The committee met at 2:33 p.m.

[Mr. Speaker in the chair.]

Approval of Agenda and Minutes

Mr. Speaker: Thanks, everyone, for being at this meeting on April 7, 2020.

Our first matter is the approval of the agenda. Do I have a motion for that?

J. Tegart: So moved.

Mr. Speaker: Thank you, Jackie. Seconded by Janet.

Motion approved.

Mr. Speaker: The next item is a review and approval of the draft minutes of the February 13, February 26 and March 31 meetings of LAMC.

Any changes to the minutes? No.

Could I have a motion to approve the minutes of February 13?

S. Furstenau: So moved.

Mr. Speaker: Sonia, seconded by Mike.

Motion approved.

Mr. Speaker: Could I have a motion to approve the minutes for February 26?

M. Polak: So moved.

Mr. Speaker: Mary moved, seconded by Sonia.

Can I have a motion to move the minutes of March 31?

[2:35 p.m.]

J. Tegart: So moved.

Mr. Speaker: Jackie, seconded by Mike.

Motions approved.

Mr. Speaker: Now, Kate, the floor is over to you for an update.

Clerk’s Update

K. Ryan-Lloyd (Clerk of the Legislative Assembly): Good afternoon, everyone. I hope you can hear me all right. I have a brief update on a number of operational matters and then also some comments on the next agenda item, under administrative obligations.

To begin, of course, members will know that we have been managing the very quickly evolving situation with COVID-19, which has resulted in us making a number of operational changes at the Legislative Assembly workplace in a very short period of time. As members know, we had a special sitting of the Legislative Assembly on March 23.

I particularly wanted to thank my colleagues in the Office of the Clerk, the Parliamentary Committees Office, Hansard Services and the Office of the Sergeant-at-Arms, who were able to support our preparations for that sitting day.

I will also note that we have an opportunity later in this meeting, in the in-camera portion of the meeting, to discuss some other matters with respect to our managing of remote work agreements for all staff. At this point, I would just note that we have quickly operationalized to have the vast majority of staff working remotely, off site, and we are quickly testing and adapting to new technologies, such as the system that we’re using this afternoon.

I’m very happy to report that parliamentary committees have been able to adapt and use these new technologies to carry out their ongoing work.

On that point, I’m very appreciative to the staff in the information technology department and Hansard Services and the Parliamentary Committees Office as well as human resources, who have all stepped up and put in incred­ible effort to help us adapt to changing circumstances in a very short period of time.

Finally, I’d also like on that, in the theme of COVID-19, to particularly thank Surjit Dhanota and the team at legislative facilities services for taking care of the special pink lighting that we’ve used to illuminate the front and back fountains of the building and the ceremonial entrance, as well as a special heart that hangs from the front of the Parliament Buildings as a small expression of gratitude and thanks to all of the health care workers and others who are serving on the front line of this crisis.

I’ll have more to say later in the meeting, but the final operational update on this, in this portion of the meeting…. I’ll just advise you that we received some good news with respect to our request for a crosswalk. We heard from the city of Victoria on our proposal to add a crosswalk across Menzies and Quebec streets to essentially connect the area near the Hotel Grand Pacific, including the small portion of the precinct which is Confederation Park, to the main legislative property.

I’m very happy to report that the city of Victoria has reviewed the matter further, and we were recently advised that they will be painting a crosswalk and adding crosswalk signs at the intersection this summer. The city also happily advised us that the cost for this initiative will be covered through their current capital program.

M. Polak: Yay.

K. Ryan-Lloyd (Clerk of the Legislative Assembly): Yes, that was good news. We hadn’t anticipated such a positive reception from them. So I was really happy to receive that information.

I’m happy to answer any questions with respect to those matters. Or if you like, Mr. Chair, we can continue with some comments that I’ve prepared with respect to item 4 on the agenda, with respect to the performance audit action plan.

J. Tegart: I would just like to put a motion on the floor that we send a letter of thanks to staff, who have been stellar during this time.

I move: “That on behalf of the Committee, the Chair relay the Committee’s appreciation to Legislative Assembly staff for their ongoing dedication, commitment, and support of the operations of the Legislative Assembly during the COVID-19 pandemic.”

Mr. Speaker: Okay. Could we have somebody…?

J. Routledge: I’ll second it.

Mr. Speaker: Janet seconds it.

Motion approved.

