The committee met at 12:17 p.m.

Election of Chair and Deputy Chair

S. Sourial (Clerk Assistant, Committees and Interparliamentary Relations): Good afternoon, committee members. Welcome to the Select Standing Committee on Finance and Government Services, the first meeting of the second session of the 41st parliament.

It’s my honour to call upon you today to elect a Chair as your first order of business. Do I have any nominations?

R. Leonard: I’d like to nominate Bob D’Eith as Chair.

S. Sourial (Clerk Assistant): Ronna-Rae has nominated Bob D’Eith. Dan Ashton has seconded that nomination. Any further nominations? Any further nominations? And a third time, any further nominations?

All those in favour?

Motion approved.

[B. D’Eith in the chair.]

B. D’Eith (Chair): Welcome, everyone. Thank you so much for participating in this amazing Finance Committee. It’s one of those things that I’ve appeared, and maybe others have appeared, in front of many times. It’s a great opportunity for the public to tell us what their priorities are. The great part about it is that we get to come up with the recommendation, and it’s up to the Finance Committee to decide whether they can afford it or not. That’s one of the great things.

I talked to Dan before the meeting. I’m really looking forward to working with all three parties. It should be a great committee.

The first order of business, though, is to elect the Deputy Chair. Do we have any nominations for Deputy Chair?

S. Cadieux: I’d like to nominate Dan Ashton.

[12:20 p.m.]

B. D’Eith (Chair): Ronna-Rae has seconded. Is there anyone else to be nominated? Once, twice, three times. I call the question on that.

Motion approved.

B. D’Eith (Chair): Thank you very much, and congratulations.

D. Ashton (Deputy Chair): Thank you. As Bob said, I look forward to working with all three parties, especially with all the individuals around here. As it was pointed out a little earlier, I have a little bit of tenure on this committee. We worked together for the last four years and, hopefully, in the fifth year.

We all worked together really hard, and we all came up with, over the last four years, unanimous recommendations that have gone forward to the Finance Minister. I, personally, really think that makes a difference, because it shows a lot of people how government should work, in my opinion.

Thank you very much for the opportunity.

B. D’Eith (Chair): Thank you very much.

I’d like to turn it over to Susan, who’s going to talk, firstly, just about the terms of reference for the Finance Committee.

Committee Terms of Reference,
Workplan and Meeting Schedule

S. Sourial (Clerk Assistant): I want to talk just briefly about the budget consultation portion of the terms of reference, and then we’re going to go right into a discussion on the schedule. Once we’ve finalized that aspect, then my colleague Kate will review with you the other two parts of your terms of reference dealing with statutory officers and the appointment of an auditor for the Auditor General.

In terms of the budget consultation process, as you know, on Friday, the Ministry of Finance released the budget consultation paper, which you have copies of on your desks. That paper frames the committee’s consultations and, in essence, launches the consultation process for the committee.

The committee, in a typical year, would travel about three weeks during the fall. This year, because of the House sitting, the one week that we do have available to travel is the week after Thanksgiving. In addition to holding public hearings, the committee also issues a call for written, audio or video submissions, as well as producing an on-line survey that replicates the questions in the budget consultation paper so that members of the public can go on line. This year, we actually have everything on line, so members of the public can register to present for a public hearing on line. They can submit a written submission on line, and they can complete the survey on line.

As mentioned, in a typical year, we would travel for about three weeks and hit 17 to 18 communities. This year — because it’s an election year, and this is typical of election years — we have a compressed schedule, so we’re probably looking at about eight communities that we can get to.

We’ve drafted the schedule that you have before you. It is a draft. We have incorporated meetings on Fridays, if that works for committee members when the House is in session, as well as a meeting the Monday of UBCM week, and four days of travel the week after Thanksgiving. We try and reach the different areas of the province, and we’ve tried to capture that, even in this condensed schedule.

I’ll turn it over to the Chair, in terms of going through the communities.

