Assemblée législative de l'Ontario

The committee met at 0913 in committee room 1 and by video conference.

Time Amendment Act, 2020 Loi de 2020 modifiant la Loi sur l’heure légale

Consideration of the following bill:

Bill 214, An Act to amend the Time Act and various other Acts / Projet de loi 214, Loi modifiant la Loi sur l’heure légale et diverses autres lois.

The Chair (Mr. Kaleed Rasheed): Good morning, everyone. I call this meeting to order. We are meeting today for clause-by-clause consideration of Bill 214, An Act to amend the Time Act and various other Acts.

We have the following members in the room: MPP Roberts. The following members are participating remotely: MPP Cuzzetto, MPP Mitas, MPP McDonell, MPP Skelly, MPP Collard and MPP Kanapathi. Staff from Hansard, broadcast and recording and legislative counsel join us remotely today.

To make sure that everyone can understand what is going on, it is important that all participants speak slowly and clearly. Please wait until I recognize you before starting to speak. Since it could take a little time for your audio and video to come up after I recognize you, please take a brief pause before beginning. As always, all comments should go through the Chair.

Once again, in order to ensure optimal sound quality, members participating via Zoom are encouraged to use headphones and/or microphones if possible. Are there any questions before we begin? None?

Also, if I may just add, because we have a member dialling in, I would appreciate if we can follow this process: If during the voting process we have technical difficulties and we lose video of a member, we will conduct the vote through a roll call process. I will start by asking, “Are the members ready to vote?” The Clerk will call out each voting member’s name, and you can reply with “yea” for a vote in favour, “nay” for a vote against or “abstain” if you would like to abstain from voting on the matter. I would appreciate if you decide to abstain that you actually do in fact say “abstain.” If you would like a recorded vote, kindly just please ask for a recorded vote before I call on the vote for any clause-by-clause.

I think we are good. We’re going to start the clause-by-clause now. Are there any comments, questions or amendments to any section of the bill, and if so, to which section?

I see none, so now we will go to section 1. There are no amendments. Any debate on section 1? Seeing none, are we ready to vote on section 1? It looks like yes. If I may request Tonia to please conduct the vote, I’d appreciate that. It’s carried.

I have requested for all of your mikes to be unmuted so that we can do this process quickly. So if you can all just unmute yourselves, please. You must have received a message. Awesome. Perfect.

Let’s move to section 2. Any debate? Seeing none, are we ready to vote? Awesome. If I may request—Tonia, please. Thank you. Section 2 is carried.

Okay. Let’s move to section 3. Any debate on section 3? None? Are we ready to vote? Yes, we are.

Section 4 carries.

0920

The Clerk of the Committee (Ms. Tonia Grannum): No, that was section 3.

The Chair (Mr. Kaleed Rasheed): Sorry, my apologies. Section 3 carries.

Section 4: Any debate on section 4? Seeing none, are we ready to vote? Please go ahead. Thank you.

Interjection.

The Chair (Mr. Kaleed Rasheed): I see MPP Hassan has just joined us. If you can please confirm that you are MPP Faisal Hassan and you are dialling in from Ontario. Thank you.

Mr. Faisal Hassan: Yes, thank you, Chair. This is Faisal Hassan, MPP for York South–Weston. I’m joining you from right here in my office at Queen’s Park.

The Chair (Mr. Kaleed Rasheed): Thank you.

Prior to this, I just want to make sure that I do say section 4 carried.

Let’s move on to section 5. Any debate on section 5? Seeing none, are we ready to vote? Section 5 carries.

Let’s move to section 6. Any debate on section 6? Seeing none, are we ready to vote? Ready? Okay. Awesome. Section 6 carries.

Shall the title of the bill carry? The title is carried.

Shall Bill 214 carry? Carried.

Shall I report the bill to the House? Awesome.

I think we are done. I do see MPP Roberts raising his hand. Please go ahead.

Mr. Jeremy Roberts: I’d like to move a motion. I move that the committee enter closed session for the purposes of organizing committee business, and that broadcasting staff be permitted to remain in the closed session meeting for the purposes of operating the electronic meeting technology.

Mr. Faisal Hassan: Mr. Chair?

The Chair (Mr. Kaleed Rasheed): I do recognize you, Mr. Faisal Hassan, but just give me 30 seconds. We are just doing a few things on this end and then we’ll be happy to recognize you again. Thank you.

