The committee met at 9:06 a.m.

[Raj Chouhan, Speaker Designate, in the chair.]

Raj Chouhan (Speaker Designate): I call the meeting to order. Welcome, everyone, to the second meeting of the Legislative Assembly Management Committee in the 43rd Parliament, which is focused on review and approval of the Legislative Assembly 2025-26 budget submission.

A special welcome to Jeremy Valeriote, who is here as the designate of Rob Botterell, and to Amna Shah, who is here as the designate of Hon. Mike Farnworth. As designates, in accordance with section 2(4) of the Legislative Assembly Management Committee Act, both members can participate in debate and move motions. Also, they can vote.

Our proceedings are also being recorded and broadcast via television and the web, and a transcript of today’s proceeding is being produced.

Thank you to Hansard Services for this support, as always.

Approval of Agenda and Minutes

Raj Chouhan (Speaker Designate): The first item on the agenda is the approval of the draft agenda, which was circulated earlier to all members.

Any changes to the agenda?

I see none.

May I have a motion to approve the agenda as circulated.

It has been moved.

Motion approved.

Raj Chouhan (Speaker Designate): The next item on the agenda is the review and approval of the draft minutes of the December 16, 2024, meeting of the committee.

Any changes to the minutes of December 16? I see none.

May I have a motion to approve the minutes as circulated.

It has been moved.

Motion approved.

Raj Chouhan (Speaker Designate): The next item on the agenda is an update from the Clerk.

Kate, you have the floor.

Clerk’s Update

Kate Ryan-Lloyd (Clerk of the Legislative Assembly): Good morning, Members, and happy new year. Thank you for this opportunity to provide you with a brief update on a variety of operational matters.

Today I will update you on the following five topics. I’ll provide a post-election transition activities and support update. I’ll speak to constituency office leasing, the resumption of House sittings, the installation of a new Lieutenant-Governor and preparations for the launch of our new strategic plan.

I’ll begin with transition-related activities. During my last update to your committee on December 16, I provided an overview of the breadth of election and transition-related activities that have been undertaken and supported by the administration over the past few months.

Those activities continue, and we are now seeing a significant uptick in onboarding stemming from new caucus staff and constituency office staff joining our organization. Our client care team has launched onboarding and learning and development streams to support and provide a good onboarding journey for everyone. Our IT service desk is also very busy at this time supporting onboarding processes for staff.

[9:10 a.m.]

Members will recall that the next iteration of MLA school, focused on parliamentary procedure, is now scheduled for February 11 and 12. We will spend February 11 covering various topics of relevance to the business of the House. The program on February 12 will be focused on a sitting simulation, which will not be broadcast or recorded. But it will, we hope, provide members with a bit more comfort operating and participating in proceedings in the chamber before the formal opening of the 43rd parliament later in February.

Today members, caucus staff and constituency office staff will receive a satisfaction survey pertaining to the onboarding process to date and the services offered through the Legislative Assembly administration. That survey should take approximately 15 minutes to complete and will close on February 12. We will very much appreciate your feedback and insights that will help enable us to gauge how we are doing, identify any service gaps and drive continuous improvement in our operations. We would be very grateful if you would promote the survey and its completion with your colleagues and staff.

I also want to acknowledge that at the last meeting of your committee, on December 16, I committed to bringing forward a fulsome report on all election-related activities to your next meeting in 2025, being today. I certainly remain committed to doing so, but given the deadlines that apply to our budget submission to Treasury Board and the priority that needs to be accorded to its review and approval by your committee today, I have decided to bring that report forward to you at your committee’s next meeting.

With respect to constituency office leasing, I’ll highlight that leasing continues to be a key topic, I know, on members’ minds, and the Legislative Assembly administration is also working around the clock to complete the leasing process to get members and staff into their constituency office space as soon as possible. I certainly recognize that it can be frustrating to wait for space, and we are working very diligently to get that critical community space set up for each and every member.

As members and those listening to the meeting today may imagine, leasing a constituency office can be, at times, a complicated process, including finding the right space, considering any upgrades that may need to be undertaken and negotiating with the landlord to ensure a prudent use of public funds. Our organization is, of course, not immune from the complexities of the commercial leasing process.

Above all, we want to ensure that we are doing our due diligence. This includes ensuring that the health and safety, security, physical accessibility and physical infrastructure requirements are all satisfied. This will help us ensure that we avoid any issues or disruptions down the road once the space is occupied by members and constituency office staff.

As we navigate through current market conditions for leased office space throughout the province, several factors are impacting time to occupancy, including supply of available spaces suited to function as a constituency office, and negotiations with landlords on terms required by the Legislative Assembly. We recognize that at the outset there were some communication gaps, and we are addressing that now through weekly status updates to caucuses. This week we’re also preparing to launch a communication tool, a new tool to provide real-time updates to members not yet in constituency offices on the status of lease negotiations.

With respect to the resumption of House sittings and with the 2025 parliamentary calendar now published, the administration is preparing for the resumption of sittings of the House, anticipated on February 18. The proceedings will begin with the election of the Speaker, and the Speech from the Throne will follow later in the day. The administration looks forward to supporting what will no doubt be a very busy sessional period.

The 43rd parliament marks significant changes, as well, to how the House considers private members’ business. We have undertaken the necessary groundwork to support and resource these new processes in a way that aligns with the recommendations set out in the report of the Special Committee to Review Private Members’ Business.

For the upcoming sessional period, members and the public will continue to have closed captioning available on the broadcast and webcast of House proceedings. American Sign Language, ASL, interpretation will continue to be embedded during the routine business portion of each sitting day.

We are also working to support members individually who have identified additional accessibility needs to enable them to fully undertake their parliamentary work.

[9:15 a.m.]

I will shift now to the next topic, installation of the new Lieutenant-Governor. Members will be aware that the Prime Minister announced on December 20 that Wendy Cocchia will become British Columbia’s 31st Lieutenant-Governor.

The installation ceremony for a new Lieutenant-Governor typically takes place in the legislative chamber, in the presence of members and guests. The administration is supporting the planning for this ceremony, and although an installation date has not yet been confirmed in a final sense, we do anticipate those dates to be towards the end of this month. This will likely also include a farewell ceremony for the outgoing Lieutenant-Governor, the Hon. Janet Austin.

I would like to take this opportunity to thank Her Honour Janet Austin for her service to our province and for her support of the Legislative Assembly during her mandate as Lieutenant-Governor. Democracy and civic engagement were key focus areas for her tenure, and we are very grateful for her partnership with us on many related initiatives.

