Assemblée législative de l'Ontario

The committee met at 0906 in room 151.

ELECTION OF CHAIR

The Clerk of the Committee (Ms. Valerie Quioc Lim): Good morning, honourable members. It is my duty to call upon you to elect a Chair. Are there any nominations?

Mrs. Teresa Piruzza: Yes, I’d like to nominate Bob Delaney as Chair of this committee.

The Clerk of the Committee (Ms. Valerie Quioc Lim): Mr. Delaney has been nominated. Do you accept the nomination?

Mr. Bob Delaney: Yes, I do.

The Clerk of the Committee (Ms. Valerie Quioc Lim): Are there any further nominations?

There being no further nominations, I declare the nominations closed and Mr. Delaney elected as Chair. Mr. Delaney, would you take the Chair?

Applause.

The Chair (Mr. Bob Delaney): I thank my producer and my director for that kind nomination.

ELECTION OF VICE-CHAIR

The Chair (Mr. Bob Delaney): Good morning, honourable members. My first duty as your Chair is to entertain a motion for Vice-Chair. Are there any motions?

Mr. Yasir Naqvi: Chair, congratulations on your election. I’d like to nominate Teresa Piruzza as the Vice-Chair of the committee.

The Chair (Mr. Bob Delaney): Are there any further nominations?

Mrs. Piruzza, do you accept the nomination?

Mrs. Teresa Piruzza: I accept.

The Chair (Mr. Bob Delaney): If there are no further nominations, I declare Teresa Piruzza elected as Vice-Chair of the Standing Committee on Finance and Economic Affairs. Congratulations.

Applause.

APPOINTMENT OF SUBCOMMITTEE

The Chair (Mr. Bob Delaney): Our third item on the agenda today: Do we have a motion to appoint the subcommittee on committee business? Mr. Shurman.

Mrs. Teresa Piruzza: Chair?

The Chair (Mr. Bob Delaney): We have—oh, I’m sorry.

Mrs. Teresa Piruzza: I do have a motion to move with respect to subcommittee. I move that a subcommittee on committee business be appointed to meet from time to time, at the call of the Chair or at the request of any member thereof, to consider and report to the committee on the business of the committee;

That the presence of all members of the committee is necessary to constitute a meeting; and

That the subcommittee be composed of the following members: the Chair as chair, Mr. Naqvi, Mr. Shurman, and Mr. Prue; and

That substitution be permitted on the subcommittee.

The Chair (Mr. Bob Delaney): Okay, thank you. Is there any discussion or comments? No discussion?

If none, I’ll put the question. Shall the motion carry? Carried.

BRIEFING

The Chair (Mr. Bob Delaney): The business of our committee is now done. I believe our clerk would like to provide a briefing on committee business. Thank you all.

The Clerk of the Committee (Ms. Valerie Quioc Lim): Thank you, Chair.

My name is Valerie Quioc Lim and I’m the committee clerk. I’d just like to take a few minutes to give a brief overview of the committee and to explain my role. Then I will turn it over to Susan Viets, the committee’s research officer, to speak briefly about her role.

This committee is one of three standing committees involved with the financial accountability cycle. Its mandate is set out in standing order 108(e), which states that the committee “is empowered to consider and report to the House its observations, opinions and recommendations on the fiscal and economic policies of the province and to which all related documents shall be deemed to have been referred immediately when said documents are tabled.”

Government bills or private members’ public bills may be referred by the House to the committee either after first or second reading. The committee’s function is to examine the text of a bill in detail, or clause by clause, and may propose amendments as it sees fit. The committee often holds public hearings to consider the views and opinions of individuals or groups on any of the bills that it is examining.

The House may also refer any matter or issue to the committee, which the committee considers in a similar manner as a bill, and the committee may write a substantive report of its findings and present it to the House.

The committee also, traditionally, or historically, holds pre-budget hearings in the winter adjournment, travelling to various cities in the province. The committee’s findings are also usually presented in a substantive report and presented to the House.

With the consent of the majority of its members, the committee may study any issue within its mandate.

As committee clerk, my role is to provide confidential, non-partisan procedural advice and administrative support to all members of this committee. My office will notify you of any upcoming committee meetings or subcommittee meetings, and we’ll send any relevant materials to you.

The committee’s procedural and administrative practices are outlined in more detail in the committee resource binder, which was sent to your office and, hopefully, you have received. My contact information is on the back page, so please feel free to contact me, or you can contact my assistant, Marie, if you have any questions or if you need any assistance.

I just want to draw your attention to some of the staff that we have here. Committee meetings are regularly staffed by a Hansard reporter, who sits at the table to my right, and a broadcast and recording operator, who controls some microphones. Meetings here in 151 have interpreters, whom you see at the booth back there.

Again, please contact me if you have any questions or you need any assistance, and I look forward to working with all of you.

Now I turn the time to Susan Viets.

Ms. Susan Viets: Hi; my name is Susan Viets. I’m the research officer attached to the committee. Like Valerie’s, the role of the research officer is to provide confidential, non-partisan research support for the committee.

There are three primary roles that the research officer plays with this committee. The first is, on instruction from the committee, to prepare a summary of witness recommendations made during hearings on bills. Secondly is a broader research support role, which is, again, to answer any questions posed by the committee or to provide any research or background material that the committee believes would be helpful for its work. Finally, as Valerie mentioned, traditionally there are pre-budget hearings held through this committee, and so the role of the research officer then is also to prepare a summary of the witness recommendations made during the pre-budget hearings and also, on instruction from committee, to draft the report for the committee.

The Chair (Mr. Bob Delaney): Is there any discussion or comments? Any further business for the committee on this day?

Our meeting is adjourned. Thank you all very much.

The committee adjourned at 0913.

CONTENTS

Thursday 1 March 2012

Election of Chair F-1

Election of Vice-Chair F-1

Appointment of subcommittee F-1

Briefing F-1

STANDING COMMITTEE ON FINANCE AND ECONOMIC AFFAIRS

Chair / Président

Mr. Bob Delaney (Mississauga–Streetsville L)

Vice-Chair / Vice-Présidente

Ms. Teresa Piruzza (Windsor West / Windsor-Ouest L)

Mr. Bob Delaney (Mississauga–Streetsville L)

Mr. Vic Fedeli (Nipissing PC)

Ms. Cindy Forster (Welland ND)

Mr. Monte McNaughton (Lambton–Kent–Middlesex PC)

Mr. Yasir Naqvi (Ottawa Centre / Ottawa-Centre L)

Ms. Teresa Piruzza (Windsor West / Windsor-Ouest L)

Mr. Michael Prue (Beaches–East York ND)

Mr. Peter Shurman (Thornhill PC)

Ms. Soo Wong (Scarborough–Agincourt L)

Substitutions / Membres remplaçants

Ms. Helena Jaczek (Oak Ridges–Markham L)

Clerk / Greffière

Ms. Valerie Quioc Lim

Staff / Personnel

Ms. Susan Viets, research officer,
Legislative Research Service