The committee met at 9:31 a.m.

[Mr. Speaker in the chair.]

Approval of Agenda and Minutes

Mr. Speaker: You all have received an agenda that was circulated earlier. Any changes to the agenda? Okay. Then could I have a motion to approve the agenda, as circulated.

G. Begg: So moved.

Motion approved.

Mr. Speaker: Now item No. 2, the minutes of the August 6 and August 10 LAMC meetings. Again, could I have a motion to approve the minutes of August 6, 2020.

S. Furstenau: So moved.

Motion approved.

Mr. Speaker: Then I need a motion to approve the minutes of August 10, 2020.

S. Furstenau: So moved.

Motion approved.

Mr. Speaker: Item No. 3. We are going to get an update from Kate.

Please, Kate. It’s all yours.

Clerk’s Update

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

Good morning, Members. It’s a pleasure for me to join you all today for our first meeting of the Legislative Assembly Management Committee for our new 42nd parliament.

For new members, I will note, for awareness, that each agenda of your committee typically provides an opportunity for me to provide a Clerk’s update and, also, to ensure that I am able to fulfil my accountability responsibilities to each of you.

Before we begin, I would like to introduce the members of my leadership team who are joining us here on the call today. I have Suzie Seo, Law Clerk and Parliamentary Counsel. Suzie wears many hats at the Legislative Assembly, including serving as the general counsel for the Legislature as well as primary counsel for your committee. Suzie, as you know, also serves as a senior Table Officer.

[9:35 a.m.]

Also joining us this morning is Hilary Woodward, our executive financial officer. Hilary, of course, works very closely with me in preparing materials for review by your committee and subcommittees and oversees our capital planning and development, financial services, legislative facilities services and parliamentary dining room departments.

Of course, everyone knows, as well, Artour Sogomon­ian, our Clerk Assistant, Parliamentary Services. Artour also works very closely with Hilary and me to support this committee, preparing materials for the main committee and its subcommittees. Artour also oversees our Parliamentary Committees Office and parliamentary education office and, as well, serves as a senior Table Officer.

I was also looking forward to the opportunity of introducing you for the first time to our chief human resources officer, Jamie Hanly. Unfortunately, a medical incident this morning, a dental matter, came up unexpectedly for Jamie, and she sends her sincere regrets. She fulfils a very important new role on our leadership team.

Following an administrative restructuring that I initiated with your committee’s support earlier this year, we proceeded to bring in much-needed HR expertise to the executive table to help strengthen our decision-making. Jamie Hanly comes to that position having previously held executive HR positions at the B.C. Lottery Corp. and, before that, with the Saskatchewan Health Authority. I know she is looking forward to meeting you all at the first opportunity.

Lastly, and I will touch upon this a bit later, we are in the process, currently, of recruiting a chief information officer, which is the final new position in the Clerk’s leadership group team. This new position will oversee our digital information office, our information technology department, the Legislative Library as well as Hansard Services and will help to support our overall strategy with respect to information governance, management and technology.

Before I provide you with the update this morning, I wanted to begin by thanking and acknowledging the former members of the Legislative Assembly Management Committee who served in the 41st parliament. I’d like to very much thank and acknowledge our former Speaker, Darryl Plecas; Mary Polak; Jackie Tegart; Jagrup Brar; and Janet Routledge for their service on the committee throughout the last parliament.

It was a very busy time for the Legislative Assembly Management Committee as we embarked on an ambitious agenda of administrative reforms. I believe that your committee and the administration accomplished a great deal during the 41st parliament, but there is still much work to do.

Members of my leadership team and all assembly staff are very much looking forward to continuing this important work in the 42nd parliament, and we look forward to supporting your committee to ensure that you are able to fulfil your important governance and oversight role and to work with our new Chair, Speaker Chouhan, and with new members of this committee — Michele Babchuk, Bob D’Eith, Stephanie Cadieux and Peter Milobar.

Welcome to you all.