Finally, I’ll mention that the administration is preparing to launch its new strategic plan on April 1. Approved by this committee just prior to the dissolution of the 42nd parliament, our new strategic plan is focused on pillars of supporting our members, engaging our people, modernizing our workplace and strengthening public engagement.

This plan is at the heart of the budget submission that we are going to be presenting to you shortly. We are very excited to embark on this new chapter in our organizational journey, moving us forward while being grounded in a strong culture of service and operational excellence to support the institution, members, members’ staff, each other and British Columbians. We look forward to providing regular updates on our progress to the subcommittee on administration and operations and to this committee through our annual report.

Mr. Speaker, that concludes my update for this morning.

I’m pleased to take any questions that there may be from members of the committee.

Raj Chouhan (Speaker Designate): Thank you, Kate.

Any questions from members, any comments?

Thank you, Kate. That was very informative and very detailed, so therefore, no questions.

Let’s move on, then, to item 4, 2025-26 Legislative Assembly Vote 1 budget submissions.

Again, Kate and your team, over to you.

Vote 1 Budget 2025-2026

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

I’m very honoured to present the ’25-26 Legislative Assembly Vote 1 budget submission, which outlines our resourcing plan to support the Legislative Assembly’s work over the next fiscal year.

This submission is focused on providing strong supports to members, caucuses and constituency offices. It helps us resume a high level of parliamentary operations in the year ahead and fulfils the priorities set out in the administration’s 2025-29 strategic plan, which focuses on the four key pillars, which I mentioned a moment ago: supporting our members, engaging our people, modernizing our workplace and strengthening public engagement.

The 2025-26 budget also includes important capital investments to enhance the efficiency, security and safety of the assembly’s infrastructure and operations. Of course, always mindful of the need to control costs, the budget also includes operational efficiencies and savings in a number of areas.

Today’s submission is a cumulation of many hours of hard work from many colleagues, and I want to thank those who contributed to putting forward our comprehensive submission to you today. In particular, I will extend special appreciation to Kathy Humphrey, our executive financial officer; Kristin Tryon, acting director of financial services; as well as Kevin Hamilton, Christina McMann, Florencio Mende and Gabrielle Alves, for their many contributions and hard work.

This presentation follows initial consideration of the submission by the subcommittee on finance and audit just one week ago, on Monday, January 6. Today’s meeting provides the committee with an opportunity to consider and approve this year’s budget submission as recommended to you by the subcommittee.

[9:20 a.m.]

As this is the first time introducing the Legislative Assembly budget to some members, as the agenda shows, we will open with some background and context for our priorities. We will be summarizing the recent caucus engagement process and describing our risk-based strategic alignment with our new strategic plan. This then factors into the prioritization of our strategic and operational initiatives.

The presentation will follow the structure of our Vote 1 submission, first reviewing our operating budget and then specific strategic initiatives and capital. Throughout the presentation, we certainly welcome your input and comments. Please do not hesitate to stop us at any time with questions or comments.

The presentation is based on this PowerPoint slide deck, which provides a summary view of the formal budget submission that was shared with each of you in preparation for this meeting. The budget meeting materials also include a number of tables, which I’ll summarize briefly now.

Table 1 provides a detailed breakdown of the Vote 1 operating budget by subvote and also, in table 2, by expenditure area. Tables 3 and 4 provide a detailed breakdown of the capital budget. For each of these tables, you can see both historical budgets and actual expenditures as well as outlooks for future years.

Table 6 illustrates the Vote 1 budget as it is anticipated to appear, along with approximately 50 other votes within the broader provincial budget estimates publication. As always, all meeting materials that are available to you are also available publicly on your committee’s website.

The Legislative Assembly Management Committee is statutorily responsible for the review and approval of the budget and expenditures of the Legislative Assembly. Therefore, as noted on this slide, the final component of the budget discussion will be your committee’s consideration of the recommendation with respect to our submission.

Once your committee has provided final consideration, either by way of an amendment or outright approval, the estimates for Vote 1, the Legislative Assembly, as approved by your committee, will be incorporated into the overall ’25-26 provincial budget, which is expected to be presented to the Legislative Assembly on Tuesday, March 4.

The process for the legislative branch is therefore distinct from the budget process for the executive branch of government, which is led by Treasury Board with respect to the overall budget for the provincial government, including ministries, and expenditures by government agencies and departments.

I’ll now pass our presentation over to my colleague Suzie Seo, who will provide an overview and some strategic context.

Seunghee Suzie Seo (Law Clerk and Parliamentary Counsel): The next slide, Members, shows the context for the preparation of the 2025-26 draft budget for your consideration and approval. The budget is the proposed funding plan for the functioning of the Legislative Assembly. The composition of the budget or budget categories will be examined in greater detail a little later in the presentation.

However, as introductory remarks, I did want to note that some portions of the budget will appear, on its face, to be clearly about members and caucuses while other portions of the budget appear to be about the administration. However, all of it — as it relates to the administration, our operations and our infrastructure — is ultimately about enabling the administration to directly support members, whether acting as individual members in their ridings or acting as part of a caucus in carrying out their parliamentary functions in Victoria.

The budget, as proposed, does two things.

It enables us to carry out our day-to-day operations in the administration’s respective areas to support the Legislative Assembly as an institution and also as an organization and workplace.

As already stated by the Clerk, it is also strategic, as it is structured to align with and support the administration’s organizational strategic pillars for this upcoming fiscal year, and those four pillars are on the slide before you.

These strategic goals and, therefore, our budget proposal also have been informed by external and internal factors, including the cost of living; cost of goods, materials and services and related inflationary pressures, all of which have increased; as well as internal audit findings that have identified gaps to be filled and other areas that require investment.

[9:25 a.m.]

Our work has also been informed by the results of consultations by the administration with members and caucuses and the administration’s drive for service excellence. We have built a draft budget that responds to the identified needs and expectations of members in their constituencies and, as stated earlier, in relation to their work in the House or in committees, in terms of the resources and supports and people and materials that you all require for your work.

My colleagues will, a little later on in the presentation, delve into the strategic pillars in greater detail.

Kate Ryan-Lloyd (Clerk of the Legislative Assembly): Great. Thanks, Suzie.

This new slide provides the highlights from some successes that were achieved in the previous parliament, many of which continue to align with our new multi-year strategic plan. These initiatives, of course, were all supported earlier by targeted budget investments, which have led to significant improvements and operational efficiencies.