J. Tegart: Could I just say…. I mean, there are so many different departments that have done so many different things. I’m sure that between Kate and the Speaker, appropriate letters to the departments would go out from LAMC.

[2:40 p.m.]

I just want to acknowledge the work being done by people in the precinct making it possible for us to move from a very person-to-person operation to a remote operation that is working well.

Mr. Speaker: Absolutely.

Kate, can you go on to tell us about our administrative obligations?

Legislative Assembly
Administrative Matters

K. Ryan-Lloyd (Clerk of the Legislative Assembly): Yes, thank you for the opportunity, Mr. Chair.

Next on the agenda for this afternoon I have an opportunity to provide you with an update on, first, the 2019 performance audit action plan.

Members will remember that in September 2019, we received, from the Office of the Auditor General, an audit examining expense policies at the Legislative Assembly. Then on behalf of the administration, we had tabled, with your committee, a very detailed action plan of all of the steps that we would undertake to address the recommendations within the audit report. Most of those actions and commitments that were made had an end date of March 31. Consequently, I wanted to take this opportunity to report to you and provide you with this update.

First, we were, happily, quite well on track to complete all of the audit action commitments, particularly as they related to policy training. As we committed in the action plan, training for assembly administrative staff has now been completed in a number of areas, including our general expenditure policy; as well as a gifts and honoraria policy; a corporate purchasing card policy, which is partially complete but well underway; and also a standards of conduct policy.

On that, with respect to the policy training sessions that have been held for staff, I wanted to express appreciation to Artour Sogomonian and Scott Clare in the Office of the Clerk for helping to coordinate those sessions, as well as Nina Levi and Claudia Danyluk in financial services, who actually delivered those training opportunities for staff.

We have two final policy training sessions for assembly staff that we were not able to complete because, of course, they were scheduled as in-person training sessions. When the COVID-19 situation unfolded, we had to adapt fairly quickly our plans around those final training sessions. They would be focused on completion of the purchasing card training as well as a uniform policy and employee travel. We anticipate that we’ll be able to complete these training sessions virtually, in the coming weeks, so we will hold onto the goal of having them all completed by the end of this calendar month.

Later, at a subsequent meeting of your committee…. I look forward to providing a more detailed report on our action plan commitments by the time your committee next meets.

The second bullet on your agenda relates to our commitment to bring forward to you a policy development workplan. The intent of that document is to outline to you all of the areas of policy development and prioritization that we have established with specific targets to hold ourselves accountable to your committee.

Of course, again because of the COVID-19 pandemic adding particular pressures into some of the key policy areas that we are working with, particularly human resources and the IT department, we were unable to complete that policy development workplan and have it ready to go for presentation to your committee at this point in time. In essence, we will be working towards delivering that to you as quickly as we can in the current circumstances.

We have also, I think, learned a lot about how we operationalize those departments in light of COVID-19. We’re also reflecting on some lessons learned with respect to managing remote work agreements, teleworking and even our data security standards. We will be looking towards taking a fresh look at the policy development plan and presenting a workplan to your subcommittee on administration and operations by, I hope, the end of next month.

That completes the update on those two audit-related, follow-up items. I’d be happy to answer any questions that you might have.

Mr. Speaker: Any questions? No.

Thanks, Kate.

[2:45 p.m.]

Consideration of
Quarterly Financial Statements

Mr. Speaker: Now let’s move on to finances and, in particular, the Legislative Assembly 2017-18 and ’18-19 financial statements, which we reviewed and made recommendations about in our finance and audit committee meeting.

I’ll turn it over to Kate, Hilary and, perhaps, Russ.

Do one of you want to start addressing this item?

K. Ryan-Lloyd (Clerk of the Legislative Assembly): I will invite Hilary and Russ to also comment. I see on the screen that Artour is sharing a copy of the briefing note and recommendation that will enable us to have the committee consider its approval of the 2017-18 and 2018-19 financial statements.

As members know, the work of the Office of the Auditor General and our own financial services team has stretched out over a significant period of time. We’re very appreciative of the contributions of the audit office to help us through the remaining work on the financial statements. It has taken a great deal of time.

As members will recall, in the fall of 2018, we had put on hold our own submission of completion of these financial statements, as did the auditors, with respect to their audit work. We were advised by the former Auditor General, in late 2019, that she was prepared, had sufficient confidence she’d be able to complete this work.

