Legislative Assembly of Ontario

The committee met at 1204 in committee room 1.

COMMITTEE BUSINESS

The Clerk of the Committee (Mr. Trevor Day): Honourable members, it is my duty to call upon you to elect an Acting Chair. Are there any nominations?

Mr. Bas Balkissoon: I nominate my good friend on the other side, MPP Todd Smith.

The Clerk of the Committee (Mr. Trevor Day): Mr. Balkissoon has nominated Mr. Smith. Mr. Smith, do you accept the nomination?

Mr. Todd Smith: I don’t. I would like to nominate Toby Barrett to be the Acting Chair.

The Clerk of the Committee (Mr. Trevor Day): Toby Barrett is—

Mr. Bas Balkissoon: Not a member of the committee.

The Clerk of the Committee (Mr. Trevor Day): —not a member of the committee and is not currently here.

Do you accept the nomination?

Mr. Todd Smith: Yes.

The Clerk of the Committee (Mr. Trevor Day): Mr. Smith accepts the nomination.

Are there any further nominations? Seeing no further nominations, Mr. Smith, you are duly elected as Acting Chair.

The Acting Chair (Mr. Todd Smith): Thank you for the nomination. I appreciate that.

Mr. Bas Balkissoon: Mr. Chair, I have a motion.

The Acting Chair (Mr. Todd Smith): Mr. Balkissoon, go ahead with your motion.

Mr. Bas Balkissoon: I move that the Clerk, in consultation with the Chair, be authorized to arrange the following with regard to Bill 153, Complying with International Trade Obligations Act, 2014:

(1) One day of public hearings when the committee next meets, Wednesday, May 7, 12 to 3 p.m.;

(2) Advertisement on the Ontario parliamentary channel, the committee’s website and the Canadian NewsWire;

(3) Witnesses are scheduled on a first-come, first-served basis;

(4) Each witness will receive up to five minutes for their presentation, followed by nine minutes for questions from committee members;

(5) The deadline for written submission is 3 p.m. on the day of public hearings;

(6) That the research office provide a summary of the presentations by 5 p.m. on Friday of the same week following public hearings;

(7) One day of clause-by-clause consideration, scheduled for Wednesday, May 14, 2014, during its regularly scheduled meeting times, 12 to 3 p.m.;

(8) The deadline for filing amendments with the Clerk of the Committee be 12 noon on the day preceding clause-by-clause consideration of the bill.

Mr. Chair, I just move that to deal with Bill 153.

The Acting Chair (Mr. Todd Smith): Do you have any comments, Mr. Balkissoon, that you’d like to make about the motion?

Mr. Bas Balkissoon: The only comment I have is that, as everyone knows, the government is under, I guess, an obligation to make these changes, and we would like to see the committee deal with this order of business very quickly so that we could meet our commitment, which I believe is early June. It’s something very simple that I think most of us understand.

The Acting Chair (Mr. Todd Smith): Do we have any other discussion or comments?

All those in favour of the motion? All those opposed? Carried.

Is there any other business? Yes, Ms. Forster?

Ms. Cindy Forster: Yes. I’d like to actually move that the Clerk, in consultation with the Chair, be authorized to arrange the following with regard to Bill 149, the Healthy Decisions for Healthy Eating Act, 2013: Sections 1 through 8 would be the same; the dates would change, and I guess it would be May 28 and June—whatever that is. May 28 and June—is it 4, 5?

The Clerk of the Committee (Mr. Trevor Day): June 4.

The Acting Chair (Mr. Todd Smith): Do we have copies of that?

Ms. Cindy Forster: No, I don’t.

Mr. Bas Balkissoon: Chair, can we get copies of that circulated?

The Acting Chair (Mr. Todd Smith): A brief recess to have copies distributed to all of the members of the committee.

The committee recessed from 1209 to 1213.

The Acting Chair (Mr. Todd Smith): Okay, the committee is back. Ms. Forster, would you like to read your motion into the record, please?

Ms. Cindy Forster: Yes, I’ll do that.