For context, I’ll share that during the last parliament, the period from 2020 to 2024, we focused on many of the activities shown on this slide.

Focusing on our then strategic goal of service excellence, we made significant strides with respect to members’ safety and security, investing in programs to enable coordinated support, prevention and investigation of member-related security risks and threats.

We established more effective partnerships for enforcement with police partners. We made a number of related critical investments for training, in threat assessment and in information technology and analytics to help support our safety and security programs.

We also transformed our service posture throughout the organization with the establishment of our new client services department, a new hub to streamline services and supports for members and their staff.

To deliver on our goal of operational excellence, we undertook, for the first time, formal planning and preparations to facilitate a successful transition to the 43rd parliament, including preparations for the growth of the institution with the addition of six new members.

We improved our business processes to create effective and innovative ways of completing our work, ensuring organization-wide application of project management frameworks. We initiated planning for a new corporate information systems initiative, the enterprise resource planning project, which you’ll hear a bit more about later this morning, to replace outdated manual systems and to seek new efficiencies with improved data and reporting.

To focus on our goal of sustaining a healthy workplace culture objective, we prioritized employee engagement, promoted learning and development, and supported the institution with relationship-building in support of our first reconciliation action plan.

Finally, to focus on encouraging access to the parliament buildings and the legislative processes of the assembly, we invested in projects to support the modernization, security and sustainability of both our physical and digital infrastructures. This included efforts informed by cybersecurity assessments, including renewing our external website and renewing network architecture and systems.

We addressed life safety risks on the legislative precinct, including the reconstruction of the main entrance and exit stairs and the addition of eight new emergency exits at the rear of the building. We are starting to continue to do even more of this, undertaking assessments and preparations for long-term precinct planning.

All of these efforts ultimately contribute to strengthening our supports for members and the democratic institution that we all serve.

As shown on the next slide, in December, our leadership group met with caucus chairs and senior caucus staff to inform our future budget planning for the ’25-26 fiscal year. We listened to feedback with respect to the services that are working well and what areas may need additional support or resourcing. Caucus feedback is always extremely valuable to us, and we will continue to seek your feedback throughout the year.

There were several common themes that emerged from this year’s caucus engagement. With respect to prioritizing safety and security, including cybersecurity, we heard that members’ safety and security remains a top priority, along with continued support for a sustained focus on mitigating cyberattacks and cyber risks.

With respect to continued support for constituency office operations, we heard that overall, member onboarding post-election had gone well. While members are appreciative of our initial transition supports, members are also seeking to have us expedite constituency office leasing and streamline new constituencies’ office setup. As I mentioned earlier, this continues to be a key priority focus for everyone at this present time.

[9:30 a.m.]

With respect to enhancing technology and IT infrastructure, we heard about the importance of improving technology services and offerings, including software solutions and tech equipment for staff, including supporting cell phones for constituency office staff.

We also heard how important it was to work towards the integration of artificial intelligence capabilities into our work in a way that aligns with privacy and security best practices.

We heard that there’s also a need to review specific policies and guidance related to caucus and constituency operations in the year ahead to ensure ongoing effective and efficient operations. A review of related policy provisions will be incorporated into our ’25-26 policy work plan.

Finally, with respect to supporting constituency office staff with enhanced training, we heard about the need to support constituency office staff with training opportunities, including an in-person seminar for constituency office staff here on the precinct, modelled after the MLA school format.

All of this feedback was a part of the subcommittee deliberations last week, and with their guidance, these changes and enhancements have been incorporated into the budget submission before you today.

The next slide here begins a new section of the presentation. That next section features four slides providing some additional context on where we have been as an organization, where we currently are, as well as where we intend to be, reflecting the risks and strategic priorities that Suzie briefly noted earlier.

I’ll ask my colleagues now and our leadership team to speak to these slides one by one, beginning with our Sergeant-at-Arms, Ray Robitaille.

Ray Robitaille: Thank you, Kate.

Good morning, Members.

The first pillar is supporting our members, who are our primary clients. As we look at this slide, our purpose centres on providing the services and infrastructure members needs to fulfil their role in our parliamentary democracy.

Where were we? At the beginning of the last strategic planning cycle, we had a dedicated and professional workforce that we’re grateful continues to this day, but we recognized we had some integration gaps between services that contributed to members’ experience being less than our service excellence goal had stated.

We recognized we had a responsive approach to addressing organizational priorities and wanted to be more proactive and agile in our ability to meet needs. We were faced with a number of significant challenges that required changes to our physical security environment. We had an aging infrastructure, which we continue to address to this day, that limited to how effective our service support tools were.

In response, we looked at focusing our efforts in two real key areas and broadly across the organization. We established our client services approach to seamless service delivery, and we’ve built a trusted member safety and security program that’s heavily supported by modern technology, both at the precinct and at a growing number of constituency offices.

Where are we going? We recognize that we continue to need to deliver on evolving client expectations and needs and are actively supporting new members and their staff through the steep learning curve of understanding the breadth of business that incorporates the Legislative Assembly of British Columbia.

Within our strategic plan, some highlights include the completion of the transformation of our security posture while adapting and optimizing the single-window service delivery model. We also recognize the unique needs of the members and their staff, and we’ll continue to invest in learning and development opportunities designed to support their ongoing role in a parliamentary democracy.

With that, I will have Daisy talk about our second strategic pillar.

Seunghee Suzie Seo (Law Clerk and Parliamentary Counsel): Thank you, Ray.

I’m not Daisy. I’m Suzie, but I will speak to the next strategic pillar, which is our service-oriented workforce.

Having a healthy workplace culture is a priority goal within this pillar because we want to sustain a workplace where people feel welcome, included and reflect the diversity of our beautiful province of British Columbia and, of course, of Canada. We strive to be a model employer by enabling our employees to contribute, innovate and collaborate using their diverse skills and perspectives.

[9:35 a.m.]

This results in healthy, engaged and diverse teams that are able to meet the needs of members, their staff and of caucuses. This goal is centred around promoting engagement; DEIA — diversity, equity, inclusion and accessibility; and learning.

In 2022-23, as we embarked upon the first strategic plan, our focus was on strengthening commitment on public service ethics, values, transparency and accountability. We were also dedicated to creating a professional workforce. We focused on building organizational capacity to support, again, members and staff, the reason why we’re all here. We wanted to actively promote DEIA and learning and development, to support our people.

