Assemblée législative de l'Ontario

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

Election of Chair

The Clerk of the Committee (Ms. Julia Douglas): Good morning, honourable members. It is my duty to call upon you to elect a Chair. Pursuant to standing order 120(b), the Chair of the Standing Committee on Finance and Economic Affairs shall be a member of the party forming the government.

Are there any nominations? Mr. Smith.

Interjection.

The Clerk of the Committee (Ms. Julia Douglas): Sorry, we can’t hear you.

Mr. Dave Smith: Sorry, Clerk. Can you hear me now?

The Clerk of the Committee (Ms. Julia Douglas): Yes, we can hear you now.

Mr. Dave Smith: I’d like to nominate MPP Hardeman as Chair.

The Clerk of the Committee (Ms. Julia Douglas): Are there any further nominations? Any further nominations? There being no further nominations, I declare the nominations closed, and Mr. Hardeman elected Chair of the committee.

Mr. Hardeman, if you would come up and take the chair.

The Chair (Mr. Ernie Hardeman): Thank you very much. A warm thank-you to my nominator, and obviously to everyone else for not nominating anyone else. It saves a lot of work trying to convince all the members of committee to get half of them to support a nomination.

Before we move on to any other business, I will do an attendance check. I will ask members the following questions: if they are present, to confirm that they are in fact the honourable member and to confirm that they are in Ontario.

Ian Arthur?

Mr. Ian Arthur: Hi, everyone. I am Ian Arthur, and I am in Kingston, Ontario today.

The Chair (Mr. Ernie Hardeman): Stephen Crawford.

Mr. Stephen Crawford: Yes. Good morning, Chair. It’s MPP Stephen Crawford. I’m in Oakville, Ontario.

The Chair (Mr. Ernie Hardeman): Mitzie Hunter.

Ms. Mitzie Hunter: Okay. Hi, can you hear me, Chair? Yes? I’m Mitzie Hunter, and I’m in Ontario.

The Chair (Mr. Ernie Hardeman): Logan Kanapathi.

Mr. Logan Kanapathi: Can you hear me? Good morning, Chair. I’m Logan Kanapathi. I am in Markham, Ontario.

The Chair (Mr. Ernie Hardeman): David Smith.

Mr. Dave Smith: Thank you, Chair. The only one that calls me David is my mother, and that’s usually when she is mad. I am MPP Dave Smith, and I am in beautiful God’s country, Peterborough.

The Chair (Mr. Ernie Hardeman): Vijay Thanigasalam.

Mr. Vijay Thanigasalam: Good morning, Chair. Yes, I’m Vijay Thanigasalam, currently here in Toronto, Ontario.

The Chair (Mr. Ernie Hardeman): Sol Mamakwa.

Mr. Sol Mamakwa: Hi. Sol Mamakwa. I’m in Treaty 3 territory.

The Chair (Mr. Ernie Hardeman): So that everybody is aware, we also have the following member in the room: Jeremy Roberts.

I understand that MPP Catherine Fife is also with us. We just have to wait for a moment—she is just connecting—so she can identify that she is who she says she is.

Okay, could we hear from Catherine Fife?

Ms. Catherine Fife: Hello. This is Catherine Fife. I’m calling in from Waterloo, Ontario.

The Chair (Mr. Ernie Hardeman): Thank you very much. I think that completes the attendance roll.

Election of Vice-Chair

The Chair (Mr. Ernie Hardeman): We’ll move on to the next item. As the members are aware, Mr. Roberts has resigned as Vice-Chair of the committee. Before asking for any motions, I would like to remind the honourable members that standing order 120(d) notes:

“Where the Chair of a standing committee is a member of the party forming the government, the Vice-Chair shall be a member of a recognized party in opposition to the government or an independent member; and where the Chair is a member of a recognized party in opposition to the government, the Vice-Chair shall be a member of the party forming the government.”

It is now my duty to entertain a motion for Vice-Chair. Are there any motions? Are there any motions for Vice-Chair? I’ll ask for a third time, are there any motions for Vice-Chair? MPP Smith.

Mr. Dave Smith: I’m somewhat confused. The standing orders say that we should be having an opposition member as our Vice-Chair, so I’m surprised that no one from the opposition has put a name forward. I would respectfully request that someone from the opposition put their name forward, because we are trying to follow the standing orders.

The Chair (Mr. Ernie Hardeman): MPP Fife?

Ms. Catherine Fife: Could we please have a five-minute recess? Also, I was trying to speak, but I wasn’t being recognized. So I am respectfully asking for a five-minute recess.

The Chair (Mr. Ernie Hardeman): So granted. We will recess for five minutes and return at 9:13.

The committee recessed from 0908 to 0914.

The Chair (Mr. Ernie Hardeman): We’ll call the meeting back to order. The place to start, I guess, is to ask for nominations for Vice-Chair. Is MPP Fife—

Ms. Catherine Fife: Yes. Good morning, Chair. Thank you for the five-minute recess. I’d like to nominate Ian Arthur to be Vice-Chair of SCOFEA.

The Chair (Mr. Ernie Hardeman): Okay, thank you very much. Any further nominations?

Interjection.

Mr. Ernie Hardeman: Ms. Fife, could you put that in a motion?

Ms. Catherine Fife: Yes, thank you, Chair. I move that Ian Arthur be nominated as Vice-Chair of SCOFEA.

The Clerk of the Committee (Ms. Julia Douglas): Sorry; just a quick point of wording: Usually for Vice-Chair motions, it’s “be appointed Vice-Chair of the committee.”

Ms. Catherine Fife: Thank you.

I move that Ian Arthur be appointed as Vice-Chair of SCOFEA.

The Chair (Mr. Ernie Hardeman): Everyone has heard the motion. Any debate on the motion? Hearing none, we’ll call the question. All those in favour? All those opposed, if any? If not—

Interjection.

The Chair (Mr. Ernie Hardeman): My apologies. Because we have a member who does not have video, I’ll ask the Clerk to call each voting member’s name, and you can reply “aye” for a vote in favour, “nay” for a vote against or “abstain” if you would like to abstain from voting on the matter. With that, we’ll turn it over to the Clerk for the roll call.

The motion is carried.

That concludes the only item on our agenda. We thank everybody for their participation this morning. The meeting is adjourned.

The committee adjourned at 0919.

STANDING COMMITTEE ON FINANCE AND ECONOMIC AFFAIRS

Chair / Président

Mr. Ernie Hardeman (Oxford PC)

Vice-Chair / Vice-Président

Mr. Ian Arthur (Kingston and the Islands / Kingston et les Îles ND)

Mr. Ian Arthur (Kingston and the Islands / Kingston et les Îles ND)

Mr. Will Bouma (Brantford–Brant PC)

Mr. Stephen Crawford (Oakville PC)

Ms. Catherine Fife (Waterloo ND)

Mr. Ernie Hardeman (Oxford PC)

Ms. Mitzie Hunter (Scarborough–Guildwood L)

Mr. Logan Kanapathi (Markham–Thornhill PC)

Mr. Sol Mamakwa (Kiiwetinoong ND)

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

Mr. Dave Smith (Peterborough–Kawartha PC)

Mr. Vijay Thanigasalam (Scarborough–Rouge Park PC)

Clerk / Greffière

Ms. Julia Douglas

Staff / Personnel

Ms. Sandra Lopes, research officer,
Research Services