One other aspect that we do is, for some of the communities that we can’t reach, we can do a video conference session here in Victoria on, for example, a Wednesday morning or even an evening, once the House has risen, and connect with three or four different communities simultaneously. They’re not all speaking at the same time, but they’re on line at the same time. We can do that through Skype or through video conference facilities.

B. D’Eith (Chair): Great. Thank you very much.

Obviously, we have a very compressed schedule, so I wanted to say thank you to the Clerk’s office for doing an amazing job, trying to create a schedule in a very, very compressed period of time.

I appreciate everyone has constituency issues. They also have meetings and other responsibilities. I appreciate that, so if there are things that are real impediments to this schedule, please tell us.

[12:25 p.m.]

I would like to think that perhaps Dan and I, as co-chairs, could work through any issues between the various MLAs, if there are any problems that arise.

Perhaps we could, firstly, just go through the tentative schedule at this point. The first one is Wednesday, which I believe everyone has responded to. It’s a noon meeting with the Minister of Finance where she will set out the questions and the directions for the Finance Committee. Then the first public hearing would be Friday the 22nd, which is this Friday. So we may have to change some of our plans.

Then Monday the 25th, which is the Monday after…. Now, UBCM…. There’s a reception in the evening, but normally on the Monday during the day, there aren’t any meetings. I know some people may have made some meetings, but the hope is that we can actually have a public consultation in Vancouver on that Monday.

As far as other locations, that will start October 4, in week 3. These are video conference sessions. Right now, perhaps, if it’s all right with the committee, we could at least leave the cities. In each of these headings, there might be various cities that we want to go to or not, and we won’t be able to get to all of them. Perhaps we could take that off line, in terms of which cities we go to, and you could talk to Dan or myself about the preferences, and we can just put that together.

Friday the sixth would be Richmond. Friday the sixth would also be in Surrey. Then on the next page…. Now, this is the travel week, so we would charter a plane, and we would be going from Tuesday to Friday. That would, basically, be going every day. Even though there are different cities put in there, we wouldn’t necessarily be able to get to all of those cities. That would be from Tuesday the tenth to Friday, October 13.

Is there anything that you’d like to add, Kate?

K. Ryan-Lloyd (Deputy Clerk and Clerk of Committees): Perhaps something. Just briefly, to give some perspective, the proposed date that Susan and her team are recommending to conclude consultations, as you might have seen, would be Monday the 16th of October. The reason for that is that the statute, the Budget Transparency and Accountability Act, which provides us with this annual process, requires that your committee prepare a report for release no later than November 15. So that’s the hard deadline, into November, that kind of shapes some of the proposed travel and other consultation details that Susan has outlined.

B. D’Eith (Chair): That would give staff the chance to put it all together, deal with all the surveys and video conferences and then put a report together — and then allow us to actually find the priorities, which takes quite a while.

K. Ryan-Lloyd (Clerk of Committees): Exactly. There are usually a number of meetings, and Lisa Hill…. I’m not sure how many have met Lisa Hill this morning, our committee research analyst. She will be on the front lines, receiving submissions from you throughout the course of your consultation and assisting you in the report preparation process as well.

B. D’Eith (Chair): Actually, I was a little bit remiss. Perhaps we could go around the table and just introduce everybody.

Lisa, do want to start and tell us a little bit about yourself?

L. Hill: Sure. I’ve been fortunate to work with the Finance Committee on the budget consultation process. This is my third year, so I think I’ve got a good handle on the process, even if other factors change from year to year. I’m looking forward to working with the committee and working on the final report.

D. Ashton (Deputy Chair): Dan Ashton. I represent Penticton. As I mentioned, this will be my fifth time on the Finance Committee. What we’re going to have to say is that we really have to appreciate the incredible staff here. They are on this all the time, with Lisa and Sue, Kate and two people back there that do a lot. We don’t get to see behind the screen, but mark my words, they are absolutely wonderful to work with.

