The committee met at 1400 in room 151.

Subcommittee report

The Chair (Ms. Ann Hoggarth): I’d like to call the Standing Committee on Finance and Economic Affairs to order. At this time, we are here to receive the report of the subcommittee on committee business.

Is there someone who would like to read it into the record? MPP Baker.

Mr. Yvan Baker: I’d like to volunteer to read it into the record, Chair.

The Chair (Ms. Ann Hoggarth): Go right ahead.

Mr. Yvan Baker: Your subcommittee on committee business met on Thursday, November 30, 2017, to consider the method of proceeding with pre-budget consultations 2018, and recommends the following:

(1) That the committee hold pre-budget consultations in Toronto on December 14, 2017, from 9 a.m. to 10:15 a.m., and 1 p.m. to 4:30 p.m.

(2) That the Chair, on behalf of the committee, request the House leaders to authorize the committee to meet from 1 p.m. to 2 p.m. on Thursday, December 14, 2017, for the purpose of public hearings.

(3) That the committee hold pre-budget consultations in Thunder Bay, Sudbury, Ottawa, Kitchener-Waterloo, and Windsor on January 15, 16, 17, 18, and 19, 2018.

(4) That the research officer provide a summary of oral consultations to the committee by January 24, 2018.

(5) That the summary of oral consultations be provided to the Minister of Finance by the Clerk of the Committee.

(6) That the committee meet for the purpose of report writing in Toronto on January 31, February 1 and 5, 2018.

(7) That the Chair, on behalf of the committee, request the House leaders to authorize the committee to meet for up to five days during the winter adjournment for the purpose of pre-budget consultations, and up to three days for the purpose of report writing.

(8) That the Clerk of the Committee, with the authorization of the Chair, post information regarding the pre-budget consultations on the Ontario parliamentary channel, on the Legislative Assembly’s website and with Canada NewsWire.

(9) That the Clerk of the Committee, with the authorization of the Chair, place an advertisement in the Turtle Island News and a major newspaper for one day in each of the cities where the committee intends to hold pre-budget consultations, and that the advertisements be placed in both English and French papers where possible.

(10) That interested people who wish to be considered to appear before the committee on December 14, 2017, contact the Clerk of the Committee by 9 a.m. on December 8, 2017.

(11) That following the deadline for requests, the Clerk of the Committee provide the subcommittee members and their designate with an electronic list of all potential witnesses who have requested to appear before the committee by 11 a.m. on December 8, 2017.

(12) That, if all requests to appear on December 14, 2017, cannot be accommodated, each of the subcommittee members or their designate supply the Clerk of the Committee with a prioritized list of witnesses chosen from the Clerk’s list by 2 p.m. on December 8, 2017, and that the scheduling be done in the order of the government, the official opposition and the third party.

(13) That the Clerk of the Committee provide the subcommittee members and their designate with a draft agenda of witnesses scheduled to appear on December 14, 2017 by 5 p.m. on December 8, 2017.

(14) That interested people who wish to be considered to appear before the committee on January 15, 16, 17, 18 and 19 contact the Clerk of the Committee by 5 p.m. on January 8, 2018.

(15) That, following the deadline for requests, the Clerk of the Committee provide the subcommittee members and their designate with an electronic list of all potential witnesses who have requested to appear before the committee by 6 p.m. on January 8, 2018.

(16) That the Clerk of the Committee be authorized to schedule all interested witnesses in a location, if all requests received by the deadline can be accommodated.

(17) That, if all requests to appear cannot be accommodated in any given location, each of the subcommittee members or their designate supply the Clerk of the Committee with a prioritized list of witnesses chosen from the Clerk’s list by 10 a.m. on January 9, 2018, and that the scheduling be done in the order of the government, the official opposition and the third party.

(18) That late requests from interested witnesses be accommodated on a first-come, first-served basis, space permitting.

(19) That the deadline for written submissions be 5 p.m. on the last day of public hearings.

(20) That, with the exception of procedural motions during public hearings, the committee consider all other motions during report writing.

(21) That the committee authorize two staff persons from each recognized party to travel with the committee, space permitting, for the purpose of pre-budget consultations and that reasonable expenses incurred for travel, accommodation and meals be paid for by the committee upon receipt of a properly filed expense claim.

(22) That the research officer provide a draft report to the committee by January 26, 2018.

(23) That witnesses be offered a total of 15 minutes, 10 minutes for presentations and five minutes for questioning by party rotation.

(24) That each party provide the committee Clerk with the name of one expert witness and one alternate no later than January 9, 2018.

