2002 Legislative Session: 3rd Session, 37th Parliament
SELECT STANDING COMMITTEE ON CROWN CORPORATIONS
MINUTES AND HANSARD

MINUTES SELECT STANDING COMMITTEE ON CROWN CORPORATIONS Wednesday, July 24, 2002 9:00 a.m. Birch Committee Room Parliament Buildings, Victoria

Present: Ken Stewart, MLA (Chair); Bill Bennett, MLA (Deputy Chair); Dave Hayer, MLA; Ida Chong, MLA; Pat Bell, MLA; Daniel Jarvis, MLA; Ken Johnston, MLA

Unavoidably Absent: Joy MacPhail, MLA; Tony Bhullar, MLA; John Nuraney, MLA; Dr. John Wilson, MLA

1. The Chair called the Committee to order at 9:04 a.m. 

2. The Committee met in-camera to discuss the review and reporting process for the Committee.

3. The Committee discussed its workplan, and agreed to the following dates as upcoming committee meetings for the purpose of reviewing selected Crown Corporations: September 4, 18, October 2, 23, and November 20.

4. The Committee adjourned at 10:10 a.m. to the Call of the Chair.

The following electronic version is for informational purposes only.
The printed version remains the official version.

REPORT OF PROCEEDINGS
(Hansard)

SELECT STANDING COMMITTEE 
ON CROWN CORPORATIONS

WEDNESDAY, JULY 24, 2002

Issue No. 7

ISSN 1499-4194

[ Page 93 ]

WEDNESDAY, JULY 24, 2002

           The committee met at 9:04 a.m.

              [K. Stewart in the chair.]

           K. Stewart (Chair): We can now bring the meeting to order. We'll start with the agenda.

[0905]

           Obviously, we do not have a Crown corporation group coming before us. The timing during July, with regard to holidays, makes it quite difficult to get a group. We were shooting for three different groups' availability. One was actually in the middle of core review today, so it made it somewhat difficult. That indicates that a priority for us should be planning and scheduling for the fall, so that's one of the things I've put on the agenda today. I'd like to plan a work schedule right through the fall with regard to dates. There was a request — I trust everyone got the note — to bring their calendars today so we could look at what the fall schedule and lineup would look like.

           Secondly, we will be going in camera later to discuss the draft report. The reports should be confidential until delivered to the Clerk's office for the House. We'll be very careful to ensure that happens. And in saying that, just note the confidentiality of the report prior to it being deposited with the Clerk's office.

           Again, we'll look at the workplan for this fall, and finally, any other business will be added at the end. Any comments, additions, deletions?

           D. Hayer: I just want to clarify your comments that due to a holiday schedule, we were not able to have any Crown corporations here. My understanding is that, very clearly, the holiday schedule you're talking about is a schedule of Crown corporations and not the members of this committee.

           K. Stewart (Chair): That's correct.

           D. Hayer: We have been available for the meetings all this month. Is that clear?

           K. Stewart (Chair): That's correct, Dave. The timing with regards to Crown corporations is that the reality is that many people take holidays in July and August. I appreciate the fact that we haven't had much of an opportunity to take any holidays yet this summer. That is correct: with regards to members, we've had a good presentation of members throughout the summer so far. That wasn't it — to clarify that.

           The review process is something I would now like to move in camera on, so if there are any guests in the room, we ask you to leave, and we'll move in camera for that discussion.

           The committee continued in camera at 9:07 a.m.

           The committee continued in open session at 10 a.m.

              [K. Stewart in the chair.]

           K. Stewart (Chair): We will be moving out of camera now.

           The first topic I would like to bring up is a fall schedule. I've taken the liberty of going over the fall schedule, looking into the legislative time we're coming up to, and I've looked to book into that. I'm going to just reflect upon the dates I've found, for your consideration.

           Starting in September, it's my belief that most people will be here on September 5, which is a Thursday. My first date that we could meet would be the 4th, starting at 1 o'clock. That gives people ample opportunity to get down in the morning of the 4th.

           I'll just go through these dates. September 4, September 18….

           I. Chong: September 18 is caucus.

           D. Hayer: September 18 is caucus — 8 a.m.

           K. Stewart (Chair): Okay, 8 a.m. I was looking at a later meeting.

           D. Hayer: We could have it on the 17th or 19th.

           K. Stewart (Chair): How about the 19th?

           I. Chong: The select standing committee will start touring around that time. I don't know how many members are on the Select Standing Committee on Finance: myself, I think Arnie….

           D. Jarvis: I'm looking at this week with the 16th and 17th, and I've got something going on every day. Forestry there, Forestry again and then the caucus.

           K. Stewart (Chair): Does anyone know how long the caucus is that day?

           D. Jarvis: We have marathon caucuses. Count on five hours minimum.

           D. Hayer: My schedule shows starting at three.

           D. Jarvis: I have three to eight.

           K. Stewart (Chair): Three to eight.

           D. Hayer: It's 3 p.m. to 8 p.m.

           K. Stewart (Chair): Then we could easily meet in the morning.

           P. Bell: Why don't you just work with the Whip's office? They have the universal schedule.

           K. Stewart (Chair): That's where I got some of this stuff.

[ Page 94 ]

           Let's put the 4th down. No one's got a problem with that. The 18th, I would like to work around the…. If caucus isn't till three, I think we could easily….