I move that the Clerk, in consultation with the Chair, be authorized to arrange the following with regard to Bill 149, the Healthy Decisions for Healthy Eating Act, 2013:

(1) One day of public hearings when the committee next meets on May 28, 12 to 3 p.m.;

(2) Advertisement on the Ontario parliamentary channel, the committee’s website and the Canadian NewsWire;

(3)Witnesses are scheduled on a first-come, first-served basis.

(4) Each witness will receive up to five minutes for their presentation, followed by nine minutes for questions from committee members;

(5) The deadline for written submission is 3 p.m. on the day of public hearings;

(6) That the research office provide a summary of the presentations by 5 p.m. on Friday of the same week following public hearings;

(7) One day of clause-by-clause consideration, scheduled for Wednesday, June 4, 2014, during its regularly scheduled meeting times, 12 to 3 p.m.;

(8) The deadline for filing amendments with the Clerk of the Committee be 12 noon on the day preceding clause-by-clause consideration of the bill.

The Acting Chair (Mr. Todd Smith): Would you like to speak to your motion?

Ms. Cindy Forster: Certainly. We have two weeks left after we deal with the motion that just passed, and so I think this is a very important bill. It’s certainly one that the member from Nickel Belt has brought forward on a number of occasions. I’d like to ensure that it gets dealt with during this session.

The Acting Chair (Mr. Todd Smith): Any further debate on the motion? Mr. Balkissoon.

Mr. Bas Balkissoon: Thank you, Mr. Chair. I’m trying to understand this. The bill that has been requested we go through the committee process on, which was a bill moved by our colleague France Gélinas—I believe the content of that bill is already included in government legislation that is already in front of the House for debate. I’m just wondering what we will achieve by going through the process here and we’ll have to go through it a second time.

In a similar fashion, I could have stood up and asked for Bill 116, which is in front of this committee, which is my bill on hand-held devices. But I chose not to do that, because there’s a government bill that includes everything that’s in my Bill 116, a private member’s bill. I chose not to do that, because I want to make sure the committee’s time is used responsibly. I see the same thing here.

There are several other bills that are referred to this committee. Maybe the best thing for us as a committee is to call a subcommittee meeting, look at all the legislation that is pending in front of this committee and probably put some kind of priority list on it. To me, for us to schedule this now and then have the other bill that is doing that plus more—I don’t think it’s a good use of our time as legislators. That’s my comment.

The Acting Chair (Mr. Todd Smith): Any further debate? Are the members ready to vote?

Mr. Bas Balkissoon: Can we take a 20-minute recess, Mr. Chair?

The Acting Chair (Mr. Todd Smith): No further debate? Twenty-minute recess.

The committee recessed from 1217 to 1237.

The Acting Chair (Mr. Todd Smith): Okay, the committee’s back. It’s time to vote on the motion by Ms. Forster. All in favour? Opposed? The motion is lost.

Any further business for the committee? The committee is adjourned until next Wednesday.

The committee adjourned at 1238.

CONTENTS

Wednesday 30 April 2014

Committee business M-363

STANDING COMMITTEE ON THE LEGISLATIVE ASSEMBLY

Chair / Président

Mr. Garfield Dunlop (Simcoe North / Simcoe-Nord PC)

Vice-Chair / Vice-Présidente

Ms. Lisa MacLeod (Nepean–Carleton PC)

Mr. Bas Balkissoon (Scarborough–Rouge River L)

Mr. Grant Crack (Glengarry–Prescott–Russell L)

Mr. Vic Dhillon (Brampton West / Brampton-Ouest L)

Mr. Garfield Dunlop (Simcoe North / Simcoe-Nord PC)

Ms. Cindy Forster (Welland ND)

Ms. Lisa MacLeod (Nepean–Carleton PC)

Mrs. Amrit Mangat (Mississauga–Brampton South / Mississauga–Brampton-Sud L)

Mr. Michael Mantha (Algoma–Manitoulin ND)

Mr. Todd Smith (Prince Edward–Hastings PC)

Substitutions / Membres remplaçants

Mr. Toby Barrett (Haldimand–Norfolk PC)

Clerk / Greffier

Mr. Trevor Day

Staff / Personnel

Mr. Andrew McNaught, research officer,
Research Services