The committee met at 9 a.m.

Election of Chair and Deputy Chair

S. Sourial (Clerk Assistant, Committees and Interparliamentary Relations): Good morning, committee members, and welcome to your first meeting of the Select Standing Committee on Children and Youth. As it is our first meeting, our first order of business is to elect a Chair.

Do I have any nominations?

F. Donnelly: Yes. I’d like to nominate Jinny Sims as Chair.

S. Sourial (Clerk Assistant): Thank you, Fin.

Jinny, do you accept?

J. Sims: Yes.

S. Sourial (Clerk Assistant): Fin has nominated Jinny Sims. Are there any further nominations? Any further nominations? Any further nominations?

Seeing none, all those in favour?

Motion approved.

[J. Sims in the chair.]

S. Sourial (Clerk Assistant): Congratulations, Madam Chair.

J. Sims (Chair): Thank you.

F. Donnelly: It was a hard-fought campaign.

J. Sims (Chair): I know. I know, Fin.

S. Sourial (Clerk Assistant): Madam Chair, will you oversee the election of the Deputy Chair and call for nominations?

J. Sims (Chair): Yes. Now seeking nominations for the Deputy Chair.

M. Morris: I nominate Coralee Oakes.

J. Sims (Chair): Thank you very much.

Coralee, do you accept?

C. Oakes: I do. Thank you very much.

J. Sims (Chair): Any other nominations? Going once? Going twice? Going thrice?

Motion approved.

J. Sims (Chair): Congratulations, Coralee.

These are maybe the most bizarre elections we ever have because of the nature of the beast.

First of all, I want to congratulate each and every one of you on either your election or re-election. I’m looking forward to the work we’re going to be doing on this committee. As you know, the Children’s Committee is a very active committee and always has lots of reports to look at. It’s very, very important work. It’s important work for our most precious citizens, our young kids.

Committee Overview

S. Sourial (Clerk Assistant): Madam Chair, if I could, I’d like to introduce our committee researchers. We have Katey Stickle, who’s our lead researcher for Children and Youth, and Natalie Beaton, who will be working to support the committee.

We will be holding an orientation for committee members, specific to Children and Youth, in the new year when we’ve got a bit more time. We’ve also got a couple of other sessions geared to committee members.

One will be a session with the statutory officers. As you may know, there are nine statutory officers, one of which is the Representative for Children and Youth, who reports to your committee. You’ll have an opportunity to meet all nine statutory officers and listen to their presentations and have a question-and-answer session with them. That will be scheduled in the new year.

We’re also going to do an orientation session for parliamentary committees in general — the role of the various committees, the various types of committees. We welcome all members and hope to see all of you at those sessions as well.

The main focus of your work will be the reports from the Representative for Children and Youth. Her reports are automatically referred to the committee. At the moment, there are four reports, which I will forward to you after this meeting, that are currently referred to your committee. In time, we will schedule meetings with the representative and determine how the committee want to proceed in reviewing those reports.

Any questions?

J. Sims (Chair): Well, as we all know, this is just a preliminary meeting so we could elect our Chairs and, also, so we could give you homework for the Christmas holidays. You will get the full reports. We’re not going to be dealing with all of them at once. At least, I don’t think so. I think our orientations and everything will get scheduled, and the work of the committee will pick up.

Does anybody have any questions?

F. Donnelly: I’m just wondering about…. I assume that in the orientation we’ll find out how often the committee meets and the scheduling, when the committee meets. Is that right?

J. Sims (Chair): We will.

S. Sourial (Clerk Assistant): Fin, that is typically determined in discussions with the Chair and the Deputy Chair, as well as dependent on the representative’s availability. So it’s a coordinating….

Unlike some jurisdictions, there isn’t a set day that the committee meets on a regular basis. The meetings typically take place when the House is not sitting — a Wednesday morning, any morning before the House starts or in the intercessions. The committee is empowered to sit even when the House is not in session.

[9:05 a.m.]

F. Donnelly: Just a quick follow-up. Thank you very much for that. Is there a typical length of time that the committee sits?

S. Sourial (Clerk Assistant): It’s interesting. Because of Zoom and meetings being held by Zoom, we find that using this medium, members tend to get tired after about a two- to three-hour meeting. We try not to go longer than that with a Zoom session.

When we’re meeting in person, if there are sometimes a stack of reports to review, the committee might meet for a full day and have a full-day sitting. But that’s not as practical with Zoom.

J. Sims (Chair): Just so you know, Fin — I know you’re probably thinking about what’s going to be happening at the beginning of January, and people are wanting to make plans — we’re not going to be scheduling any meetings without getting some input from you guys.

S. Sourial (Clerk Assistant): Exactly. We would canvass all committee members. I’d start with the Chair and the Deputy Chair and get some dates. Then our office will canvass committee members. Stephanie Raymond, in our office, is the committee’s assistant, and she typically liaises with your legislative assistants to come up with a schedule.

J. Sims (Chair): Are there any other questions?

F. Donnelly: Just a comment, Jinny. Before we adjourn, I wanted to say you’re right. This is a very strange way to meet.

Hello to all other committee members. I look forward to working with you on this.

J. Sims (Chair): No, this is going to be exciting. This is the new normal, I tell people. This is the year we’ve learned to do so many things differently, right? There are happy times and sad times and work time.

What I do want to do now is to wish each and every one of you a merry Christmas, if you celebrate Christmas. Happy holidays and a safe new year. Thank you, everyone.

S. Sourial (Clerk Assistant): Madam Chair, we will need a motion to adjourn.

J. Sims (Chair): Okay, looking for a motion to adjourn.

Henry, would you like to do that?

H. Yao: I think Susie has got her hand up, but sure, I’ll put my hand up.

J. Sims (Chair): Okay, moved, Henry, that we adjourn.

That’s it. Okay, guys, we’re done.

The committee adjourned at 9:08 a.m.