S. Cadieux: Stephanie Cadieux. I represent Surrey South. It’s my third constituency in three elections, unfortunately relating to — or fortunately, I guess — population growth in the area. This is my first time on the Finance Committee. I previously chaired the committee to appoint the Privacy Commissioner so I’m comfortable with the committee sort of structure and process. And I have submitted to this committee as a presenter on numerous times prior to politics, so again, I have a good understanding of what we’re in for.

[12:30 p.m.]

T. Redies: Hi. I’m Tracy Redies. I’m representing the riding of Surrey–White Rock. This is my first time in politics and my first time on a finance committee. I have to say that I’m really looking forward to it, especially, believe it or not, travelling to all the different corners of British Columbia and hearing from the people of British Columbia.

P. Milobar: Hi. Peter Milobar from Kamloops–North Thompson. I was on municipal council for the last 15 years, the last nine of which I was the mayor of Kamloops, so I’m fairly used to public hearing formats and receiving information. Looking forward to seeing what comes forward at the various meetings.

A. Olsen: Adam Olsen, Saanich North and the Islands. I look forward to working with the committee and hearing from British Columbia.

M. Dean: Hi. I’m Mitzi Dean. I’m representing Esquimalt-Metchosin. I was elected in May, so it’s my first time. I have presented to this committee when they’ve been travelling in the province before, in my previous position. I look forward to working with everybody.

R. Leonard: I’m Ronna-Rae Leonard. I served on the city council in Courtenay for nine years, three terms, and I was the chair of the Vancouver Island regional library board, which serves 38 communities from Haida Gwaii to Sidney and Sooke, so I’ve had some committee experience.

Having sat and listened to…. I think there were 11 or 13 presentations in the October go-round when this committee visited in Courtenay. It was very illuminating to understand what the needs and interests of British Columbians are, so I’m really looking forward to it.

Thank you to the staff. I know that they do a tremendous job, and we wouldn’t be able to do this work without you. And congratulations, Mr. Chair. I’m looking forward to having you lead the charge.

B. D’Eith (Chair): Mr. Ashton, as well. Thank you for stepping up. Appreciate it.

S. Sourial (Clerk Assistant): You’ve all, I think, met me, Susan Sourial. I’m the Clerk Assistant with the Legislative Assembly for Committees and Interparliamentary Relations. I’ve been with the Legislature since 2011. Before that, I was with the Ontario Legislature for about 20 years.

B. D’Eith (Chair): Bob D’Eith. First time elected and very appreciative to have Dan on the committee, with his wisdom of having been Chair, in this seat, before. I’ll be looking to him for that leadership. I appreciate his comments earlier about working together. I think that’s something that we all want to do.

My background is that I worked in the music industry for 25 years as an advocate, a lawyer and a musician. I’m just very happy to be here.

K. Ryan-Lloyd (Clerk of Committees): Thank you, Mr. Chair. My name is Kate Ryan-Lloyd. I serve as the Deputy Clerk and the Clerk of Committees, so I work closely with all of the parliamentary committees that are appointed by the Legislative Assembly. I was fortunate to work with this committee since its inception until Susan’s arrival in 2011 in terms of the budget consultation process. Since then, I’ve focused on the second component of your terms of reference with regards to statutory officers, which we will address later in the meeting.

B. D’Eith (Chair): I went a bit sideways on the agenda there. But I thought it was important that we all…. We’re going to be spending some time together, so we should get to know each other.

What should we be doing right now with the schedule, Kate? What do you think we should be doing next?

K. Ryan-Lloyd (Clerk of Committees): Perhaps there are some questions.

We provided a lot of information to members this afternoon. As Susan mentioned, and I’d just very much stress, it’s a draft schedule, intended to be revised as per your direction at this meeting and subsequent.

M. Dean: I have a couple of questions, if that’s okay.

The first one is just…. If something in this schedule, like one of these dates, is absolutely impossible for one of the members of the committee, what are the expectations? My second question is: what happens to all the other submissions? Are we as committee members going to review all of those, or does it get divided up amongst people? I’m assuming that we’re all present in the public hearings, but then what happens to that other information?