We have currently built a diversity, equity, inclusion and accessibility strategy to create and implement a DEIA strategy to support every individual in our workplace to be their authentic self and to reach their full potential in carrying out their work for the Legislative Assembly.

We have also implemented a learning and development strategy to support the learning needs of employees and to build a learning culture by providing innovative and diverse opportunities that enhance learning at the individual level, at the level of leadership within our organization and also for teams. The administration, as members are aware, includes many operational areas that all work together but are also unique in their own ways.

We have also developed a people strategy to take a holistic approach to attract, grow, retain and inspire the administration’s most important asset, our people, who are needed in supporting the Legislative Assembly as a whole.

Looking ahead, we will continue to deliver on commitments of the reconciliation action plan. We will continue implementation of the people and culture plan and DEIA initiatives. We will support learning and development. We will recruit, develop and retain a high-performing and diverse workforce that will, not only today, continue to meet the needs of members as we look forward, and we also are making great efforts to increase cross-team collaboration.

Examples of this include integrated project planning and management; the establishment and, really, building up of interdepartmental committees, working groups and communities of practice; and also improved internal communications to avoid inefficiencies and to ensure that all parts of the administration are indeed working very well together.

Daisy Jassar: Moving on, I will be talking about modernizing our workplace.

Welcome, Members.

Over the past few budget cycles, the priorities within the strategic plan were focused on creating an environment committed to organizational improvement and ensuring our internal operations and support services were effective and efficient. To ensure that we had capacity to meet current and future member and staff needs, we have invested in our tools, our practices and capabilities.

Since 2022, the focus has been on creating programs and operations which ensure the continuity of parliamentary and other operations. As such, the past few budget cycles have been focused on innovative and results-oriented operations, ensuring continuity of chamber and parliamentary committees, identifying and addressing gaps within organizational maturity and capacity, trade-offs between sustaining operations and delivering on renewal projects and antiquated information systems.

Accomplishments related to this goal currently include supporting the transition to the 43rd parliament, resourcing to deliver on the ERP systems and other technology initiatives outlined in the digital strategy, and prudent financial management, given continued inflationary effects on all operations.

Moving forward, we are focused on continual improvements leading to resource optimization and efficiencies, implementing the first phase of the ERP project, planning work to develop long-term legislative precinct space strategies, as well as strengthening our physical and cybersecurity environments.

With that, I will pass it on to my colleague Andrew.

Andrew Spence: Our final lens recaps the infrastructure work, both physical and digital, that supports the Legislative Assembly in its goal of being an accessible democratic institution, all while balancing security objectives.

Over the past few years, we’ve made significant progress to mitigate many of the organizational risks that we have by reducing the technical debt within our network infrastructure that accumulated, over a number of years, through underinvestment.

[9:40 a.m.]

A number of building assessments and engineering reports have been prepared for the buildings that make up the precinct. We have begun the conversation on how to prioritize and plan the path forward.

We’ve addressed a number of pressing cybersecurity risks, including the retirement of our end-of-life website, and continue to face more as technology evolves. We have built capacity to deliver on our infrastructure needs, putting us in a good position to deliver on proactive initiatives, including a public engagement strategy and the supporting technology, as well as a long-term precinct plan encompassing the physical spaces.

While it spans across all our strategic pillars, we also highlight our intent to continue to deliver on our reconciliation action plan commitments, including ongoing education opportunities for members and staff and the development of a project plan for a memorial garden.

Lastly, regarding physical accessibility, we continue to focus on continued improvement through the operations of our legislative facility team, including improving signage and wayfinding until the time when we’re able to make major steps through a longer-term precinct plan.

With that, Kate will begin the introduction of our Vote 1 budget submission.

Kate Ryan-Lloyd (Clerk of the Legislative Assembly): Great. Thank you so much, Andrew.

We’re going to be entering a new section of the presentation. If there are any questions on the materials previously covered…. We’d certainly welcome, Mr. Chair, having any questions or discussion at this point.

Otherwise, the next section of the presentation will provide an overview of budget planning, and we’ll be walking through the specific categories of each operating budget, highlighting cost drivers, savings opportunities and key initiatives.

Raj Chouhan (Speaker Designate): Members, any questions or clarification from Kate or her team members?

Seeing none, Kate, please continue.

Kate Ryan-Lloyd (Clerk of the Legislative Assembly): All right. Thank you so much, Mr. Speaker.

I’ll move to the next slide, then, with respect to budget planning and areas of focus that really shape the budget submission before the committee today. As described by my colleagues earlier, our 2025-26 budget submission connects to identified risks and strategic plan priorities. Our budget planning focuses on these priorities and also responds to the realities of external economic and market environment conditions.

As shown on this slide, our budget priorities to be resourced in the year ahead include continuing the focus on member and staff safety and security programs and initiatives; addressing ongoing risks and challenges associated with cybersecurity; completing and implementating the first phase of the enterprise resource planning system; engaging with members, staff and, for the first time, the public to open up a conversation on the vision to shape a long-term precinct plan — a plan to renew, modernize and restore this historic site; and also maintaining critical infrastructure and capital assets on the precinct.

Our work as stewards really includes moving forward with a multi-year security perimeter project, beginning to repair our building foundation and its drainage system and beginning repairs on the parliament building roofs. I’ll make that plural, as I recently discovered that the parliament buildings have 27 roofs of all different kinds: asphalt roofs, copper roofs, slate roofs, metal roofs, as well as cupolas and skylights. So that’s kind of a fun fact to keep in mind.

Finding efficiencies, of course, and savings are an important part of every budget process. On the upper right-hand side of this slide, we highlight some of the savings areas in this year’s budget. That includes ongoing transformation of our professional security staff with a full implementation of our hybrid staffing model for the Sergeant-at-Arms areas, ensuring that we deploy the right resources at the right time in the right place. This new staffing model will continue to achieve heightened operational effectiveness and also assist us with continued management of related overtime costs.

Other savings that are found in the budget submission include Hansard’s innovative use of technology. Members will know, of course, that our Hansard Services department prepares all transcripts of the House and parliamentary committee activity, a very labour-intensive process. The innovative Hansard team has leveraged automated speech recognition technology to help create initial drafts of transcripts. This work, combined with recent process refinements, is expected to result in savings in both time and resources.

[9:45 a.m.]

With respect to space optimization on the precinct, we’re also continuing to work to make efficient use of existing office spaces here on site, making efforts to extend and optimize safe use of space on the precinct grounds.

