The committee met at 11:18 a.m.

Election of Chair and Deputy Chair

S. Sourial (Clerk Assistant, Committees and Interparliamentary Relations): Good morning, committee members. Welcome to the first meeting of the Special Committee to Review Provisions of the Election Act.

As this is your first meeting and we do not yet have a Chair or Deputy Chair, the first order of business is the election of a Chair.

Do I have any nominations?

B. Anderson: I would like to name Jagrup Brar as our Chair. I would like to nominate him.

S. Sourial (Clerk Assistant, Committees and Interparliamentary Relations): Jagrup, do you accept the nomi­nation?

J. Brar: I accept the nomination with thanks, and thanks to my nominator.

S. Sourial (Clerk Assistant, Committees and Interparliamentary Relations): Are there any further nominations? Any further nominations? One more time, a third time, any further nominations? No.

Seeing none, Jagrup, congratulations.

[J. Brar in the chair.]

J. Brar (Chair): Thank you, Members, for putting your trust in me. I would like to call the first meeting of the Special Committee to Review the Provisions of the Election Act.

Our next item on the agenda is the election of a Deputy Chair. I will open the floor for nominations for Deputy Chair.

G. Kyllo: I’d like to nominate Peter Milobar for the position of Deputy Chair.

J. Brar (Chair): Peter, you have been nominated for this. Do you accept the nomination?

P. Milobar: I do, thank you.

[11:20 a.m.]

J. Brar (Chair): One more time, is there any other nomination for the Deputy Chair? Is there any other nomination for the Deputy Chair? Third time, is there any other nomination for the Deputy Chair? None.

I declare Peter Milobar elected as the Deputy Chair of this committee.

Congratulations, Peter.

Members, of course, I would like to begin by once again saying congratulations to Peter Milobar for accepting the very important role to be the Deputy Chair of this committee, and my sincere thanks to all members for coming forward to play a very important role in this very important committee.

We do have really important work ahead of us. I would like to say this to members — although members know this — that we have a very tight timeline. We have to submit the report September 1. So we must take a kind of pragmatic approach to whatever we want to achieve during this time to ensure, particularly, that we listen to everybody we want to listen to during this time, particularly all the stakeholders.

I will end there. Before we go to the next item, I would ask if Peter would want to make any comments.

P. Milobar (Deputy Chair): Well, thank you, Mr. Chair. No, I look forward to getting down to work on this and seeing what type of input and feedback we can get from the broader public. I agree with you. It seems like a long ways away, September, but we all know that with juggling all the other various committees and legislative work, that time disappears very quickly. So I’m looking forward to getting down to business and getting this important matter taken care of.

J. Brar (Chair): Thank you, Peter. I also want to say thank you to the Clerk’s office. All the staff members there have done all of the exceptional work, because we have seen the information they have sent to us. Susan, thanks to you and your team for the work you have done.

Committee Workplan

J. Brar (Chair): Our next item on the agenda is a review of the draft workplan. Susan, I would appreciate it if you can walk members through that one.

S. Sourial (Clerk Assistant, Committees and Interparliamentary Relations): Certainly, Mr. Chair. Would you like to do it in camera?

J. Brar (Chair): Yes. I will ask members to move a motion to go in camera.

R. Leonard: So moved.

J. Brar (Chair): Seconder? Brittny.

The committee continued in camera from 11:22 a.m. to 11:57 a.m.

[J. Brar in the chair.]

J. Brar (Chair): Now I need a motion to adjourn the meeting.

R. Leonard: Move to adjourn.

Motion approved.

The committee adjourned at 11:57 a.m.