Of course, it’s a pleasure to continue our work with our returning members: Minister Farnworth, Garry Begg and Sonia Furstenau.

It has been a very busy year, especially a busy last 58 days. There have been 58 days since general voting day in October. So my colleagues and I very much appreciate your time and availability this morning, and we look forward in the new year to providing you with a more fulsome orientation to the work of this committee and its subcommittees.

In taking a moment to reflect on the past 12 months, I would note that the year 2020 was a very challenging year for the Legislative Assembly. We continue to work hard to drive many administrative reforms, including the implementation of new and revised policies. We embarked on new areas of proactive disclosure for the administration, and we re-established our internal audit program.

We also received a workplace review report, which largely acknowledged a very engaged and dedicated workforce at the Legislative Assembly but also highlighted many areas of improvement.

We also faced significant operational challenges. In early February and March, we managed a number of protests on the precinct ground, which were very challenging with respect to the breadth and impact on operational areas.

Shortly thereafter we adapted very quickly to the circumstances arising from the COVID-19 pandemic, moving quickly to enable a significant portion of our workforce to work from home, remotely, and to also enable parliamentary committees to meet on a virtual or remote basis, and we were the first in Canada for that.

[9:40 a.m.]

We adapted to an administrative restructuring following my appointment as your Clerk in March.

We also undertook preparations for and successfully supported hybrid sittings of the Legislative Assembly and fully remote meetings of the Committee of Supply. The proceedings that opened on June 22, 2020, were the first fully hybrid parliamentary sitting held by any Canadian jurisdiction.

We supported the Legislative Assembly and its members through a provincial general election and transition period, and shortly thereafter, we dealt with the circumstances caused by an unexpected network outage. A short time thereafter, we supported virtual oath ceremonies and the resumption of sittings of the new 42nd parliament — all of this while undertaking our usual regular duties and responsibilities. In other words, I think that things have been very on brand for 2020 here at the Legislative Assembly.

To deal with all of this, of course, Legislative Assembly colleagues in every department have willingly stepped up to offer their many skills and talents to be redeployed to areas where there were significant operational pressures and challenges, and really demonstrated a true spirit of teamwork across the organization.

Members, it has been a significant period of change, which has challenged us, and it has stretched our resources. I want to acknowledge and thank all Legislative Assembly staff, who continue to show unwavering dedication and to support this institution and its members. Everyone has gone truly above and beyond in the spirit of service, and I am truly proud to lead such an incredible team of individuals.

With respect to orientation programming, as members are aware, the assembly administration has offered orientation programs to the members of the 42nd parliament in a series of Zoom-based virtual sessions. These sessions have been attended by most new members and some returning members, and I feel that they have been quite successful. We look forward to continuing to offer these sessions into the new year.

We are also planning to deliver a comprehensive orientation session for the members who serve on this committee. The Legislative Assembly Management Committee, as we know, fulfils a number of important roles with respect to oversight of the Legislative Assembly’s finances and operations, and we want to ensure that all members of this committee are set up for success.

I will be in touch with members to schedule orientation sessions in January. At that time, we will also circulate a 2021 workplan to give members of your committee a sense of the work that is before you in the busy year ahead.

I would also like to briefly address the network outage at the Legislative Assembly last month. It was 41 days ago, as members are aware, that our IT department became aware of suspicious activity and took our network offline on November 10 out of an abundance of caution. Work for a full restoration of services is still continuing, and I want to acknowledge how difficult and challenging this has been for our IT team but, of course, all of our users as well, all of the clients of the network. I want to sincerely thank everyone, on the record, for their patience.

I will be preparing and presenting a full report on the network outage at a future meeting of your committee in the new year. It is timely, I believe, that the Legislative Assembly is currently recruiting a chief information officer at this time, and I look forward to working with that individual and assembly staff in conducting a full post-incident review, the results of which will be presented to your committee. I think that we have had a lot of lessons learned from this experience, and we have a lot of work to do in this area.