Some cost drivers, of course, related to our budget submission include inflationary pressures on the purchase of various goods and services required by specific capital projects or service contracts, then also CPI adjustments to allowances or to operational budgets as may be required by policy.

Additionally, as noted at the bottom of this slide, this year’s budget also addresses historic shortfalls in several areas which are required to ensure that we have funds available for critical expense line items, such as our implementation of basic accounting standards, including amortization and asset retirement obligations. The additional funds help us also address shortfalls with respect to extraordinary policing costs and adjustments to benefits and wages to reflect actual use and cost of these items in the year ahead.

I’ll now ask my colleague Kathy Humphrey to provide an overview of budget assumptions on the next slide.

Kathy Humphrey: Thank you, Kate, and good morning, Members.

Further to the budget priorities that Kate noted in the earlier slide, this slide summarizes some of the specific details and specific assumptions that have been made as we prepared this budget.

The first assumption was the removal of last year’s election-specific costs, which were allocated across various departments in the current year.

The second impact is the inclusion of a budget related to the return to a normalized parliamentary calendar, which includes both spring and fall sitting periods. The budget also anticipates an increase in the parliamentary committee activity over the next year.

Some of the line items in the budget are adjusted annually at the rate of annual inflation measured by CPI. We have estimated CPI for 2024 to be 2.7 percent, and we will adjust this calculation if needed once the official CPI rate has been announced.

For assembly administration staff, we have adjusted wages to reflect a cost-of-living increase of 2 percent this year. Other inflationary factors, as Kate mentioned, have been reflected at the known rates within the various contracts or services that we use.

Additionally, we have addressed in the submission, as Kate mentioned, the numerous budget shortfalls accumulated over the years, particularly through some of the accounting entries, and the inclusion of some small contingencies within our operations, such as parliamentary operations and the caucus categories.

As in prior years, our key budget principle continues to be to ensure fiscal prudence and accountability while we continue to focus on our strategic and capital priorities. As efficiencies are found within our operations, the resources are continually reallocated to reflect these changing priorities.

With that, we’ll get into some more detail.

As Kate has mentioned previously, the budget submission, and our regular reporting, is structured in a way that highlights the different functional streams within the assembly operations. These specific categories are listed here on this slide. We will walk through the budget, category by category, but first, I will talk on the next slide about our consolidated submission.

This slide is a high-level summary of the assembly’s ’25-26 budget submission for both operating and capital. It should be noted that the details of this table on this particular slide will vary slightly from the details on the tables Kate mentioned earlier that form attachment 1, as some of the items we have pulled out for discussion and presentation purposes. The overall total of the submission is consistent.

As you can see at the top part of this table, it highlights the ’25-26 submission and shows the change from the prior year. Overall, our operating budget submission is $138 million, which is just over a 7 percent increase from the prior year.

Our capital budget is $10.7 million, with a decrease of approximately $24 million, reflecting a significant election capital cost. Highlighting in yellow is showing that reduction and the removal of the election-specific costs, which were included in the prior year, which is $13 million.

The darker blue row in this slide shows the operating costs that are directly tied to our capital projects. As the nature of capital, particularly in technology, changes, more of the significant projects from an accounting perspective include both capital and operating costs.

I'll now pass the presentation on to Artour, who will talk about the first few categories of our budget submission.

[9:50 a.m.]

Artour Sogomonian (Clerk Assistant, Parliamentary Services): Thank you, Kathy.

Good morning, Members.

The caucus operations budget category for the coming fiscal year supports the operations of all caucuses and, when applicable, legislative offices of independent members.

The caucus operations budget for the coming fiscal year is $11.1 million, which is an increase of 8.3 percent from the current year. Caucus funding is formula driven, as set out in the caucus funding policy and the leader’s office funding policy. A per-member amount is allocated for private members. Funding for members of the executive council is 50 percent of the allocation for a private member.

The Leader of the Official Opposition receives an additional budget, calculated as an average of all ministerial office budgets in the preceding fiscal year. In fiscal ’25-26, that amount is $885,000.

The Leader of the Third Party receives 50 percent of that budget, being $442,000 in the coming year. The calculations for caucus funding are reflective of the current caucus composition.

Members will see on the slide that there is an unallocated amount, which allows us to maintain flexibility in the event that caucus composition changes in the coming fiscal year. This contributes to the overall increase within the budget category. The unallocated amount also covers centralized funding for learning and development opportunities for caucus staff, certain components of benefits for caucus staff and funding for leave backfill in the event that caucus staff go on certain types of paid leave, such as maternity or parental.

The policy-set caucus funding formula bases part of the calculation on a research officer, N21 step 5 salary in the B.C. public service. Given that collective bargaining for the BCGEU for the coming fiscal year is not yet complete, the unallocated amount also leaves flexibility for caucus budget adjustments, should they be required once a new collective agreement is in place.

Lastly, I’ll also note that a big driver of the increase in this budget category is the fact that this is the first full-year allocation in caucus funding for the six additional members following the electoral district redistribution that took effect at last year’s provincial general election.

Next we have the constituency operations budget category. The total budget for this category is $37.128 million for fiscal year ’25-26, representing an increase of 27.9 percent over the current year.

This budget category captures costs relative to members’ constituency office operations across the province. This includes the constituency office allowance that each MLA receives. This allowance represents $15.913 million in this budget category. Constituency operations also captures leasing and office cost setup, including any tenant improvements, being $13.067 million in this budget category. This figure is reflective of the significant increase in both leasing and tenant improvement costs as leases are renegotiated and new leases are entered into for members’ constituency offices across the province.

This budget category also includes the in-constituency staff travel allowance for electoral districts eligible for it, benefits costs for constituency office staff and information technology and security costs for constituency offices, making up the remaining $8.148 million in this category. The policy provisions on the allowance amounts in this category dictate a consumer price index–based increase year over year.

For the purposes of the budget submission, as Kathy mentioned, the 2024 CPI is calculated at an assumed rate of 2.7 percent. The actual allowance amounts for ’25-26 will be confirmed once the 2024 CPI is published by B.C. Stats. The Clerk will communicate the confirmed amounts to caucuses and members closer to the start of the fiscal year, and they will also be published on the Members’ Guide to Policy and Resources website.

Lastly, as with the caucus operations budget category, I will note that a driver of the increase in this budget category is the fact that this is the first full-year allocation and constituency office funding for the six additional members following the electoral district redistribution that took effect at last year’s provincial general election.