S. Sourial (Clerk Assistant): In terms of members’ attendance, typically, if a member cannot make a committee meeting, you would need leave from either the Chair or the Deputy Chair, depending which party you’re in. Mr. Olsen, you can give yourself leave.

A. Olsen: See you later. [Laughter.]

[12:35 p.m.]

S. Sourial (Clerk Assistant): Typically, for a public hearing, we do want the majority of committee members there. When we’re having the in-camera meetings, discussing the committee’s draft report, as long as we’ve got quorum…. Even in a public hearing, if we have quorum, and members on all sides agree….

B. D’Eith (Chair): And quorum is…?

S. Sourial (Clerk Assistant): In a committee of nine, quorum is five, including the Chair. The public hearing can proceed. The idea behind that is that members of the public have made an effort to be at the meeting, and we don’t want to delay or cancel a meeting because of a lack of quorum.

I’m sorry to backtrack. Even if there wasn’t a quorum during a public hearing, as long as there’s a representative from all three parties, then the committee could proceed, with the agreement of the committee members. Otherwise, for any decisions to be made by the committee, we would need a quorum. So at least five.

Certainly, there are times when members have other obligations and can’t make a committee meeting or can only make part of a meeting. We will work with that member if they need to come into a meeting a bit later or leave early. Certainly, that is doable.

In terms of the submissions received, one of the roles of research is to summarize all the information that the committee members receive, whether it’s a written submission, an audiovisual submission, the on-line survey or the public hearings. They will prepare a document at each stage. This year, with the….

L. Hill: I think, for the submission summaries, I’ll prepare two summary reports during the consultation process of the public hearing presentations and then deliver, as well, a written submission summary report. You’ll get all the information summarized in reports, and at some point, you will have access to the database as well. So you can go in and look at individual submissions as much as you like. You can look at all the information, if you wish, but I’ll try to make your lives a little bit easier and summarize that and deliver the reports to you in a timely fashion.

B. D’Eith (Chair): Thanks, Lisa. Thanks, Susan.

Does that answer your question?

A Voice: Yes.

P. Milobar: Just two questions. Not so much about the location of the proposed Friday meeting this week, but given that…. Regardless of what city it’s in, the public will only have two or three days of notice to even attend. Is it even…? Would there be value in having that meeting, in terms of the lack of input we might get from it and the risk of maybe having people in whatever city we wind up having that in feeling like it was not a true opportunity for them to provide input?

B. D’Eith (Chair): That’s a good question. Do you think there is time to get the word out to…?

S. Sourial (Clerk Assistant): Once the committee finalizes its schedule, the idea was we would send an email to all those…. We’ve been advising people to let us know if they want to be on an email notice list. So anyone who has registered with us for updates, we would send them an email saying the schedule is available, and registration would open on X day.

I am cognizant of the compressed timeline. I think if the schedule is adopted today, probably the earliest we could open registration would be Wednesday. That isn’t a lot of lead time for someone to make a presentation on Friday.

We’re in committee members’ hands. If you feel the Friday date is too close, we could start with the following Monday.

P. Milobar: The other question I had was: has there been any discussion…? I mean, looking around this table, it seems like the math of a vote in the House wouldn’t necessarily change if we were all gone touring. Has there been any discussion so that we’re not only able to do it in that one week? In other words, are we able to maybe go somewhere on a Monday or a Wednesday when the House is sitting and be back again, since we wouldn’t be materially changing any of the votes in the House?

B. D’Eith (Chair): Do you mean…? Have the House Leaders talked about us being able to be out of the Legislature?

P. Milobar: Yes, to give us more flexibility in trying to schedule.

B. D’Eith (Chair): That’s a good question.

P. Milobar: We’re not going to change an outcome of a vote with the makeup of this committee, if the whole committee was travelling somewhere.

[12:40 p.m.]

B. D’Eith (Chair): I can certainly talk to our House Leader and find out, but I don’t believe there’s a huge appetite for that at this moment. I’m not sure what you’re….

