The committee met at 0900 in room 151 and by video conference.

Election of Chair

The Clerk of the Committee (Mr. Christopher Tyrell): Good morning, honourable members. It is my duty to call upon you to elect a Chair. Are there any nominations? Madame Gélinas.

M^me France Gélinas: I would like to nominate Taras Natyshak.

The Clerk of the Committee (Mr. Christopher Tyrell): Okay. Does the member accept the nomination?

Mr. Taras Natyshak: With thanks to my nominator—

The Clerk of the Committee (Mr. Christopher Tyrell): Mr. Natyshak, just one second. You have to—not yet.

Interjection: We have to vote.

The Clerk of the Committee (Mr. Christopher Tyrell): Yes. Okay, the member has accepted the nomination. Are there any further nominations? There being no further nominations, I declare the nominations closed and Mr. Natyshak elected Chair of the committee.

The Chair (Mr. Taras Natyshak): Good morning, colleagues and guests. We are in a little bit of a new era here, with myself as Chair. I ask your indulgence and your patience as I learn the ropes here. I know that I have big shoes to fill from my colleague Catherine Fife, who held the role previously. But she is acting as an adviser, so I’ll still have some good information.

I do want to relay to you all that I hope to act as fairly and as impartially as I can. I’m dedicated to making sure that this committee runs smoothly and is serving the public as it should.

With that, we will move to—the roll call, I believe, is the first order of business. I don’t have everyone’s names, unfortunately, underneath—

Interjection.

The Chair (Mr. Taras Natyshak): Now I do.

Obviously, those who are in attendance here in person don’t need to be added to the roll call. But those who are online, we will find out who you are and where you are.

With that, can Mr. Tabuns identify himself and let us know if you are indeed in the province of Ontario?

Mr. Peter Tabuns: Hi. Peter Tabuns, MPP for Toronto–Danforth, and I am in Toronto.

The Chair (Mr. Taras Natyshak): Thank you, Mr. Tabuns.

Mr. Cuzzetto. He’s online?

Mr. Rudy Cuzzetto: Yes. It’s Rudy Cuzzetto, and I’m here in Mississauga–Lakeshore.

The Chair (Mr. Taras Natyshak): Thank you, Mr. Cuzzetto.

Mr. Blais.

Mr. Stephen Blais: Good morning. Stephen Blais, MPP for Orléans, and I’m in Toronto.

The Chair (Mr. Taras Natyshak): Thank you, Mr. Blais.

Mr. Parsa.

Mr. Michael Parsa: Good morning, Chair. It’s Michael Parsa, and I’m in Richmond Hill, Ontario.

The Chair (Mr. Taras Natyshak): Thank you, Mr. Parsa.

Ms. Hogarth.

Ms. Christine Hogarth: Good morning, Chair. It is Christine Hogarth, MPP for Etobicoke–Lakeshore, and I am in Etobicoke. Thank you.

The Chair (Mr. Taras Natyshak): Thank you very much.

Ms. Bell.

Ms. Jessica Bell: Morning, MPP Natyshak. I’m in Toronto, and this is Jessica Bell.

The Chair (Mr. Taras Natyshak): Thank you very much, Ms. Bell.

Madame Gélinas.

M^me France Gélinas: Bonjour, tout le monde. It’s France Gélinas, MPP for Nickel Belt, and I’m in beautiful Nickel Belt.

The Chair (Mr. Taras Natyshak): Mr. Anand.

Mr. Deepak Anand: Good morning, new Chair. This is Deepak Anand from Mississauga.

The Chair (Mr. Taras Natyshak): Thank you very much. I believe that is everyone online, virtually.

We’ll now move to the report of the subcommittee.

Interjection.

The Chair (Mr. Taras Natyshak): Oh, okay. There’s a little bit more here. Thank you.

We are also joined by legislative research, as well as staff from broadcasting and reporting.

There will be a chat running in Zoom for those of you participating by video. It will allow you to send messages to the Clerk. Please only use the chat for committee-related business.

For the Zoom participants, please be aware that broadcast and recording will be controlling your microphones, as they usually would in committee. Depending on the version of Zoom that you’re using, you may have been asked to grant permission to unmute you when you joined. If you accepted, the broadcast operator will be able to activate your microphone once I recognize you. Participants using older versions of Zoom may still get a request to unmute your microphone before you are able to speak. Please wait for the unmute notification before trying to unmute.