The network outage added a lot of pressure on our IT team. This, unfortunately, as members are aware, significantly impacted our ability to roll out, in a timely and efficient manner, new IT equipment to members serving in the 42nd parliament. We have now acquired additional resources to enable us to get on top of this and hopefully see the rollout completed by the end of next month. I wanted to acknowledge this, and I would be happy to further address staffing matters or any questions that you might have during the in-camera personnel portion of this meeting’s agenda.

I would also like to flag for members that the unanticipated timing of the 42nd provincial general election and the network outage had a significant impact on the Legislative Assembly budget for the current fiscal year.

[9:45 a.m.]

Should your committee determine later in this meeting that the subcommittee on finance and audit will be continued, we will be presenting a detailed update to that subcommittee next month and will, thereafter, provide the update to your committee.

One priority matter in the new year will be the consideration of the Legislative Assembly’s budget submission, Vote 1, for the fiscal year 2021-2022. My leadership team is currently reviewing this budget submission, and we’ll be seeking direction from the subcommittee on finance and audit, should it be continued, on key priorities and questions for the budget bill and will, in good time, be putting this submission before the subcommittee and then to your committee for review and approval.

I will just note an update on our employee suggestion program. One thing that I would like all members to be aware of is that we are always happy to receive suggestions, both from members and from Legislative Assembly staff. For assembly staff, we’ve had a paper and electronic suggestion box active now for over a year and a half, and we have received a number of excellent suggestions from legislative staff over that time.

One recent suggestion that we have put into action is one that I’d like to just share for awareness, and that is the availability of free menstrual products now in women’s washrooms in both the public and staff areas throughout the building. There was previously a requirement to pay for these products, but following a staff suggestion a month ago, these products are now readily available without charge.

This concludes a high-level update for you, for this public portion of the meeting. As always, I’d be happy to answer any questions you might have.

Mr. Speaker: All right, Members. Any questions or discussion?

If not, we will move on to item No. 4 on our agenda, the report on election period authorizations and approvals.

Kate, will you please provide us with the information.

Report on Election Period
Authorizations and Approvals

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

The next item on the agenda is a report on some administrative decisions and approvals that we would like to submit to your committee and that were undertaken during the election period. There is a briefing note that was for this item, item 4 on your agenda. There are three matters which we would like to present to you for consideration and approval today.

The first, of course, is due to the unexpected nature of the general election. The Legislative Assembly administration expedited the production of the 2020 Transition Guide for Members of the Legislative Assembly. You will have been familiar with that document, no doubt, over the preceding weeks.

Shortly after the dissolution of the 41st parliament on September 21, I think, four days later we produced this guide. It was very much a team effort to prepare, certainly, the kind of document that we would have had an opportunity to work closely with you all on, in a typical scenario. Nonetheless, we recognized how important it was to prepare some written guidance for members.

There was an update that was brought forward, version 2, on October 30, to correct some minor inconsistencies and to clarify eligibility for the capital city living allowance for members who are not returning. There was an incorrect date in the first version. Those non-returning members are eligible to receive the capital city living allowance up until the end of December 31. There was also an update to out-of-constituency travel reimbursements. So there were two minor corrections in the second version, which continues to be available on the “Members’ guide to policy and resources” website as a public document.

Also, as noted in the minutes that were just adopted by this committee for August 6, 2020, you’ll note that the Legislative Assembly Management Committee approved a request from Sonia Furstenau to relocate the Cowichan Valley constituency office.

[9:50 a.m.]

Because that office move was in the process of just settling the final paperwork when the Legislative Assembly was dissolved on September 21, and given that it was clear that the intention of the committee was to support this office move, I helped to facilitate the finalization of a temporary lease on October 1 through December 31 for Ms. Furstenau, to ensure that the constituents of Cowichan Valley had access to her office during those three months.

Finally, as is noted on page 2 of the briefing note, in order to ensure that we were able to deploy IT equipment for members following the conclusion of the electoral period, the administration also got to work immediately to identify information technology devices to support members in constituency offices on an expedited basis so that we would be able, ideally, to provide those pieces of equipment to all members at the first opportunity.

