The committee met at 12:11 p.m.

Election of Chair and Deputy Chair

K. Ryan-Lloyd (Acting Clerk of the Legislative Assem­bly): Good afternoon, Members. As it is the first meeting of the Select Standing Committee on Public Accounts for the current fourth session of the 41st parliament, the first item on your agenda is the election of the Chair. I’d like to open the floor to nominations for that position.

J. Yap: I nominate Shirley Bond for Chair.

K. Ryan-Lloyd (Acting Clerk): Thank you.

Any further nominations? Any further nominations? Any further nominations?

Seeing none, I will first ask Ms. Bond if she accepts the nomination.

S. Bond: I will.

K. Ryan-Lloyd (Acting Clerk): Okay. Then I will put the question to the committee.

Motion approved.

[S. Bond in the chair.]

S. Bond (Chair): Thank you very much to our fantastic Clerk. We appreciate that.

Our second task today is to elect the Deputy Chair. Just as the Clerk did previously, I’d like to open the floor to nominations for the Deputy Chair.

B. Ma: I would like to nominate Mitzi Dean, please.

S. Bond (Chair): Mitzi, would you accept that nomination?

M. Dean: With honour. Thank you.

S. Bond (Chair): Fantastic. Are there any other nominations for Deputy Chair? Are there any other nominations? Any other nominations?

Congratulations, Mitzi. I just want to say that it’s a pleasure to work with you. I have appreciated our work together in the past number of months, and I look forward to continuing that collaborative approach. Thank you for that.

Motion approved.

Subcommittee on Agenda and Procedure

S. Bond (Chair): The third item of business then today…. This is just the administrative meeting, but we do want to put in place our subcommittee that works with Mitzi and myself on issues related to the agenda and procedure. So I’d like to look at the appointment of the subcommittee. We will require a motion, and I think the Clerk has prepared one for us.

Certainly, from the opposition’s perspective, I would like to recommend that John Yap serve as our member on the subcommittee. I’m hopeful that the other members would like to reflect on who would like to serve on the subcommittee.

Do you have a…?

M. Dean (Deputy Chair): Yes, Garry.

S. Bond (Chair): Oh great. Okay. The subcommittee, then, to the Clerk, will consist of the Deputy Chair, myself, John Yap and Garry Begg. Fantastic.

Motion approved.

S. Bond (Chair): Thank you very much to Bowinn for the work that she has done and been a participant in that process. We really rely heavily on the Clerk’s office, as she normally helps us get our work done in an efficient manner.

Unless there are any other items of business, our intention now would be to go away. The Auditor General has tabled a number of reports since we last met. I was very proud of the work that all of you did to catch up, and we now have a significant number of reports.

What we’ll do is we’ll canvass you for some dates of availability and start to continue our workplan based on what might be potential meeting dates moving forward.

Are there any other items of business?

Other Business

K. Ryan-Lloyd (Acting Clerk): If I might, I will just mention that in addition to the reports that are pending for your consideration, I know the committee also had expressed previously an interest in having some time set aside to discuss and consider the follow-up process that has been set in place. The audit office is also keen to update you on changes that they have undertaken with respect to that process to ensure it aligns with your needs.

[12:15 p.m.]

In terms of future agenda planning, we might put aside some time for a discussion about the follow-up process and ongoing consideration of the communications plan for your committee.

S. Bond (Chair): Thank you for that. I know we did have a teleconference about the communications plan and received some very important feedback. So we’ll look forward to presenting you with another version of that.

I think that would work, Mitzi, from the work that was done.

The follow-up process was a really important item to every member of the committee. So we do appreciate you bringing that forward.

We certainly learned when we attended the conference that in Canada there’s work to be done across the country. So we look forward to continuing the dialogue on that issue.

I should also just note that Mitzi and I and the Clerk’s office have also been working with the Auditor General on the basic framework for the upcoming conference. So we’ll be continuing our work to make sure that those details are put in place. We’ll convey those to you as soon as we have any more firm details.

With that, I’ll entertain a motion to adjourn.

Motion approved.

S. Bond (Chair): Thank you for attending today. It’ll be the shortest meeting you attend for Public Accounts for a long time. So thanks, all.

The committee adjourned at 12:16 p.m.