion approved on the following division:

           J. Yap (Deputy Chair): Chair, should we reappoint the subcommittee? The subcommittee arose from the previous committee.

           R. Fleming (Chair): I would recommend that we do that at our next meeting and discuss it there, because we may wish to change that now that we've gone through the RFP process and in light of other discussion we've had here today. Okay?

           Any other business?

           A Voice: A motion to adjourn.

           Motion approved.

           The committee adjourned at 1:55 p.m.

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