In the last parliament, I believe we had set up a committee to work through that process with the support and input of members as an advisory group. Unfortunately, we were unable to take advantage of that opportunity for consultation with members. A process that typically takes us about nine months was concluded in the past few weeks.

We have proceeded to order IT equipment for members. The expenditure totals are noted in the briefing note, a total of $837,264 for capital costs and $193,814 in operating costs. We have much more detailed information to provide to you, but it was important to bring these forward to you and to make note of those decisions on the public record.

We’d be happy to take any questions with respect to any of those decisions and actions that were undertaken during the election period.

Mr. Speaker: Any questions or discussion?

P. Milobar: Just one question around the IT side of things. I noticed that in ’17, we had some options to select. This time it has been deemed that you will have an iPhone, you will have an iPad, but you will have a Windows-based laptop. Why is there not a MacBook option if everything else is going Mac?

K. Ryan-Lloyd (Clerk of the Legislative Assembly): Thank you for the question. The assessment that we undertook evaluated our capacity to support members with a range of IT options. It was our experience in the 41st parliament that there was a high level of dissatisfaction by some members who had received alternative devices, primarily the Apple laptops.

Upon further investigation of our capacity to move ahead with projected software needs that we could adequately support, the recommendation from IT was to streamline the offerings, to enable us to provide a higher level of support, security and access to the appropriate software packages.

We would be happy to take any questions that you might have on those details. I do have some additional information that I haven’t incorporated into my preliminary notes today, but I’m happy to explore this further to ensure that we can meet the needs and interests of members.

S. Furstenau: Further to that question raised by Peter, for those of us who have been using a Mac laptop up until this point, is the expectation that we would stop using it, or can we continue using the computer that we’ve had for the last 3½ years?

K. Ryan-Lloyd (Clerk of the Legislative Assembly): Thank you, Sonia, for the question. My understanding is that the recommendation from IT is to shift to the Lenovo product. The IT team is confident that it can provide a level of service and support that is consistent with our usual service standards.

We appreciate that this is a disappointing change for members who may have grown familiar with the Apple iOS operating system and its unique operating capacities. It was clear…. The department felt that its own capacity to support that effectively couldn’t be sustained. There are also some software and security considerations which led to this recommendation.

[9:55 a.m.]

Hon. M. Farnworth: Following up on this issue, one of the things that we have had…. I’m just wondering if this is the right place, or if we can do it under other business. Is any of that decision related to the situation we find ourselves in at the Legislature, with a variety of different platforms and technologies, in terms of how well our Legislature actually functions?

Given the challenges that we’ve seen with that intrusion, the length of time that the systems were down, and the inconvenience, I’m still not sure if everything is back to where it should be. Does that impact, in part, on this decision? I’d like us to have a discussion on that whole issue elsewhere. I just want to know if this decision is in fact related to the challenges that have caused the other problems that we’ve been facing.

K. Ryan-Lloyd (Clerk of the Legislative Assembly): If I might, yes, I would say absolutely that that is the case. What we’re trying to do is to ensure reliability for the end-user experience.

Some of the variables that have been in play over the past 41 days include the complexity of our current network architecture and system. The more variables that are to be managed within that system, the more complex it is to troubleshoot, to sustain and to identify solutions that work uniformly and reliably for all end-users. This was further complicated, as well, by the COVID-19 pandemic, of course. You had a variety of users, some working from different locations, working from home, working from constituency offices or on the precinct, of course.

As members will have seen in the past number of weeks, user experiences are quite variable now, depending on where you are accessing equipment. You may be able to access certain files and equipment from your office here at the precinct that are still not available, for example, in your constituency office or when you’re working from home. Undoubtedly, there is more work to do.