On to members’ remuneration. This budget category has an allocation of $23.2 million for fiscal year ’25-26, which is an increase of 11 percent over the current year. Members’ remuneration as a component of this category is prescribed in the Members’ Remuneration and Pensions Act on April 1 of every year.

Basic remuneration for an MLA is increased by the prior year calendar year’s consumer price index. As previously noted, the 2024 CPI is calculated at an assumed rate of 2.7 percent, and the actual increase percentage will be confirmed once the 2024 CPI is published by B.C. Stats.

[9:55 a.m.]

This budget category also includes MLA benefits, including pension contributions. The members’ remuneration budget category also includes the capital city living allowance, representing approximately $1.5 million in the budget, and MLA travel, at approximately $3 million in the budget. Members will see “Other” in the amount of $200,000, on the slide. That is the members legal assistance fund that was previously established by your committee.

As with the preceding two budget categories, this is the first full-year allocation of the various funding pockets in this budget category for the six additional members following the electoral district redistribution that took effect at last year’s provincial general election. There is a budgetary uptick stemming from that.

I’ll now hand it over to Daisy to present on the next budget category.

Daisy Jassar: Thank you, Artour.

The next section of our Vote 1 budget is the independent respectful workplace office. The IRWO was created in the 2020-21 fiscal year to support, promote and sustain positive workplace interactions between members, caucus staff, ministerial staff, employees of the Legislative Assembly and other participant groups that come under the respectful workplace policy.

Since April 2023, the IRWO has been operated by Southern Butler Price LLP, a service provider that was selected through a competitive procurement opportunity. We continue to allocate $250,000 to this office.

In fiscal ’23-24, the new service provider focused on refreshing the IRWO website and preparing educational materials such as webinars and additional training resources. They also provided approximately 40 hours of in-person and virtual training.

In fiscal ’24-25, in addition to the general services provided by the office, the IRWO will focus on respectful workplace training, including an introductory e-course, including the parameters for completion of the e-course titled “Respectful Workplace Issues for MLAs,” with the course being designated as mandatory for all members of the Legislative Assembly.

There are three optional supplemental respectful workplace training courses to be offered up in the 2025-26 fiscal year.

With that, I will hand it back to Kate.

Kate Ryan-Lloyd (Clerk of the Legislative Assembly): Thank you so much, Daisy.

The next budget category is parliamentary operations, and it includes four dedicated areas, which are noted on the right-hand side of the slide: interparliamentary relations, funding for the Office of the Speaker, parliamentary committee operations and parliamentary documents.

Key budget impacts for parliamentary operations overall include the resumption of a typical parliamentary schedule for the Legislative Assembly, in comparison to the reduced parliamentary activity in the current fiscal year due to the general election.

We’re also anticipating an increase in parliamentary committee travel and off-site meeting costs, and we have incorporated a small contingency which we may most likely rely upon in a scenario when there is higher-than-anticipated parliamentary committee activity.

Members will see on this slide that the overall parliamentary operations budget category has an increase of $1.3. million, or 96 percent, over the current year. A significant portion of this increase is a restoration of funding as a result of the reductions that were made in the previous year, as I said, or in this current year with respect to general election activity.

The interparliamentary relations budget, one of these subcategories, has been increased by $108,000 over the prior year, with a full restoration of interparliamentary activities that were reduced again because of the election period. There is also a small increase in the interparliamentary relations budget to support and advance the Legislative Assembly’s reconciliation initiatives.

The Office of the Speaker is modestly proposed to increase by $4,000 to support increased staff salary costs with an anticipated cost-of-living wage increase.

But the most significant change is very much, as I said, the parliamentary committees operation budget, which is increased by $1.1 million, or 204 percent. Part of this restoration of funding, of course, is the restoration from the decrease in the previous fiscal year due to the general election, which also resulted in decreased parliamentary committee activity.

[10:00 a.m.]

Another factor, of course, that we’ve incorporated into this projection is the anticipated increase in parliamentary activity. In addition to the steady level of activity that we typically see in any parliamentary year, this year the Legislative Assembly will have a new select standing committee, being the Select Standing Committee on Private Bills and Private Members’ Bills.

With respect to parliamentary committee activity, we also anticipate the need to support the appointment processes for four of the independent statutory officers whose terms have either ended or will end in the fiscal year ahead. Those recruitment processes are undertaken by our parliamentary committees. As well, there are four statutory reviews, meaning a review of a particular act that is prescribed in law that must be undertaken by a parliamentary committee.

The parliamentary committees operations budget increase, therefore, reflects these cost pressures, which include higher travel costs as well as costs associated with committee travel and renting meeting venues when holding parliamentary committees outside of the legislative precinct.

Finally, the parliamentary documents budget within this budget category is also increased by $95,000 to support anticipated costs for legislative drafting, including preparation and publication of private members’ bills.

That is an overview of parliamentary operations.

I’ll shift next to the Legislative Assembly administration.

This slide highlights the budgetary components with respect to the Legislative Assembly administration. It is allocated across several subcategories, which are groups of departments within the administration.

The administration budget also includes many central supports for the whole institution, including members, such as security equipment, tech equipment, training funds, which may not be included in the caucus and constituency offices or members remuneration budget categories, which we reviewed earlier.

This Legislative Assembly administration budget category makes up approximately 36.8 percent of the total Vote 1 budget for Legislative Assembly operations. These resources also support our staff, many of whom work behind the scenes, enabling the work of members, caucuses and constituency offices in a variety of critical roles, and they ensure that all of the operations on the precinct function efficiently.

On the upper right-hand side, you’ll see the groups which we have categorized, our administration departments based on various service areas. They are client and support services, information services, parliamentary support services, precinct services, and security and sessional services.

Similar to many other organizations, the primary cost driver for the administration budget is wages. As shown on this slide, the cost-of-living increase for administration staff that is calculated into this budget submission is 2 percent. Though we are not part of the provincial collective bargaining process, we certainly strive to maintain a competitive compensation for our employees, and we’ll be monitoring the results of that process over the course of the year ahead.

Other cost pressures within the administration include increasing costs of IT support contracts, including software licensing, maintenance support and security pressures.

The next slide shows a bit more detail on the Legislative Assembly administration budget, including a breakdown between the subcategories across the administration. Those five main groups, each of which include extensive programs, service areas across the administration, are split in a relatively even or balanced way across all service areas.

The core operations budget for the administration sits at just over $51 million for the upcoming year, an increase of just over 9 percent. Additional funding of $3.8 million, which will be discussed in more detail in the strategic and capital initiative section of our presentation, has been set aside to reflect the planned completion of the enterprise resource planning project, the ERP project, as well as operating expenses tied directly to various capital projects.