D. Ashton (Deputy Chair): Excuse me, Mr. Chair. I’ve heard the same. They would prefer to keep it condensed within the times because it is, as Sue said, an election year and one of those issues that we have to deal with.

B. D’Eith (Chair): One of the things…. Having appeared in front of the committee, I know there are a lot of people waiting for the committee. So we may, in fact, find there are a lot more people waiting to appear in front of us than we might know about. There’s the possibility we could fill that up.

Is there an option for that Friday being somewhere else, in terms of the schedule?

S. Sourial (Clerk Assistant): It’s entirely up to the committee members.

B. D’Eith (Chair): No, but I mean in terms of getting it done by October 15, for example.

K. Ryan-Lloyd (Clerk of Committees): Yeah. Just to the question about the hours set aside, potentially, for a public hearing in the Victoria area. Some of the options could include, for example, instead of doing an all-day meeting this Friday, September 22, the committee might want to consider maybe a half-day meeting. It enables members to return to their constituencies a little bit earlier in the day but also recognizes that you might not get fully subscribed up, on short notice, for a full day on Friday.

In addition to that, you may want to consider, when the House resumes, let’s say, during the week of October 2…. Although it would be a very early start for the participants, I know that we have had opportunities for committees to meet, let’s say, on a Tuesday or Thursday morning before the House sits. I think Susan has already proposed Wednesday morning that week. There are smaller chunks of time that could be available within the parliamentary sitting week that enable you to make up further opportunities for those based in Victoria. Those would be some potential options, in lieu of an all-day Friday meeting, this particular week.

S. Cadieux: Could I suggest that we go ahead with the schedule as planned and get the invitations out as quickly as possible to those people we expect will be making presentations yet again — because it is usually the same people every year — anticipating that some would be able to join us on Friday? See how that works. If we can fill half or three-quarters of a day, then maybe we don’t need to look for another day. But if we can’t, then maybe we need to look at either mornings or evenings in the week of the sixth.

B. D’Eith (Chair): How do you feel about that, in terms of flexibility? If we don’t get the uptake, we could move those people to another day. For example, if they want to come this Friday and we have not quite enough to go ahead, then we would go back to them and say we’ve moved it to another day. Is that all right?

S. Sourial (Clerk Assistant): Yup. We can certainly do that. Possibly what we can do is discuss with the Chair and Deputy Chair, in terms of what you think the minimum threshold would be before cancelling. I think, though, that before we can open it up for this Friday, we need to, in essence, finalize the other communities and dates.

A. Olsen: Do we need a motion to do that, or do we just do it? I’m happy to finalize.

B. D’Eith (Chair): Well, we could have a motion to accept the draft, but there are bits of this draft that haven’t been decided — some of the cities, for example. So you could potentially have a motion that would allow Dan and myself to meet and take all of your input and decide on those cities. We could agree on the schedule but agree to take the choice of the cities off line.

A. Olsen: So moved, then, as described by the Chair.

B. D’Eith (Chair): Any discussion on the motion before we go ahead?

Okay, let’s vote.

Motion approved.

B. D’Eith (Chair): Just to clarify, though, we will instruct the Clerk’s office that if we can’t get an uptake for this Friday that’s sufficient from our perspective, we will move those to another time and, perhaps, do some Wednesday or Tuesday mornings and try to fill it in.

All right? Okay? Good.

S. Sourial (Clerk Assistant): If I could just add this. What we’ll do is we’ll have the Chair and Deputy Chair meet and, hopefully, collect your input. Then we will email a revised draft of the schedule, as agreed to by the Chair and Deputy Chair, for the committee’s approval.

[12:45 p.m.]

J. Brar: I’m sorry. First of all, Mr. Chair, I was late to the meeting, so my apologies.

The schedule we have in front of us, the draft one, I assume is based on the historic meetings that have taken place in the previous years. That’s my understanding.