We also found, in the last parliament, that some of the users who had requested an Apple laptop at first offering…. It turned out that that device didn’t perform, didn’t support some of the software that was actually being used in the constituency offices, and we had a large number of those returned to the IT department after a number of months of deployment. It was seen to be less successful for all members.

Where we found the greatest level of success was with the Lenovo product. The Lenovo laptops, which have been recommended for the 42nd parliament, are well suited to the current security posture of the Legislative Assembly with respect to network services, and will solution well for the current needs of the institution, primarily those members who have an expectation to work more frequently on a remote basis. They have been optimized to ensure that you have the capacity to reliably connect to our network, whether you’re working from home or from elsewhere in the province.

I’m happy to take any feedback back to the team. If there are other aspects of the IT device package that need to be further thought through, we’d be happy to do this. The circumstances required some very expedited decision-making, and we did so based on our best understanding of where the capacity was for the department to support you and the needs of this parliament.

B. D’Eith: Just a quick question about the new gear. I noticed with some members using PCs, as opposed to Macs, that their ability to be on Zoom and other virtual environments…. Will the new computers have the proper cameras and microphones and whatnot so that we can continue in the virtual parliament? I know that some of the PCs haven’t had that. They’ve had to buy extra peripherals and things like that.

K. Ryan-Lloyd (Clerk of the Legislative Assembly): Yes. That’s very true. Thank you for the question, Bob.

Yes. This package that we have identified, recommended and proceeded with for members of the 42nd parliament presumes that you are fully optimized for mobile connectivity. The needs of the hybrid proceedings in the chamber and virtual meetings of committees have been taken into account. Each Lenovo purchased includes a built-in camera and a reliable audio system.

[10:00 a.m.]

It also includes a docking station for yourself and for your CAs, so you have access to the docking station. When you travel with your laptop and come back to your desk, there will be a monitor and a docking station there to ensure that you have a robust setup that supports your needs in an office environment. We have taken into account the requirements of both audio and visual for the hybrid sittings of the House.

This will enable us, as well, to have the IT team provide more efficient real-time support during a proceeding. For example, if a member is facing a technical glitch, a difficulty during the proceeding, it’s much more efficient troubleshooting when everyone is on the same operating system and using the same standard device.

Mr. Speaker: Bob, do you have further questions?

B. D’Eith: Just a quick follow-up, then. If we have a docking station at our constituency offices, will we have a docking station in our legislative offices?

K. Ryan-Lloyd (Clerk of the Legislative Assembly): My understanding is that there is one docking station per member and one docking station for each CA. Each will also receive a monitor and a laptop. So wherever you set up your docking station will be a decision that you can make, if you wish to have it here in Victoria or in the constituency office.

Mr. Speaker: Kate, would it help if you got coordinated feedback? Rather than from individual members, they could do it through their House Leaders. They can collect that feedback or their concerns and send it to you, although they can contact the IT department whenever they have issues that they could fix right away. For us who know what the members are experiencing, would it be helpful if the House Leaders’ offices can gather that information together for you?

K. Ryan-Lloyd (Clerk of the Legislative Assembly): Yes, I would very much appreciate the opportunity, perhaps, for a working group to be established of those members of this committee who may have an interest in IT-related topics and the devices, as well as updates on the network outage. We are still facing challenges with some network services. As I mentioned, I am looking forward to providing a very fulsome report to the committee in the new year.

In the interim, your feedback is very important to us. We know that we would like to…. We had set up a working group, I believe, in the 41st parliament, to assist us with some of this decision-making in anticipation of a general election next year. Given the circumstances, we didn’t have the opportunity to work with those members, but we would very much welcome the opportunity to do so in the weeks ahead.

Hon. M. Farnworth: I just want to follow up on that. I think that’s important.

I would like to see, when we come to the subcommittees, that we actually set up a formal subcommittee whose job is not just in terms of the issue that we’re discussing here — that has been done, and we should approve — but, more importantly, to look at the tech situation in the buildings. I think there’s some significant work that needs to be done and that has got to be a top priority for the Legislature.