This budget will enable the administration to continue its work on the initiatives, technology and services to support members and to modernize the workplace and maintain precinct infrastructure.

[10:05 a.m.]

As it has not yet been mentioned earlier, I’ll also note that the client and support services budget subcategory this year also includes a new fund of $250,000 to facilitate and fund out-of-town school visits to the Parliament Buildings here in Victoria. This is a new initiative that was put forward at the end of the last parliament, which also aligns with our strengthening public engagement goal.

Happy to take any questions that members may have with respect to the proposed budget for the administration, Mr. Speaker.

If there are no questions or discussion at this time, I will pass the presentation along to Kathy.

Raj Chouhan (Speaker Designate): Any questions or clarification from Kate or her team members?

Seeing none, then we can move on to Kathy.

Kathy Humphrey: All right. Thanks, Kate.

The next slide here is the Leg Assembly administration recoveries, which are also known in other areas as revenues, and it is approximately $1.187 million. These revenue line items include the sales for the parliamentary dining room and the parliamentary gift shop, which expect to see a slight increase over the prior year. The recoveries directly offset the expenses for these operations, which are included in the Legislative Assembly administration category that Kate just talked about.

The next slide is our final category in the budget submission, and it is the general centralized and accounting. This $9.325 million includes amortization and other expenses or offsets that reflect overall Assembly operations and particularly accounting transactions. Specifically, this category includes amortization, asset retirement obligations, centralized benefits such as parental leave or other centralized costs such as supplies or postage, which are difficult to allocate in advance. As well, the centralized category holds the yet-unallocated contingencies until such time as they may be required.

The large change in the budget from the prior year reflects the correction of several shortfalls that Kate mentioned previously that have accumulated from previous budgets and, particularly, an increase in the budget for the non-cash accounting entries.

A recent requirement to include asset retirement obligation liability, which is an estimate for future costs for the removal of hazardous materials in the precinct assets when they are decommissioned, has had a significant impact on the Assembly’s budget. This liability must be adjusted annually to reflect the inflated value and impacts both operating and capital budgets. The change in our asset retirement obligation, or ARO, in the ’25-26 budget is $1.3 million.

Additionally, as the Assembly continues to make capital improvements in technology and in the precinct building and other assets, the amortization expense each year will also increase. This year, it has increased by approximately $1 million, reflecting the prior year investments.

We have also included a small contingency to address additional expenses related to unplanned activities or risk events, such as a cyber incident. There is also a contingency of $600,000 marked for any extraordinary policing costs which may be incurred throughout the year. These contingencies will remain in the central fund until they are needed, at which point they will be appropriately allocated.

I will now pass the presentation back to Kate.

Kate Ryan-Lloyd (Clerk of the Legislative Assembly): Thank you, Kathy.

Our next slide begins a new section of the presentation we have separated out to highlight two particular strategic initiatives. In the subsequent slides, as well, we’ll be putting a focus on capital projects now, with respect to some critical investments that have very much impacted the budget submission.

The strategic initiatives that we will be speaking to include the completion of the ERP project, which my colleague Daisy Jassar will be speaking to next. The ERP project is a significant investment in technology used for our core operations, and it will be a critical component of modernizing our operations in the years ahead.

The second initiative is the development of a modular child care facility on the precinct, which was directed by the previous Legislative Assembly Management Committee. The project is currently in phase 2, and we are awaiting a response with respect to a provincial grant from the ChildCareBC new spaces fund, which I will be providing an update on to members shortly.

Then of course, across the precinct, there are many capital projects, both large and small, planned for the upcoming year, which we will highlight over the course of those next few slides.

First, I’ll pass it over to Daisy to talk about the ERP project, and I’ll provide an update on child care, and then we will address the capital program.

[10:10 a.m.]

Daisy Jassar: Thank you, Kate.

In 2024, the Assembly embarked upon a transformation journey enabled by an integrated enterprise resource software-as-a-service cloud platform. This initiative addressed aging legacy technology and was in response to multiple recommendations from several internal and external audits, such as the 2022 payroll systems review, the 2023 corporate accounting review, the 2021 human resource process review and the 2023 financial statement audit.

Through an extensive procurement process, the Legislative Assembly selected PwC to implement Workday’s integrated software as a service ERP platform solution.

The first phase of the project is to implement HR, payroll and finance functions.

Successful delivery of this project enables increased efficiency and productivity in the operations of the Legislature by providing consistent and standardized services through the adoption of best practices and business processes available in a modern integrated solution. Implementing the new ERP product is a significant undertaking for the Legislative Assembly that requires careful planning, execution and post go-live support to ensure the project’s success.

The budget ask for 2025 includes funding for completing the phase 1 implementation, ongoing licensing costs, a drawdown contract for maintenance and support and an ongoing product team.

If there are no questions, I will pass it on to Kate to discuss the child care project.

Raj Chouhan (Speaker Designate): Questions? None.

Kate.

Kate Ryan-Lloyd (Clerk of the Legislative Assembly): All right. The second significant initiative that I will highlight is our plan to construct a modular child care facility, a plan for construction on the legislative precinct grounds.

In February of 2024, the Legislative Assembly applied for $2.6 million of funding through the ChildCareBC new spaces fund to cover the capital construction costs of this facility. This project is a direct response to the growing need for child care services within the parliamentary workplace, and it aligns with our commitment to create a supportive work environment for both members and staff.

The child care facility is proposed to offer quality child care spots to all who work on the precinct as well as the local community. The project would provide a licensed child care program for 12 children under the age of 36 months and 25 children ages 30 months to school age, for a total capacity of 37 children.

The program is proposed to offer affordable, quality, inclusive child care in alignment with provincial government requirements in the child care licensing regulation. Families would pay regular monthly fees set by the operator, as they would in any other licensed facility.

In collaboration with an experienced local non-profit operator, we have been working through phase 2, with the design and planning for the facility, and are now awaiting preparations to move towards the construction phase, which would be subject to both grant approval and final project approval from the Legislative Assembly Management Committee. The modular facility would be located on the legislative precinct. Should final project approval be granted by this committee, the construction is expected to take approximately 12 months.

The ’25-26 budget for this project includes $500,000 in capital funding and $100,000 in operating costs for this project, which would cover expenses outside of the eligible grant costs. The $500,000 noted in the budget submission is to cover capital costs outside of those grant-eligible expenditures. The partnership with the non-profit provider also includes a number of one-time shared costs. After a successful setup of the operation, the operator is expected to be able to be eligible to apply for related operating grants.