Hilary and her team, with Michael, have been finalizing all of the remaining elements. We’re very happy to finally bring these two sets of financial statements forward to you today for your approval.

Mr. Speaker: Are we ready to have a vote on that, a motion?

K. Ryan-Lloyd (Clerk of the Legislative Assembly): Hilary, did you want to speak any further on the financial statements?

H. Woodward: The one thing I wanted to mention to the committee is that there was a very detailed walk-through of both sets of the financial statements; I believe it was on January 31 of the subcommittee. So there was an opportunity to walk through that material and respond to any questions.

Some of the new pieces that are in the package and are a part of the accountability report are the management, discussion and analysis pieces. Again, at the last meeting on March 26, that material was up for discussion.

R. Jones: I just wanted to thank both our team and the Leg.’s team in preparing these statements. You will notice that both audit opinions are unqualified, which is always a good thing. That’s a really good thing. It’s good to be able to get those two out of the way, and we’re looking forward to doing the ’19-20 ones as soon as possible.

Mr. Speaker: Great. I’m thinking we’re ready to have a motion on that from our motions that we prepared and that Artour had on the screen.

Do we have somebody who wishes to make that motion, that first one?

M. Polak: I’ll move it, since I’m part of the subcommittee anyway.

I move: “That the Financial Statements of the Legislative Assembly for the year ending March 31, 2018 be approved, as presented.”

S. Furstenau: I’ll second.

Mr. Speaker: Sonia, second. Thank you.

Motion approved.

Mr. Speaker: And the second motion, Mary.

M. Polak: I move: “That the Financial Statements of the Legislative Assembly for the year ending March 31, 2019 be approved, as presented.”

S. Furstenau: Second.

Mr. Speaker: Thanks, Sonia.

Motion approved.

Mr. Speaker: That’s great.

[2:50 p.m.]

Now we are into consideration of the 2019-20 third-quarter financial update. I’m looking at Hilary again.

Interjection.

Mr. Speaker: Oh, the accountability report. I’ll back up there.

Kate, could you walk us through this? It’s the matter of the accountability report and our recommendation regarding that.

Legislative Assembly
Accountability Report

K. Ryan-Lloyd (Clerk of the Legislative Assembly): Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker.

Yes, the accountability report, which is a part of your deliberations today, incorporates the financial statements, which have now received a clean audit opinion from the Office of the Auditor General as well as approval by your committee.

Members of this committee who haven’t served previously on the Legislative Assembly Management Committee may not have had an opportunity to see one of our annual accountability reports previously. As members will note, this is an unusual report for a number of reasons. It includes the two fiscal years which are the subject of the financial audit, which we have combined into one report.

We have had quite a passage of time, of course, since many of the activities that are summarized in the annual accountability report have passed. But, nonetheless, it reflects a summary of some key goals and activities for the Legislative Assembly administration. Those are outlined on pages 6, 7 and 8. There’s a series of performance measures and indicators on page 9. Again, with a historic perspective focused on these two fiscal years, but also some comparable results for 2015-2016.

As you progress through the report, you will see the financial statements are also accompanied by a detailed management discussion and analysis, which helps to interpret many of the financial results which are at the heart of the document. I’ll also note that the two financial statements which are within the report will require, perhaps following this meeting, a process to help the three House Leaders as well as the Speaker sign off on the statement of financial position. So there is some paperwork that we will facilitate, with your assistance after this meeting, to complete the report.

I’ll also note that the accountability report also includes a summary of all decisions made formally by the Legislative Assembly Management Committee during the two fiscal years that are covered by the report. That fulfils the statutory provision of the LAMC Act, which requires that decisions of the committee are released and made available pursuant to the act. We have used this accountability report previously as the vehicle in which we formally compile and publish those decisions.

There is a lot of information in the accountability report that we have compiled. I think for future years, new approaches will be taken to some of the planning components and performance measures in this report, but that, in essence, is a summary of the contents of the report before you this afternoon.

Mr. Speaker: Thanks, Kate.

As people will see, we’ve got a motion there. Can we have someone offer to make that motion?

J. Routledge: So moved.

Mr. Speaker: Thank you, Janet. And a second?

S. Furstenau: Second.

I wanted to say that I really appreciate this document. It’s laid out so clearly. It gives such a good sense of the purpose and the work. I just want to commend everybody that put the effort into this because it really does give a clear picture of what’s being strived for and how that’s being achieved. Thank you.