We should actually have a formal committee whose job it is to do that. Then we can go from there.

Mr. Speaker: Any further questions or discussion? If not, could I get a motion to approve this request, as outlined in the briefing note?

M. Babchuk: So moved.

Motion approved.

Mr. Speaker: Item No. 5.

Advisory Subcommittee Structure

K. Ryan-Lloyd (Clerk of the Legislative Assembly): Mr. Speaker, the next item on the agenda this morning is an opportunity for the committee to consider restructuring or moving forward, with the advisory subcommittees that had been that had been set up, in the 42nd parliament. As you will note, in the decision note two subcommittees — a subcommittee on administration and operations and a subcommittee on finance and audit — were struck in the previous parliament.

[10:05 a.m.]

The terms of reference for those committees are included in the materials under this meeting item in your package. Just to summarize, the subcommittee on finance and audit of this committee focused on matters relating to financial policies and operations, risk management and audit functions. The subcommittee on administration and operations dealt with matters relating to oversight for the administration, operational and policy matters that were not of a financial nature.

In the previous parliament, as well, the subcommittee on finance and audit approved any new operational financial expenditures of up to $10,000. There are some other details outlined in the decision note. I’m happy to take any questions with respect to the two subcommittees.

Mr. Speaker: Any questions or discussion?

No. Then could I get the motion as outlined in the briefing note?

S. Furstenau: So moved.

Motion approved.

Respectful Workplace Policy

Mr. Speaker: Now, on No. 6….

Before we talk about the respectful workplace situation here in the Legislative Assembly, I want to make some comments, Members.

I believe it is important to take this opportunity to highlight our shared commitment to building and maintaining a respectful workplace environment for all members and employees. This is an important priority for the organization, and I know committee members will concur how essential it is to ensure that everyone is treated with respect and dignity. It is our collective responsibility.

In July 2019, this committee adopted the respectful workplace policy to ensure that members, caucus staff and Legislative Assembly staff work in a healthy and supportive environment, free from bullying, harassment, discrimination and violence. Any personal allegations, including those related to allegations of sexual harassment or abuse, are treated very seriously and with the strictest of confidentiality. In order for the independent respectful workplace office to undertake its confidential investigation, the complainants must feel supported so that they may come forward to share concerns in conjunction with the policy.

Changes to further strengthen the policy will be put forward to the working group in the weeks ahead. Training for all policy participants is also planned for spring 2021. I look forward to participating, and I thank you all for your current individual and collective commitment to these important principles.

I just wanted to say that because I, as you all…. We believe in this respectful workplace. We are committed to do that. But lots of work has been done, and a lot more work needs to be done. Together, as a group, we will make sure that it happens. So your input, your feedback, to this policy would be greatly appreciated.

Appointment of Subcommittee
and Working Group Memberships

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

The briefing note for this agenda item describes the two working groups that were also established during the previous parliament. As the Speaker has referenced, we have a working group on the respectful workplace policy that assisted us with policy development and refinement, and there is an opportunity for this working group to complete policy work to establish a fully independent office in its framework and operating procedures. The working group will also be looking at the format of training opportunities for the respectful workplace policy training for all members, caucus staff and assembly staff into the new year.

There are a number of recommendations that have come forward from the contractor assisting us over the past few months.

In the previous parliament, the working group was comprised of Janet Routledge, Mary Polak and Sonia Furstenau. The second subcommittee is on the Office of the Sergeant-at-Arms, struck in February of 2020. That subcommittee was chaired by Garry Begg.

[10:10 a.m.]

Speaker Plecas served on that subcommittee as well as Jackie Tegart and Janet Routledge, so we had an opportunity for these two working groups to be re-established.

I’ll also note, in looking at the subcommittees, just before we lose the thread of the conversation about the benefits of having a working group focused on information technology, that that theme is, indeed, one of the responsibilities of the subcommittee on administration and operations.

On page 13 of the briefing note of the previous agenda item, you’ll see that information technology development plans, implementation of new systems, security threat assessments and progress related to digitization is one of the elements of that subcommittee’s terms of reference.

