The committee met at 12:19 p.m.

Election of Chair and Deputy Chair

K. Ryan-Lloyd (Acting Clerk of the Legislative Assem­bly): Good afternoon, Members. Welcome to the first meeting of the Select Standing Committee on Public Accounts for the new, fifth session.

As there has not yet been an opportunity to elect a Chair to serve your committee, the first item of business is to open nominations for the position of Chair.

J. Yap: I nominate Shirley Bond as our Chair.

K. Ryan-Lloyd (Acting Clerk): Any further nominations? Any further nominations? Any further nominations?

Seeing none, I will first ask Ms. Bond if she’s willing to accept nomination.

S. Bond: I am.

K. Ryan-Lloyd (Acting Clerk): Thank you, and I’ll put the question.

Motion approved.

[S. Bond in the chair.]

K. Ryan-Lloyd (Acting Clerk): Over to you, Madam Chair.

S. Bond (Chair): Well, thank you, Kate, and thank you to the committee. I’m very grateful to the House Leaders for getting us back together so quickly, so I appreciate that, and that the membership has remained the same. I think that will be very good in terms of the work that we have underway.

With that, I would entertain a nomination for the role of Deputy Chair.

[12:20 p.m.]

G. Begg: I nominate Mitzi Dean.

S. Bond (Chair): Thank you. Are there any other nominations? Any further nominations? Any further nominations?

I know that Mitzi is willing to take on that role, for which I’m very appreciative.

Motion approved.

S. Bond (Chair): Garry, you’ll pass along our congratulations and thanks to Mitzi.

We have one other item of business in terms of appointments. Then we’re going to just do a brief update on the planning of the conference which we will be hosting this summer.

Subcommittee on Agenda and Procedure

S. Bond (Chair): We do have a subcommittee that works very well together on agenda and procedure. It’s just a smaller group of Public Accounts that sort of deals with the process issues and looking at how things flow, etc.

I would entertain a motion about the membership of the subcommittee.

J. Thornthwaite: I move: “That a Sub-Committee on Agenda and Procedure, comprised of the Chair, Shirley Bond, MLA, the Deputy Chair, Mitzi Dean, MLA, Garry Begg, MLA, and John Yap, MLA, be appointed.”

S. Bond (Chair): Thank you very much for that. Any other discussion or further comment about the motion that Jane has made?

Motion approved.

Canadian Council of Public Accounts
Committees Conference

S. Bond (Chair): Maybe what we’ll do is…. I know that I promised you this would be probably over in the next six minutes, because I imposed on your day for this time. So thank you for that.

I’m going to ask Kate to just give us a bit of an update. A lot of work has been done. Many of you have been on the calls — it’s been very appreciated — for the CCPAC conference that we’ll be hosting in the summer.

Kate, would you mind just giving us a bit of a status update?

K. Ryan-Lloyd (Acting Clerk): Yes. Very briefly, I just wanted to thank members for their input and assistance with conference planning thus far. My colleague, Ron, is handing out an updated version of the draft program.

You’ll see that it’s coming along very well. We’ve been able to finalize a determination with respect to venues for the evening events, including an event at the Royal British Columbia Museum on the opening day and at the CFB Esquimalt Pacific naval base on the Monday evening. Many other details are coming together.

I anticipate that we’ll be looking for further input and decisions with respect to elements of the business program in the weeks ahead. Happy to continue to keep you apprised. In addition, the Chair will be reaching out to her colleagues on the CCPAC executive to give colleagues from other jurisdictions an update in the weeks ahead and just ensure that we have the broader association’s ongoing support and interest in our plans to host this event in August this summer.

With that, I won’t delay the meeting at all. Happy to answer any questions that you might have or to receive your further suggestions following the meeting.

J. Yap: Just a question. So the Wardroom is lined up? It’s to be confirmed, but we think we can get it?

K. Ryan-Lloyd (Acting Clerk): Yes, apparently it would be available for our group that night and seems to be suitable in all other arrangements. We haven’t yet secured a contract with the Wardroom, but we are working towards that within the next few weeks, subject to the committee’s….

J. Yap: That will be full service with reception and dinner?

K. Ryan-Lloyd (Acting Clerk): That’s correct.

J. Yap: Great. Excellent.

J. Thornthwaite: Just questions about…. I’m assuming the yellow highlights are to be confirmed.

K. Ryan-Lloyd (Acting Clerk): That’s correct.

J. Thornthwaite: I see that there are a bunch of opportunities for speakers. I thought we had…. In the last meeting, we were discussing a shortlist of possible speakers. Do we have a shortlist?

K. Ryan-Lloyd (Acting Clerk): Not yet confirmed for integration into this stage of the program. I’d like to provide another opportunity for some further discussion. Since we last met with committee members, as well, we had an opportunity to meet with the acting Auditor General and his conference planning team and were able to refine some of the logistical details.

I do recognize that the business program and the selection of speakers — both external speakers and those who wish to participate from other parliamentary jurisdictions, other public accounts committees — will be front of mind and, sort of, the next major element to be determined with your assistance hopefully later this month or next.

S. Bond (Chair): I appreciate the question, Jane. I think that what we’ll try to do, with our committee and with Mitzi, is look for a date where we can…. When we’re all here anyway, we might as well take some time and walk through those yellow, yet-to-be-confirmed pieces.

[12:25 p.m.]

I did want to reiterate that we are working closely with the Office of the Acting Auditor General, because, obviously, they meet at the same time. It’s important that they’re a part of that.

It’s unfortunate Ralph is not here. I think that the conference theme itself, “Maintaining focus in a time of disruption,” is really an interesting lead. I’m hopeful that we can shape the rest of the program around that topic.

I want to thank everyone who participated in the process to date, especially Ron and Kate and her team for the work that they’ve done. Any other questions?

Maybe what we’ll do is leave the draft plan with you, and then if you have specific questions, you can certainly get back to us. With that, I thank you for your time. I would look for a motion to adjourn.

Motion approved.

S. Bond (Chair): That ends this first meeting of this session for Public Accounts. Thank you all very much.

The committee adjourned at 12:26 p.m.