Fourth Session, 41st Parliament

REPORT OF PROCEEDINGS(HANSARD)

LEGISLATIVE ASSEMBLYMANAGEMENT COMMITTEE

VictoriaThursday, May 16, 2019

Issue No. 11

HON. DARRYL PLECAS, MLA, CHAIRAND SPEAKER OF THE LEGISLATIVE ASSEMBLY

ISSN 1929-8676

MEMBERSHIPLegislative Assembly

Management Committee

Chair: Hon. Darryl Plecas (Speaker of the Legislative Assembly)

Members: Garry Begg (Surrey-Guildford, NDP)Jagrup Brar (Surrey-Fleetwood, NDP)Hon. Mike Farnworth (Port Coquitlam, NDP)Sonia Furstenau (Cowichan Valley, BC Green Party)Mary Polak (Langley, BC Liberal)Janet Routledge (Burnaby North, NDP)Jackie Tegart (Fraser-Nicola, BC Liberal)

Clerk: Kate Ryan-Lloyd (Acting Clerk of the Legislative Assembly)

CONTENTS

Thursday, May 16, 2019Page

Approval of Agenda and Minutes ........................................................................................................................................... 103

In-constituency Travel Guidelines .......................................................................................................................................... 103

Commonwealth Parliamentary Association Conference..................................................................................................... 103

Consideration of Quarterly Financial Statements................................................................................................................. 103

Acting Clerk’s Update ............................................................................................................................................................... 104

MINUTES

Legislative Assembly Management Committee

Thursday, May 16, 20193:00 p.m.

Hemlock Committee Room (Room 116)Parliament Buildings, Victoria, B.C.

Members Present: Hon. Darryl Plecas, MLA (Speaker and Chair); Garry Begg, MLA; Jagrup Brar, MLA;Hon. Mike Farnworth, MLA; Sonia Furstenau, MLA; Mary Polak, MLA; Janet Routledge, MLA; Jackie Tegart, MLA

Legislative Assembly Officials Present: Kate Ryan-Lloyd, Acting Clerk of the Legislative Assembly; Randy Ennis,Acting Sergeant-at-Arms; Hilary Woodward, Executive Financial Officer; Suzie Seo, Parliamentary Counsel;Brian Urquhart, Director, Financial Services; Artour Sogomonian, Procedural Clerk

Others in Attendance: Carol Bellringer, Auditor General; Malcolm Gaston, Office of the Auditor General

1. The Chair called the Committee to order at 3:02 p.m.

2. Resolved, that the Committee approve the agenda as circulated. (Hon. Mike Farnworth, MLA)

3. Resolved, that the Committee approve the minutes of April 9, 2019 as circulated.(Hon. Mike Farnworth, MLA)

4. The Committee considered a recommendation from the Finance and Audit Committee regarding in-constituency travel guidelines.

5. Resolved, that effective immediately, the Members’ Guide to Policy and Resources be amended to allowMembers to claim reimbursement for the cost of car rentals, parking, public transit, and taxis incurredafter travelling by air or ferry to a destination within their constituency in instances when they are unableto use a private vehicle to reach their final destination. (Hon. Mike Farnworth, MLA)

6. The Committee considered a recommendation from the Finance and Audit Committee regarding fundingfor the 65th Commonwealth Parliamentary Association Conference in 2021.

7. Resolved, that the Legislative Assembly of British Columbia fund its portion of the 2021 CommonwealthParliamentary Association Conference budget requested in fiscal year 2019-20 in the amount of $12,474.(Hon. Mike Farnworth, MLA)

8. The Committee received the financial report for quarter 4 of fiscal year 2018-19 for informationalpurposes. The Executive Financial Officer provided an overview of the report, including information onthe Assembly’s financial standing as at March 31, 2019 and answered questions.

9. Jagrup Brar, MLA took the chair at 3:08 p.m.

10. Resolved, that the unaudited financial report for quarter 4 of fiscal year 2018-19 be posted on theLegislative Assembly’s website. (Mary Polak, MLA)

11. The Chair resumed the chair at 3:12 p.m.

12. The Acting Clerk provided the Committee with an update on various Legislative Assembly matters,including: ongoing policy work; increased secure bicycle storage for Legislative Assembly employees;Executive employee proactive compensation disclosure; work before the Finance and Audit Committee;the proposed expansion of the Province’s freedom of information framework to the Legislative Assembly;and the forthcoming workplace review and organizational reconciliation processes for LegislativeAssembly employees.

13. Resolved, that the Committee meet in camera to consider legal and personnel matters.(Jagrup Brar, MLA)

14. The Committee met in camera from 3:15 p.m. to 3:32 p.m.

15. The Committee continued in public session at 3:32 p.m.

16. The Committee adjourned to the call of the Chair at 3:32 p.m.

Hon. Darryl Plecas, MLASpeaker and Chair

Kate Ryan-LloydActing Clerk of the Legislative Assembly

THURSDAY, MAY 16, 2019

The committee met at 3:02 p.m.

[Mr. Speaker in the chair.]

Approval of Agenda and Minutes

Mr. Speaker: I’m calling the meeting to order.The first item to be considered is the approval of the draft

agenda. Do we have somebody to…?

Hon. M. Farnworth: So moved.

Motion approved.

Mr. Speaker: The second item is the review and approvalof the draft minutes of the April 9, 2019, meeting of LAMC.

Hon. M. Farnworth: So moved.

Motion approved.