If the project moves forward, there will also be adjacent security improvements around the child care facility to ensure the safety of children, which will be prioritized as a component of the assembly’s ongoing multi-year security perimeter planning.

Once we receive an update on the grant application, we will return to seek formal approval from your committee. If approved by the Legislative Assembly Management Committee, the project will then move into phase 3, which will be focused on the actual construction of the facility and preparation for occupancy.

I’d be happy to answer any questions you might have on this project, or we can move to the next slide, with respect to our capital services budget.

[10:15 a.m.]

Raj Chouhan (Speaker Designate): Seems like no questions. Please continue.

Kate Ryan-Lloyd (Clerk of the Legislative Assembly): Okay, thank you very much.

The next slide introduces our overall capital investments over the past five years. The yellow bar on top of the current year reflects the $5.2 million invested in election-related capital allocated in the current-year budget. That is funding primarily for IT equipment and assets.

Over the past few years, the assembly administration has invested resources in strengthening our project and planning environment. As a result, we have been better positioned to complete more capital projects and better understand how to effectively manage critical assets that need to be replaced or renovated in our environment.

Multi-year planning is underway so that the Legislative Assembly can take on larger initiatives in the years ahead, including modernization, renewal and restoration of precinct buildings in future years.

Many investments in technology and security equipment are established on an evergreen basis, an evergreen model, with scheduled replacements occurring as planned. This approach to capital budget management helps to flatten out some of the highs and lows of capital spending and also helps to provide flexibility to address critical repairs and replacements as needed.

I’ll now invite Kathy to begin a detailed overview of the components of the ’25-26 capital budget submission.

Kathy Humphrey: This next slide breaks down the total capital into the various program categories, showing the change year over year. The light green column also adds the operating costs, which we mentioned previously, that are directly associated with these specific categories. Overall, the capital budget submission is $10.7 million for the next year, with approximately $800,000 in related operating costs, bringing the total to $11.5 million.

As Kate mentioned in her summary of child care, a small capital amount is included, pending the approval of the grant for the full capital cost of the project. Additionally, there is a modest capital contingency of $527,000, accounting for 5 percent of the capital budget, which is also included.

The largest component not within any specific category is the capital component of the asset retirement obligation, which I mentioned previously. The operating component of it is included in the general centralized section, and this obligation relates to the requirement of removing hazardous materials from our assets in the future.

The accounting entry requires a budget line item in both operating and capital. When the work is eventually done to remove the hazardous materials and retire the asset, these funds that have been set aside will be used to reduce any cash outlay in those future years.

We will now highlight some of the details within each of the specific categories. The most significant of the categories is the major capital infrastructure program, with just over $5 million in spend, and it is approximately 50 percent of our total capital submission.

As the assembly continues to focus on building a plan for the future of the precinct, several asset management projects are being undertaken in the ’25-26 fiscal year, including the continuation of the multi-year security perimeter hardening improvement program, short-term repair work that initiates our work on the main building roof or roofs and beginning seismic improvement projects that will continue to mitigate the risks across the precinct.

Addressing the growing space needs and modernization of the assembly’s existing spaces on the precinct is a priority within the ’25-26 fiscal year as we reimagine the space to utilize more efficiently and effectively the space that we have within our existing buildings.

Andrew will now talk about the other categories.

Andrew Spence: Thanks, Kathy.

An overview of the scope and budget for our IT infrastructure program for ’25-26 is presented on slide 31. Funding levels are consistent with our previous non-election years, focusing on modernizing the technology backbone, both reducing our business interruption risk and increasing the organization’s capacity to use new tools to enhance business operations.

Specifically, we are tackling the next year of our seven-year plan to modernize the precinct network and infrastructure through the data centre. We continue to evergreen equipment that enables the Hansard broadcasts — that work continues; support the organization’s broader physical security and cybersecurity objectives; and improve the information systems that support our parliamentary operations.

[10:20 a.m.]

The final area of our budget to present is our minor capital program on slide 32, accounting for 7 percent of the capital budget. It includes costs that don’t fit into the major infrastructure programs, such as the ongoing fire alarm upgrades, specialized equipment related to security, and the needs of the legislative facilities team are reflected here. As well, the formula-driven caucus funding is also included in this area.

That concludes the capital budget areas.

I’ll turn things back to Kate.

Raj Chouhan (Speaker Designate): Okay. Thank you so much, Kate, and everyone on your team, for making such a detailed presentation.

I’m sure our committee members have done a really good job reading all the material in advance. They’ve familiarized themselves with it.

Any questions from the members for Kate or her team members?

Seeing none, I think we have a couple of her motions to deal with.

The first motion reads:

[That the estimates of expenditure for fiscal year 2025-26 for the Legislative Assembly for Vote 1 be approved, as presented.]

May I have somebody to move.

It’s been moved. Somebody to second it.

It has been seconded.

Motion approved.

Raj Chouhan (Speaker Designate): Next motion today reads:

[That the Chair transmit the estimates of expenditures for fiscal year 2025-26 for the Legislative Assembly for Vote 1, as presented, to the Minister of Finance on behalf of the Committee.]

May I have a mover, please.

It has been moved, seconded.

Motion approved.

Raj Chouhan (Speaker Designate): That was done.

Now we move on to the last item, if there is any other issue people want to raise. Otherwise, we are done.

Kate Ryan-Lloyd (Clerk of the Legislative Assembly): I’ll just briefly close to express our appreciation to members for their consideration of the budget submission that was put forward today. We’re honoured to have your support, and we are committed to ensuring that we continue to work closely with you and the subcommittees of the Legislative Assembly Management Committee to give you ongoing updates and reports on our overall progress.

We’re grateful for your support for the key initiatives and capital investments outlined in this budget, which I think represent a very forward-thinking, strategic approach with both short- and long-term benefits to the Legislative Assembly.

On behalf of the leadership team, I just wanted to very much express our appreciation to members this morning.

Raj Chouhan (Speaker Designate): Kate, on behalf of all members, I also want to say thank you to you and to your team for the really tremendous job you have done. It’s not easy to put a budget together when you are talking with various stakeholders. We want to make sure that everything is taken care of, so thank you for the good job.

All right. A motion to adjourn the meeting.

It’s been moved, seconded.

Motion approved.

The committee adjourned at 10:24 a.m.