The motion should be appearing on your screen now, the motion that MPP Roberts just requested. Is there any debate on this motion—oh, sorry, my apologies. I did recognize MPP Faisal Hassan. Just give me a second and your mike will be unmuted.

Mr. Faisal Hassan: Okay, here I am. Chair, I just want to go on the record that there’s no need for us to go into a private session. If we’re going into a private session, I want this to be recorded and my vote to be recorded as well in the record. There’s no need for us to actually go into private when we’re discussing matters of the committee.

The Chair (Mr. Kaleed Rasheed): Thank you very much, MPP Hassan. I do acknowledge that you have requested a recorded vote. Perfect.

Any further debate? I do see MPP Collard.

M^me Lucille Collard: I just want to echo the comments of MPP Hassan. I’m relatively new as an MPP, and in the work I’ve done in committee, setting administrative details for the work of the committee is being done in closed session, and I really don’t understand the reason for this. So I will vote against the motion.

The Chair (Mr. Kaleed Rasheed): Further debate? Seeing none, are we ready to vote?

Interjection.

The Chair (Mr. Kaleed Rasheed): Sorry, MPP McDonell. Apologies. I do see you want to speak. I recognize you.

Mr. Jim McDonell: I just wanted to highlight that, over my time here, subcommittee work is always done in closed session. I just want to get the point out that this is not something that’s done differently; it’s standard operation. Generally, there are only one or two members from each party there, and in this case here, we’re including the whole [inaudible], but this is standard practice.

The Chair (Mr. Kaleed Rasheed): I recognize MPP Hassan.

Mr. Faisal Hassan: This is not a subcommittee. A subcommittee has not been notified, as you know, for this committee. If we are going to closed sessions, then the work has to be earlier on invited for the subcommittee, and there haven’t been any meetings as such. Now, if we are meeting, the whole committee, then I think it makes it appropriate that it should be public so that the communities across the province know exactly what this committee is talking about and what motions are on the table. I just want to put that into the record.

The Chair (Mr. Kaleed Rasheed): Further debate? Seeing none, ready to vote? Yes, we are. It’s going to be a recorded vote, as per the request of MPP Hassan.

Ayes

Cuzzetto, Kanapathi, McDonell, Mitas, Roberts, Skelly.

Nays

Collard, Hassan.

The Chair (Mr. Kaleed Rasheed): Motion carried. Thank you.

We’re just going to wait now for the team members to exit and we are in closed session. But I think I have requested for the members of broadcast to stay. Thank you.

The committee continued in closed session at 0931.

STANDING COMMITTEE ON THE LEGISLATIVE ASSEMBLY

Chair / Président

Mr. Kaleed Rasheed (Mississauga East–Cooksville / Mississauga-Est–Cooksville PC)

Vice-Chair / Vice-Président

Mr. Vijay Thanigasalam (Scarborough–Rouge Park PC)

Ms. Rima Berns-McGown (Beaches–East York ND)

Mr. Michael Coteau (Don Valley East / Don Valley-Est L)

Mr. Faisal Hassan (York South–Weston / York-Sud–Weston ND)

Mr. Logan Kanapathi (Markham–Thornhill PC)

Mr. Jim McDonell (Stormont–Dundas–South Glengarry PC)

Miss Christina Maria Mitas (Scarborough Centre / Scarborough-Centre PC)

Mr. Sam Oosterhoff (Niagara West / Niagara-Ouest PC)

Mr. Kaleed Rasheed (Mississauga East–Cooksville / Mississauga-Est–Cooksville PC)

Ms. Sara Singh (Brampton Centre / Brampton-Centre ND)

Ms. Donna Skelly (Flamborough–Glanbrook PC)

Mr. Vijay Thanigasalam (Scarborough–Rouge Park PC)

Substitutions / Membres remplaçants

M^me Lucille Collard (Ottawa–Vanier L)

Mr. Rudy Cuzzetto (Mississauga–Lakeshore PC)

Mr. Jeremy Roberts (Ottawa West–Nepean / Ottawa-Ouest–Nepean PC)

Clerk / Greffière

Ms. Tonia Grannum

Staff / Personnel

Mr. Bradley Warden, legislative counsel