For those of you participating in person or by video, if you would like to make a point of order or if you’d like the floor, please physically raise your hand to get the attention of the Chair. If you are calling with audio only, pressing *9 will indicate to the Clerk that you would like to speak.

If you accidentally get disconnected, please try to rejoin the meeting with the information you used to join initially. If you are unable to rejoin, please contact Andrew Kleiman from technical services. His email was included in the email which contained the Zoom link for this meeting.

If we are required to recess due to technical difficulties, please keep your device that you are using to participate close at hand and wait for further instructions via email from the Clerk.

For any members present in person, I would ask you to stay two seats apart from your colleagues in order to maintain a safe distance between everyone.

Subcommittee report

The Chair (Mr. Taras Natyshak): The next item of business on our agenda is consideration of the report of the subcommittee on committee business dated Tuesday, January 26, 2021. Would someone like to read the report into the record and move its adoption? Mr. Kramp.

Mr. Daryl Kramp: Thank you, Chair. Prior to that, for the convenience of those on the screen who do not recognize the members who are in the room, perhaps the members in the room should be identified so that those on the screen are aware that we are here.

The Chair (Mr. Taras Natyshak): Sure, certainly. Would you like to start the lead there?

Mr. Daryl Kramp: Present in the room here, Daryl Kramp.

Mr. Stephen Crawford: MPP Stephen Crawford.

Mr. Toby Barrett: Toby Barrett.

The Chair (Mr. Taras Natyshak): Okay, thank you very much—oh, and our esteemed Auditor General.

Ms. Bonnie Lysyk: Bonnie Lysyk.

The Chair (Mr. Taras Natyshak): Thank you very much, Ms. Lysyk.

Okay, back to the matter at hand: Would someone like to read the report into the record and move its adoption? Mr. Parsa.

Mr. Michael Parsa: Good morning, Chair. Can you hear me?

The Chair (Mr. Taras Natyshak): We’re just looking for someone to read the report into the record, to move the report on the record so that we can get to the next step. Do you have that phrase in front of you? Everyone should have a copy, so I’m looking for anyone here. Any takers? Going once—Mr. Kramp.

Mr. Daryl Kramp: Thank you, Chair. I would move that the report be read into the record and be brought to the floor today.

The Chair (Mr. Taras Natyshak): Excellent. Thank you very much. Is there any debate on the report?

Interjection.

The Chair (Mr. Taras Natyshak): Mr. Kramp, if you would read the entirety of the report from the subcommittee into the record.

Mr. Daryl Kramp: Okay, the report of the subcommittee—I have it in front of me here.

The subcommittee met on January 26, 2021, and recommended the following:

(1) That the following sections of the 2020 Annual Report of the Office of the Auditor General be reviewed by the committee, as following:

—Public Accounts of Ontario, 2020;

—Value-for-Money Audit, Blood Management and Safety, 2020;

—Value-for-Money Audit, Virtual Care: Use of Communication Technologies for Patient Care, 2020; and

—Value-for-Money Audit, Retirement Homes Regulatory Authority, 2020.

(2) That the following chapters of the COVID-19 Preparedness and Management Special Report of the Office of the Auditor General be reviewed by the committee:

—Chapter 1: Special Report on Emergency Management in Ontario—Pandemic Response;

—Chapter 2: Special Report on Outbreak Planning and Decision-Making.

The Chair (Mr. Taras Natyshak): Is there any debate on the report? Seeing none, are members ready to vote? All those in favour, please indicate. All those opposed? I declare the motion carried.

We will now move into closed session for report-writing. I will briefly pause while we get that set up. Thanks.

The committee continued in closed session at 0910.

STANDING COMMITTEE ON PUBLIC ACCOUNTS

Chair / Président

Mr. Taras Natyshak (Essex ND)

Vice-Chair / Vice-Présidente

M^me France Gélinas (Nickel Belt ND)

Mr. Deepak Anand (Mississauga–Malton PC)

Mr. Toby Barrett (Haldimand–Norfolk PC)

Ms. Jessica Bell (University–Rosedale ND)

Mr. Stephen Blais (Orléans L)

Mr. Stephen Crawford (Oakville PC)

Mr. Rudy Cuzzetto (Mississauga–Lakeshore PC)

M^me France Gélinas (Nickel Belt ND)

Ms. Christine Hogarth (Etobicoke–Lakeshore PC)

Mr. Daryl Kramp (Hastings–Lennox and Addington PC)

Mr. Taras Natyshak (Essex ND)

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

Substitutions / Membres remplaçants

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

Ms. Laura Anthony, research officer,
Research Services