(25) That expert witnesses be offered 10 minutes for their presentations, and 30 minutes as part of an expert witness panel, in which they will field questions from committee members and have an opportunity to interact with other panel members.

(26) That expert witnesses be scheduled to appear before the committee in Ottawa on January 17, 2018.

Chair, I’d like to move adoption of the report of the subcommittee.

The Chair (Ms. Ann Hoggarth): Any discussion? Yes, MPP Baker?

Mr. Yvan Baker: There’s an additional item which we didn’t address in the subcommittee, which I’d like to raise. I don’t know if now is the right time to raise it or if we should raise it separately from the report. So, if I may, I’d like to just tell you what that is and then, Chair, you can rule on whether it’s now during this part of the—

The Chair (Ms. Ann Hoggarth): Does it affect the vote? Can we vote first?

Mr. Yvan Baker: Well, it could. It depends on where it’s appropriate to raise it. The issue I simply wanted to raise was that what we didn’t cover in the subcommittee report—it was just an oversight, I think—was the authorization of allowing the sessions to be live-streamed. I wanted to present that to you as a proposal to be authorized by the committee. But I don’t know if that’s an amendment to this report or if it’s something that gets dealt with separately.

The Chair (Ms. Ann Hoggarth): We’ll deal with this and then we’ll come back to it.

Mr. Yvan Baker: Great.

The Chair (Ms. Ann Hoggarth): MPP Baker has moved that we accept the report of the subcommittee. Is there any further discussion? Seeing no further discussion, all those in favour of accepting the subcommittee report? All those opposed? That is carried.

MPP Baker brought up the issue of live-streaming. Is there anyone who would have a problem with us live-streaming, as we’ve done in the past? So that’s okay? We don’t have to put it in our report. We’re all in agreement that the hearings will be live-streamed? Okay. That is all we have to—

Interjection.

The Chair (Ms. Ann Hoggarth): Yes, MPP Barrett?

Mr. Toby Barrett: Further discussion after the vote or—

The Chair (Ms. Ann Hoggarth): Do you have something in particular you want to discuss?

Mr. Toby Barrett: Yes, just to clarify in my own mind. Quickly, there are what, three deadlines? December 8 would be the first deadline. That would be to testify on the 14th. Is that correct? Point number 10.

The Chair (Ms. Ann Hoggarth): This is for clarification, because it has passed. It has carried.

Mr. Toby Barrett: Just so we’re all clear, yes. So the first deadline is December 8, to testify on December 14?

The Chair (Ms. Ann Hoggarth): Yes, that’s correct.

Mr. Toby Barrett: And then the next deadline, I guess, would be January 19.

The Chair (Ms. Ann Hoggarth): January 8.

Mr. Toby Barrett: Oh, January 8—that’s right—to appear on the week-long series.

The Chair (Ms. Ann Hoggarth): Yes.

Mr. Toby Barrett: So that’s the next deadline for the public.

The Chair (Ms. Ann Hoggarth): Yes.

Mr. Toby Barrett: Then the other deadline for the public, for written submissions, I see that in number 19. It doesn’t give the date, but I assume that would be Windsor, January 19?

The Chair (Ms. Ann Hoggarth): On the last day of public hearings, which is the 19th.

Mr. Toby Barrett: So for the public, there are three deadlines that they should know about, I suppose.

The Chair (Ms. Ann Hoggarth): Yes.

Mr. Toby Barrett: I just wanted to clarify that.

The Chair (Ms. Ann Hoggarth): Okay, that’s great. Thank you, MPP Barrett.

We have no further business at this time, so I move that we adjourn.

The committee adjourned at 1411.

STANDING COMMITTEE ON FINANCE AND ECONOMIC AFFAIRS

Chair / Présidente

Ms. Ann Hoggarth (Barrie L)

Vice-Chair / Vice-Président

Mr. Han Dong (Trinity–Spadina L)

Mr. Yvan Baker (Etobicoke Centre / Etobicoke-Centre L)

Mr. Toby Barrett (Haldimand–Norfolk PC)

Mr. Mike Colle (Eglinton–Lawrence L)

Mr. Han Dong (Trinity–Spadina L)

Mr. Victor Fedeli (Nipissing PC)

Ms. Ann Hoggarth (Barrie L)

Ms. Harinder Malhi (Brampton–Springdale L)

Mrs. Cristina Martins (Davenport L)

Mr. John Vanthof (Timiskaming–Cochrane ND)

Clerk / Greffier

Mr. Eric Rennie

Staff / Personnel

Ms. Sandra Lopes, research officer,
Research Services