The committee met at 9:03 a.m.

[D. Routley in the chair.]

Deliberations

D. Routley (Chair): Let’s start this meeting of the special committee to review the Police Act.

I join you from the traditional territory of the Malahat First Nation. I ask you all to reflect on the territories on which you find yourselves today.

With that, I’d ask for a motion to move the meeting in camera, please.

I have that from Karin, seconded by Rachna.

Motion approved.

The committee continued in camera from 9:03 a.m. to 12:03 p.m.

[D. Routley in the chair.]

Committee Report to the House

REPORT ON REFORMING THE POLICE ACT

D. Routley (Chair): Thank you, Members, for yet another great meeting.

I would ask for a motion from the committee.

R. Glumac: I will move:

[That the Special Committee on Reforming the Police Act approve and adopt its report as amended today and further, that the Committee authorize the Chair and Deputy Chair to work with committee staff to finalize any further editorial changes to complete the supporting text.]

Motion approved.

D. Routley (Chair): The motion is carried unanimously. Thank you very much.

For the second motion, I am looking towards Karin Kirkpatrick.

K. Kirkpatrick: I move:

[That the Chair of the Special Committee on Reforming the Police Act present the report to the Legislative Assembly at the earliest available opportunity.]

Motion approved.

D. Routley (Chair): Thank you very much, Members. That concludes this long, winding road. At least it comes close to it.

[12:05 p.m.]

K. Riarh (Committee Clerk): If members have one minute and wouldn’t mind indulging me, I would just like to make a couple of really brief comments as Clerk. Mostly I want to thank you and congratulate you on reaching this point and on adopting your report and all the work you’ve done over the last 15 months. It’s been an honour to serve as your Clerk.

I also wanted to take a quick minute to recognize the staff who have been supporting this committee.

From the Parliamentary Committees Office, of course, you guys have all met Katie Stickle, Natalie Beaton and Jenny Byford over the last few weeks. Also, Jesse Gordon, Mary Newell and Emma Curtis, not to mention all of our colleagues in Hansard and IT who provide a lot of support behind the scenes. I feel really fortunate to work with such a dedicated group of colleagues.

Thank you so much for that very brief indulgence.

D. Routley (Chair): Thank you. Thanks to all of the staff who have been involved all the way through this. I know that the Deputy Chair has a time pressure, so if you have any comments, Dan?

D. Davies (Deputy Chair): No, other than to reflect upon what the Clerk just said. Fantastic work by everybody involved behind the scenes, and all of us as committee members certainly recognize that there was some incredible lifting behind the scenes.

My hat’s off to all the staff, including Hansard, all the Clerk’s staff, to the kitchen staff. It certainly is a big effort to keep this committee going.

To all the committee members, I think we can all agree that this has been an experience that many of us have not experienced as far as committee work goes. The collaboration was really, really remarkable to get us to this point where we’re at.

So well done. Bravo Zulu to everybody who has been along, some of you even before the first time when this committee was struck and dissolved. You’ve been around even further than the last 15 months.

Well done, everybody. Thank you very much.

Thank you, Doug, for being the Chair for this committee. Well done.

D. Routley (Chair): Thank you very much, Dan. I echo all of that.

Thank you, Members — an amazing group of people, I think, somewhat by chance but also somewhat by design. The backgrounds of everyone on the committee have contributed so well to this work.

As I’ve said to you before, I’ve been here a little while, 17 years, and about an eighth of that time has been on this committee, given that it’s lasted as long as it did. But those have been the best days, as they say.

Really, this has been the best experience of my career as an MLA, and I thank you all for that.

Particular thanks to the committee staff on behalf of the whole committee. Thank you.

With that, I would ask one more time, to this amazing committee, for a motion to adjourn the meeting.

I get that from my Deputy Chair, Dan Davies, and I have it seconded by Garry Begg.

And Adam Olsen and all the members of the committee — Trevor Halford; Karin Kirkpatrick; Grace Lore; Rachna Singh, as she was here on the screen; and Harwinder Sandhu: thank you so much.

Motion approved.

The committee adjourned at 12:08 p.m.