B. D’Eith (Chair): Before you got here, the Clerk, Susan, explained that this is more of a compressed year — normally we would be travelling a lot more — because of the election year and all that. They have done their best with this schedule to try, in a compressed time, to make sure we can get it done by October 15. We have to have the report finalized by November 15. So that gives sufficient time. Otherwise, we’re not going to finish in time. We’ll only have one week of actual travel to cities. The rest will be videos or local. Does that…?

J. Brar: Okay. So basically, this has been prepared keeping in mind that this was an election year and that we have, maybe, very, very limited time to do this.

B. D’Eith (Chair): Yes.

J. Brar: Okay. That makes sense to me.

What happens historically? I know that that question may be asked here. After you go through the full circle, which is this one, if there are some outstanding communities or issues to deal with, particularly on the hearing part, we come back and talk about that or…?

B. D’Eith (Chair): Well, everybody has the opportunity to participate. The fact that we don’t go to a city doesn’t mean that anybody in the province can’t participate on line.

Susan, maybe, can speak directly to that.

S. Sourial (Clerk Assistant): Sure. The committee collects input in different ways. Public hearings are just one aspect of it. There are written submissions, audiovisual submissions, an on-line questionnaire and video conference sessions, as well, for some of the communities that we can’t reach.

There are multiple ways that members of the public can participate, and the committee considers all of the input it receives. It doesn’t give one group — for example, public hearings — more weight than the written submissions. All of it is considered by committee members. As mentioned earlier, researchers will summarize all the input received so that members have, in essence, all the information before them.

B. D’Eith (Chair): Kate, did we want to…? Let’s see. Where are we here? Do we want to circle back to the terms of reference now? We only have ten minutes left.

K. Ryan-Lloyd (Clerk of Committees): Yes, I’d be happy to, if this is a good opportunity to do so.

B. D’Eith (Chair): Yes, absolutely.

K. Ryan-Lloyd (Clerk of Committees): Thank you, Mr. Chair.

The terms of reference that the committee received last Thursday, as has just been discussed, focus initially on the annual budget consultation process, which is component 1 of the motion that was adopted by the Legislature.

You’ll note that there are other assignments that are referred to your committee. The second one relates to your responsibility as a committee to receive and consider the budgetary estimates of the eight independent statutory officers of the Legislative Assembly. Those positions, which are listed in the terms of reference, all share some unique characteristics. Each of those independent officers was appointed by the Legislative Assembly, and they report back to the Legislature through the Speaker. So the reports of each of those offices are tabled back to the Legislature through the Speaker as and when required.

Each of the officers, as well, has an opportunity to appear before your committee on an annual basis to seek funding for the coming fiscal year. That’s a process that we anticipate supporting you with towards the end of the first assignment. Once the budget consultation tour is complete and you’ve received the input and your deliberations on your draft report are complete, then I will begin to work with you more closely to coordinate a schedule of appearance by each of the eight offices.

They will come to you. In addition to their budget estimate for the coming fiscal year, they will also lay before you copies of their annual reports and service plans to give you some idea of the context of their work. Usually, most of those presentations take about an hour or so, in which the independent officer can outline some of the key activities of their office over the last year and provide you with a rationale as to what budget estimates would be required to sustain their work pursuant to their individual statutes in the coming fiscal year.

[12:50 p.m.]

On your desks, just as background information, in addition to the budget consultation report, you’ll also see a report of the committee’s last review of the statutory offices. You’ll see it’s quite a comprehensive process, but in essence, its primary focus is to ensure that this committee has an opportunity to make a recommendation on the budgetary funding for each of the eight offices for the year ahead.

In addition, throughout the fiscal year if an office receives, let’s say, an expanded statutory mandate to undertake new responsibilities, we’ll often have an opportunity to have the officer return to the committee in the midst of the fiscal year and seek any additional supplementary funding that might be required to address the new responsibilities provided. There’s always an opportunity at every meeting, as well, to ask the officers questions or to probe into the details of the financial statements or financial estimate that has been prepared for you.

