The committee met at 0902 in room 151.

Subcommittee report

The Chair (Ms. Catherine Fife): Good morning, everyone. Welcome to the 2020 public accounts committee. We’re going to get a lot of work done, I know. I’m now going to call this meeting of the Standing Committee on Public Accounts to order.

I understand that we have a draft report from the subcommittee on committee business for consideration for this year. Would a member like to read it into the record and move its adoption? Madam Vice-Chair.

M^me France Gélinas: Your subcommittee on committee business met on December 11, 2019, and recommends the following:

(1) That the following sections of volume 1 of the 2019 Annual Report of the Office of the Auditor General be reviewed by the committee:

—section 3.01: acute-care hospital patient safety and drug administration—it’s not written, but my favourite;

—section 3.06: food safety inspection programs;

—section 3.08: Office of the Chief Coroner and Ontario forensic pathology service;

—section 3.09: Ontario Disability Support Program.

(2) That the following chapters of volume 2 of the 2019 Annual Report of the Office of the Auditor General be reviewed by the committee:

—chapter 3: Climate Change: Ontario’s Plan to Reduce Greenhouse Gas Emissions.

(3) That the following sections of volume 1 of the 2018 Annual Report of the Office of the Auditor General be reviewed by the subcommittee:

—section 3.06: Metrolinx—GO station selection.

The Chair (Ms. Catherine Fife): Under (3), you said “reviewed by the subcommittee.” It’s “by the committee.”

M^me France Gélinas: Sorry.

The Chair (Ms. Catherine Fife): Thank you.

Interjection.

M^me France Gélinas: Did I make more mistakes?

The Chair (Ms. Catherine Fife): You move the adoption of—

M^me France Gélinas: I move the adoption.

The Chair (Ms. Catherine Fife): Thank you very much. Any debate on the selection by the subcommittee? Seeing none, shall the motion to adopt the report of the subcommittee on committee business carry? All those in favour? All those opposed? Seeing none, I declare the motion carried.

We will now move into closed session to begin report-writing.

M^me France Gélinas: Madam Chair?

The Chair (Ms. Catherine Fife): Yes?

M^me France Gélinas: Can I ask a question?

The Chair (Ms. Catherine Fife): Of course.

M^me France Gélinas: We have voted and agreed that this will be our work plan.

The Chair (Ms. Catherine Fife): That’s right.

M^me France Gélinas: Do we have any say as to what we want to do first?

The Chair (Ms. Catherine Fife): I’m going to put it over to the Clerk. He can review the process right now.

The Clerk of the Committee (Mr. Christopher Tyrell): The subcommittee met back in December and had agreed to the selections. In anticipation of today, I’ve started making preliminary arrangements. Nothing has been set in stone yet, but with the adoption of this today, I will now contact the ministries and finalize the dates for their public hearing appearances. We tentatively have Metrolinx GO station selection scheduled for next week because it was the earliest one of the selections.

Mr. Norman Miller: Sorry, what is it? Metrolinx?

The Clerk of the Committee (Mr. Christopher Tyrell): Metrolinx GO station selections, yes.

The Chair (Ms. Catherine Fife): Ms. Gélinas.

M^me France Gélinas: Without creating a ton of work for anybody else, is there any way to start with either the acute-care hospital patient safety and drug administration or the Office of the Chief Coroner?

The Chair (Ms. Catherine Fife): The committee can determine, if you have a preference—you obviously want these two issues to come forward. Is there any—

Mr. Norman Miller: I think generally it’s what the Clerk is able to set up, and, as I recall, it’s who is available. It’s slightly flexible in that it—

The Chair (Ms. Catherine Fife): The Clerk was going to pursue all of the contacts for these various reports, and we will report back next week and tell you how things are going. It depends on when people can actually come to the committee as well, right?

The Clerk of the Committee (Mr. Christopher Tyrell): Yes.

The Chair (Ms. Catherine Fife): Okay. We will now move into closed session.

The committee continued in closed session at 0907.

STANDING COMMITTEE ON PUBLIC ACCOUNTS

Chair / Présidente

Ms. Catherine Fife (Waterloo ND)

Vice-Chair / Vice-Présidente

M^me France Gélinas (Nickel Belt ND)

Ms. Jill Andrew (Toronto–St. Paul’s ND)

Mr. Toby Barrett (Haldimand–Norfolk PC)

Mr. Stan Cho (Willowdale PC)

Mr. Stephen Crawford (Oakville PC)

Ms. Catherine Fife (Waterloo ND)

Mr. John Fraser (Ottawa South / Ottawa-Sud L)

M^me France Gélinas (Nickel Belt ND)

Ms. Goldie Ghamari (Carleton PC)

Mr. Norman Miller (Parry Sound–Muskoka PC)

Mr. Michael Parsa (Aurora–Oak Ridges–Richmond Hill PC)

Mrs. Nina Tangri (Mississauga–Streetsville PC)

Substitutions / Membres remplaçants

Mr. Robert Bailey (Sarnia–Lambton PC)

Mr. Jeff Burch (Niagara Centre / Niagara-Centre ND)

Ms. Andrea Khanjin (Barrie–Innisfil PC)

Mr. Tom Rakocevic (Humber River–Black Creek ND)

Mr. Sheref Sabawy (Mississauga–Erin Mills PC)

Mr. Peter Tabuns (Toronto–Danforth ND)

Also taking part / Autres participants et participantes

Ms. Bonnie Lysyk, Auditor General

Clerk / Greffier

Mr. Christopher Tyrell

Staff / Personnel

Mr. Dmitry Granovsky, research officer,
Research Services

Ms. Erica Simmons, research officer,
Research Services