The question now is…. With respect to the working groups, perhaps it might be helpful to start with those two that are outlined in the briefing note.

Mr. Speaker: Any questions?

Hon. M. Farnworth: I fully support the re-establishment of the respectful workplace policy working group. I think that’s critical, and it’s extremely important.

The one question I have, though, is: is it necessary, at this point, to re-establish the Sergeant-at-Arms…? Have things changed with regard to that? Is that something that could be handled either by the existing structures…? Do we still continue to need that?

I’d be interested, Garry, if you have thoughts on that, for example.

G. Begg: Thanks, Mike.

I think it’s important. The subcommittee is in the midst of receiving a report. We’ve just authorized an extension to a report. That is a review by an outside subject-matter expert which is allowing us to make some comparisons and contrasts between the way things are done here and the way they should be done.

The subcommittee, of course, will report to LAMC for final approval. But for the purposes of vetting and looking at the various options, I think the subcommittee should still drive that forward.

Mr. Speaker: Any further questions, discussion or comments?

Right. Then could I get a motion to approve as outlined in the briefing notes.

S. Furstenau: Can I…?

Mr. Speaker: Artour?

A. Sogomonian (Clerk Assistant, Parliamentary Services): I will defer to Sonia, but Mr. Chair, it would be helpful to designate the members serving on the working groups and the subcommittee before the motion is put on the floor.

Mr. Speaker: Okay. So who will be serving on this committee?

Kate, can you explain that, please?

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

In essence, the opportunity is for at least three members, ideally one from each caucus, to serve on the respectful workplace policy committee. That committee will meet, as required, to finalize the policy and to oversee the training program in the new year and will report back to this committee on any significant areas of change or where direction is required.

Ms. Furstenau, will you…? I know you are one of the continuing members.

I sense that Sonia would like to continue on that committee, Mr. Speaker.

Mr. Speaker: All right.

S. Furstenau: I would. Thank you.

Mr. Speaker: Sonia, please proceed.

S. Furstenau: Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’d like to continue on that committee.

Mr. Speaker: Thank you.

Any other comments?

Hon. M. Farnworth: I think Michele would be the right person from our caucus as well.

Mr. Speaker: Michele, do you accept it? I’m just asking. Don’t worry; you are.

Any other suggestions?

P. Milobar: I will take on Mary’s spot on this committee, and Steph will be on the other.

Mr. Speaker: I appreciate that. Thank you.

Now I think we can have a motion to approve as it’s moved in the briefing notes. Somebody needs to move it.

[10:15 a.m.]

Hon. M. Farnworth: So moved.

Motion approved.

Mr. Speaker: Now the second motion. You are aware of the second motion, that the subcommittee of the Office of the Sergeant-at-Arms as on February 13, 2020, be continued. We need to know who is on that committee.

Garry, you are on it, I take it. Who else is on that committee? Stephanie is on the committee. Okay. Were there only two members? So I’ll stay on.

Sonia, what about you?

S. Furstenau: I will not go on that committee. I wasn’t on it before. I have to monitor my committee memberships.

A. Sogomonian (Clerk Assistant): Mr. Chair, may I confirm that Garry will continue to serve as Chair of that committee? Is that part of the motion — the designation of a Chair? It will be helpful for some administrative things that have to happen later today.

Hon. M. Farnworth: Yes.

Mr. Speaker: Okay. It will be chaired by Garry, and the other names that you heard would also serve on that committee. That’s the motion.

Motion approved.

Mr. Speaker: Now, there are some issues that we need to discuss in camera. May I have a motion to proceed in camera, please?

Hon. M. Farnworth: So moved.

Motion approved.

The committee continued in camera from 10:17 a.m. to 11:49 a.m.

[Mr. Speaker in the chair.]

Mr. Speaker: Any further business?

Motion to adjourn.

Motion approved.

The committee adjourned at 11:50 a.m.