Over the course of the last few years, our office has developed quite an effective template which enabled the committee, for the first time, to receive some comparative information from each of the offices. You can imagine that eight individual budget submissions can look quite different, but when laid before the committee…. So we’ll attempt to support you by way of providing to the individual offices a common template — again, highlighting some themes that you’ll be able to compare and follow up with them on questions.

I’d be happy to work with the Chair and the Deputy Chair and all of you by the beginning of November as your other assignment is starting to wrap up. Then you will see me again, and I will be asking you about direction for yet another series of meetings, which will likely start to unfold, say, by about the week of November 22 — something like that — through till, hopefully, early December. We can wrap up that process as efficiently as we can in that period of time.

I’ll also mention briefly, on the terms of reference, a third item that was referred to your committee with respect to some sections of the Auditor General Act. You will be pleased to know that your committee has also been asked to oversee the selection of an audit firm to audit the Office of the Auditor General financial statements. It’s great news.

Interjection.

K. Ryan-Lloyd (Clerk of Committees): Yes, that’s right. You often hear that: who audits the auditor? Well, it’s your committee, in fact, who will oversee that process. We’ll assist you in that.

The statute requires that an auditor be appointed once per parliament for the fiscal years to be covered in that junction of time. So we’ll also be helping you with that process, providing you with a briefing on how that process unfolded during the last parliament, to ensure that the statutory responsibilities are fulfilled as efficiently as they can be.

With that, I’m happy to answer any questions on any of those components.

If there aren’t any questions, I certainly wish you all the best and thank you most sincerely for taking on all of the responsibilities with respect to this committee. It is one of the most active committees at the Legislative Assembly. You’ll see that there’s quite a heavy workload, admittedly, before you for the fall. I hope that you’ll find the experience to be productive and memorable.

We will certainly be available to you at any time. Should you have any questions or suggestions along the way, never hesitate to contact Lisa, Susan or me at any point. We look forward to working with you all.

B. D’Eith (Chair): We only have a couple more minutes. Is there any other business or any other comments or anything that anyone would like to bring up?

One more thing from Kate.

K. Ryan-Lloyd (Clerk of Committees): I’m sorry, Mr. Chair. I forgot to mention that on your desks, I also placed a copy of an invitation to a drop-in open house session this Wednesday morning in the Legislative Library.

All eight statutory offices have arranged to either have their senior officials or the officers themselves. I think six officers will be in attendance. They’d love to meet you. If you happen to have an opportunity to mention that you’re on this committee, I’m sure that they’ll be very happy to share an overview of the work of their busy offices.

It’s a drop-in session in the Legislative Library Wednesday morning through till noon.

B. D’Eith (Chair): Great.

D. Ashton (Deputy Chair): Chair, just one question. Are we all okay for this Friday? I’m saying in the positive.

B. D’Eith (Chair): Well, we’d have to obviously, probably, make some flight plans and changes. But presumably yes.

D. Ashton (Deputy Chair): May I ask the Deputy Clerk about timing on Friday? Like eight till four or something, if we can fill it up?

S. Sourial (Clerk Assistant): If members want to start as early as 8 a.m.

D. Ashton (Deputy Chair): Sorry, Susan, I’m just throwing that out. But a time for when we’d be finished?

S. Sourial (Clerk Assistant): Typically, we’d go nine to five. But if committee members would prefer an earlier ending because of travelling plans, we can go nine to three. It’s up to committee members.

D. Ashton (Deputy Chair): Perhaps, because it’s so short, nine till three-ish or something. A lot of us have evening events planned this close. I apologize, but there are a lot of things.

B. D’Eith (Chair): No, absolutely. That makes perfect sense; that’s fine.

A Voice: Nine to three. And it will be here?

K. Ryan-Lloyd (Clerk of Committees): Yes, in the Douglas Fir Committee Room.

B. D’Eith (Chair): Was there any other…? Okay. Do we have a motion to adjourn?

Motion approved.

The committee adjourned at 12:55 p.m.