           D. Jarvis: I'm talking about the 4th.

           K. Stewart (Chair): The 4th — 1 o'clock.

           B. Bennett (Deputy Chair): What do you have so far, Ken?

           K. Stewart (Chair): Well, let me just run through all the dates, and then we'll come back and have some debate on it.

           I've got September 4 and 18. On the 18th we'll obviously have to work around caucus, if we choose that date. I've got October 2. We're all here on the Tuesday; that's a Wednesday. I'm looking at Wednesdays simply because we know cabinet meets on Wednesdays.

           D. Jarvis: So does everyone else there.

           I. Chong: October 2 it is.

           K. Stewart (Chair): So I've got October 2. We can go at 1 o'clock again. We may want to go in the morning if we're here on the Tuesday.

           I'm just going to rough in some dates at this point in time.

           D. Jarvis: I would suggest that we probably go in the morning.

           K. Stewart (Chair): Okay, the morning of October 2.

           Some Voices: October 1. Caucus meets from three to eight on the 1st.

           K. Stewart (Chair): Yeah, and I was thinking of the next day, the Wednesday, so we're all here. We can meet on the morning of October 2 and the 23rd. Again, we can meet on the morning of the 23rd. Into November I have the 20th. Then we can do a final reporting out somewhere in the first week of December.

           D. Jarvis: What did you have after October 23?

           K. Stewart (Chair): November 20.

[1005]

           I. Chong: Mr. Chair, are you wanting to report out in the fall session? November 28 would be our last day. Are you wanting to have a report out to the House? If so, we would have to ensure we draft our reports prior to December.

           K. Stewart (Chair): I think that the 20th was the day that was…

           I. Chong: …to report out or the date to draft the report?

           K. Stewart (Chair): Draft the report.

           You can see the limited number of dates that we really do have.

           B. Bennett (Deputy Chair): Do you have all the caucus committee meetings and so forth?

           K. Stewart (Chair): Yeah. I went to the global calendar for this.

           I. Chong: A lot of them, unfortunately, have not been entered. The Finance and Government Services Committee is still getting those set up, because we have to know when our touring times will be. Public Accounts, the opposition member…. I don't know if she would necessarily have submitted her timetable for Public Accounts with our Whip. Public Accounts will be meeting.

           K. Stewart (Chair): One of the difficulties with scheduling is simply this: if you don't schedule early, we found out what happens. If you don't pick dates, you don't get dates. If you try to make sure it works out with everyone, you never get a date.

           B. Bennett (Deputy Chair): I think we should go ahead.

           K. Stewart (Chair): Those are the dates we're going to go with, then, and we'll make the adjustments as we have to, moving through.

           The dates again are: the afternoon of the 4th — that's from one to four; the morning of the 18th, when we'll go from nine to 12; and October 2. That will be a morning meeting from nine to 12. We may have to go to one and provide lunch on those, given the timeline we have on them, but we can make that adjustment as long as we've got the dates down.

           The 23rd, again, will be a morning meeting, and November 20, again, will be a morning meeting. Okay?

           B. Bennett (Deputy Chair): We're looking at one, two, three, four, five Crown corporations this fall.

           I. Chong: Four, because the 20th will be a reporting-out date for our draft report, likely. There are only four meetings where we can deal with Crowns and one meeting to deal with the draft report.

           K. Stewart (Chair): We may want to look at that reporting-out one. We can leave that open at this point in time. It's a few months away. As to whether we can draft the report as we go along, that will just be one other one we have to do.

           We've got a list of ones that we have as priorities. I'm sure that we all would like to see some of the bigger Crowns this fall. I have a meeting scheduled at the end of August with Brenda Eaton to talk about where everyone is at with their Crown reviews. I would like to find out if there's any indication with regards to changes in Crowns. I'll be talking to the ministers

[ Page 95 ]

ahead of time, so we'll have a bit of a basis to start doing our scheduling.

           We will go ahead and try to get one of the ones we talked about for our first date in September. Then after that we'll bring a list for approval to the committee as a whole as to the schedule for the other four meetings.

           D. Jarvis: Could you let us know as soon as you have…for your first one?

           K. Stewart (Chair): Yes. I'm hoping that it's going to be British Columbia Lottery Corporation. The excuse they used before, they won't be able to use a second time. Let's put it that way.

           D. Hayer: Can you also e-mail all the members the dates that we spoke of?

           K. Stewart (Chair): Yes. I'm sure Audrey can assist us with that.

           D. Jarvis: Then register it with the…. Because all the natural resources are just…. They're meeting twice a week now.

           I. Chong: The GCCs are going to start going very full bore with legislation.

           K. Stewart (Chair): We have this discussion about what everyone else is doing, but we have a responsibility here. We have a priority to this committee — at least I do — to ensure that we get our dates in and do our work too. If we wait for everyone else to pick first, again, we won't be doing much. Let's just go.

           Also, I look to the members to give equal time to the committees they're on. I know there are going to be some conflicts, but we would certainly appreciate your input into our committee, and we'd like you to put the energies in that we need to do a good job.

           Any further questions or comments? Any new business?

           The committee adjourned at 10:10 a.m.

[ Return to: Crown Corporations Committee Home Page ]

Copyright © 2002: British Columbia Hansard Services, Victoria, British Columbia, Canada