M. Polak: For the benefit of Hansard, you should probably read out the motion.

Mr. Speaker: Janet moved that, right? Can you read that out, Janet?

[2:55 p.m.]

J. Routledge: I move: “That the Accountability Report 2017-18 and 2018-19 be adopted, as presented, that it be deposited with the Office of the Clerk, and the Chair present the report to the Legislative Assembly at the earliest opportunity.”

Motion approved.

Mr. Speaker: Any comment? No. Okay.

Consideration of
Quarterly Financial Statements

Mr. Speaker: Our next item is the ’19-20 quarter 3 financial update.

Over to you, Hilary.

H. Woodward: On March 26, 2020, the subcommittee on finance and audit considered the 2019-20 quarter 3 financial report, which just popped up on your screen. The financial report includes year-to-date and forecasted year-end results as at December 31, 2019.

As you know, the 2019-20 fiscal year ended officially, closed, last Tuesday. Based on February 2020 projections, which we will be sharing with you likely at the next meeting, we do anticipate the actual underspend to exceed the quarter 3 forecast results. I thought I’d take this time just to quickly, at a high level, summarize the information in the December 3, 2019, report.

As at December 31, 2019, we were projecting a $4.9 million, or 6 percent, underspend on the Assembly’s $83 million operating budget. That’s on page 1 of the report. Sources of the projected underspend include, in member services, lower than expected member salaries and benefits, lower than expected member travel, lower printing costs, legal and constituency office lease costs. That accounts for approximately $1 million of the underspend.

In caucus support services, the underspend related to unfilled vacancies, accounting for approximately $300,000. Finally, in administrative support services, lower than expected operational salary costs, accounting for approximately $3.6 million.

With respect to capital, as at December 31, 2019, we were projecting a $2 million, or 33 percent, underspend on the assembly’s $6.2 million capital budget. Sources of the projected underspend include the office furniture and equipment budget not expecting to be fully spent. That accounts for approximately $36,000.

We have had some anticipated delays in planned infrastructure improvement projects, and that’s approximately $1.5 million. We have had postponement of several planned system upgrade projects — approximately $225,000. We have, also in our capital budget, contingency reserves that we are not expecting to use. That’s for approximately $425,000. We also have a project that did not meet the criteria to be capitalized, and that was $28,000.

I would like to point out, of note, that there is one projected capital overspend. You can see it’s just approximately $51,000. That was for the House sound project, which started and was budgeted for in fiscal 2018-19, but it wasn’t completed until fiscal 2019. That was due to equipment shipment delays.

In terms of the report, pages 2, 3 and 4 include a more detailed variance analysis of the operating and capital expenditures. That’s on a by function or by department basis. It provides more detail in addition to the summary that I’ve just provided.

At this point, I’d be happy to take any questions on the report.

M. Polak: Hilary, you might want to just address something that you did address with our subcommittee, for the benefit of the whole group. That is, going forward, how you folks are going to be reviewing the underspend and taking a look at why that’s occurring.

H. Woodward: Certainly. In terms of the underspend, as this committee knows, we have had an issue of underspend to the Legislative Assembly — underspend in comparison to budget. So starting in June of this year, we will be initiating a zero-based budget exercise that will involve going through all of the individual departments, meeting with the directors and managers, and identifying where we can find savings.

[3:00 p.m.]

This committee may also recall, in anticipation and recognition of these underspends, the 2020-2021 budget incorporated a number of requests for additional positions. But we did not request funding in association with those, because we anticipate that we will find savings that will be applied to those positions in the upcoming year.

Mr. Speaker: Okay, thank you.

Any other comments or questions?

Could I have a motion to have that update posted?

S. Furstenau: So moved.

Mr. Speaker: That’s moved by Sonia.

S. Furstenau: I’ll read it out for you, Mr. Speaker. I move: “That the fiscal year 2019-20 quarter 3 financial update be posted on the Legislative Assembly’s website.”

Mr. Speaker: Thank you. Somebody to second that. Mary seconded.

Motion approved.

Personnel Matters

Mr. Speaker: Now moving on to item 8, personnel matters, and of course, this is in camera.

Can I have a motion to proceed in camera?

S. Furstenau: So moved.

Mr. Speaker: Moved, and seconded by Jackie.

Motion approved.

The committee continued in camera from 3:01 p.m. to 3:42 p.m.

[Mr. Speaker in the chair.]

The committee adjourned at 3:42 p.m.