Mr. Speaker: Number 3, in-constituency travel guide-lines. It’s consideration of a recommendation from financeand audit.

If I might ask the Acting Clerk, Kate, to speak to this.

In-constituency Travel Guidelines

K. Ryan-Lloyd (Acting Clerk of the Legislative Assem-bly): Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Good afternoon, Members.

Members of the finance and audit committee will recalljust a few days ago that on behalf of the government caucus arequest was considered to revise some aspects of the in-con-stituency travel guidelines that went into effect on January 1.

The finance and audit committee adopted a resolution onthis matter, which reads: “That the committee recommendto LAMC that the Members’ Guide to Policy and Resourcesbe amended to allow members to claim reimbursement forthe cost of car rentals, parking, public transit and taxis whichmight be incurred after travelling by air or ferry to a destin-ation within their constituency in instances when they areunable to use a private vehicle to reach their final destina-tion.”

The recommendation was unanimously supported by thefinance and audit committee, and it is presented here foryour consideration today.

Hon. M. Farnworth: I’ll move the recommendation.

Motion approved.

Mr. Speaker: Next item, 65th Commonwealth Parlia-mentary Association conference.

If I could ask Kate to speak to that.

Commonwealth ParliamentaryAssociation Conference

K. Ryan-Lloyd (Acting Clerk): I’d be happy to. Thankyou, Mr. Speaker.

A number of weeks ago, in April, the finance and auditcommittee considered some background information withrespect to a proposal by the Canadian region of the Com-monwealth Parliamentary Association to host an interna-tional parliamentary conference in Nova Scotia in January2021.

[3:05 p.m.]The committee had an opportunity to look at many of the

details with respect to the proposed program and approachfor the conference and adopted the following resolution:“That the committee recommend to the LegislativeAssembly Management Committee that British Columbiafunds its portion of the shared expenses for the 2021 Com-monwealth Parliamentary Association conference budgetrequested for the 2019-20 year from contingency funds, inthe amount of $12,474.”

That recommendation stands referred to your committeefor consideration today.

Mr. Speaker: Do I have a motion to approve?

Hon. M. Farnworth: I would so move.

Mr. Speaker: Any discussion?

M. Polak: For those of us who were at finance and audit,it’s kind of been discussed to death.

Hon. M. Farnworth: Exactly. It’s been, I think, quite sometime since Canada has hosted this conference. Each provincepays a portion, and we’re doing that.

K. Ryan-Lloyd (Acting Clerk): That’s correct.

Motion approved.

Mr. Speaker: The next item, consideration of the 2018fourth-quarter financial update.

Hilary and Brian, perhaps you can speak to that.

Consideration ofQuarterly Financial Statements

H. Woodward: Thank you, Mr. Speaker. This report alsowas reviewed by finance and audit committee this past Tues-day. I’m pleased to present the financial report to this com-mittee. It is for the full fiscal year ending March 31, 2019.The financial report summarizes the actual results of theassembly’s operating and capital expenditures in comparisonto the budget.

For the fiscal year ending March 31, 2019, the assembly

103

underspent its $77.4 million operating budget by $4.7 mil-lion, or 6.1 percent. The underspend occurred primarily inthe area of member services, a $2.2 million underspend; andadministrative support services for $1.8 million.

Within member services, the underspend was primarilyattributable to lower-than-expected salaries and benefits;lower MLA travel; capital city living allowances — changesin what we budgeted for the allocation versus actual results;lower legal expenses; and lower constituency office costs.

Within administrative support services, the underspendis primarily attributable to a hiring lag, lower amortizationcosts as a result of reduced capital projects incurred, oper-ational savings and higher gift shop and dining room salesand/or recoveries. These savings were partially offset byunbudgeted legal costs.

In terms of the report, a more detailed explanation of thevariances I’ve just mentioned between the budget and actualcosts incurred are noted on pages 2 through 5 of this report.

With respect to the capital budget, for the fiscal year end-ing March 31, 2019, the assembly underspent its $4.4 millioncapital budget by $2.5 million, or 56.8 percent.

[J. Brar in the chair.]

In terms of the underspend in our capital budget this pastfiscal year, the underspend was in large part due to the defer-ral of several large capital projects that have been moved tothe 2019-20 fiscal year. These projects accounted for almost$1.9 million of the $4.4 million budget and included suchprojects as the ceremonial driveway replacement, safe pas-sage seismic projects, a major capital design project and anew HR payroll system — as noted, I believe, in the last com-mittee meeting. These are all going to proceed and are in theprocess of proceeding this fiscal year.

Also included in the capital budget but not spent in2018-19 was the $500,000 capital contingency reserve. Thisreserve is established each year to address unforeseen events.That was not required to be spent in the past year.

I’d also like to note that despite the identified projectdeferrals, the assembly did complete over 70 percent of itsplanned projects for the year. In addition, with this com-mittee’s approval back in December, the assembly was ableto complete two much-needed security upgrade projects —that is, the chime system and the cardlock replacement.Those projects, in themselves, totalled almost $300,000.

[3:10 p.m.]They were both completed by fiscal year-end. The funding

for these projects came from the funding initially allocatedto those deferred projects, so we were able to substitute andspend some money that would otherwise remain unspent.

Again, a more detailed explanation of the variancesbetween the budget and the actual capital costs by functionis noted on page 6 of the report.

With that, I’d be pleased to answer any questions.

J. Brar: Thank you, Hilary.

Any discussion? Any questions?

S. Furstenau: I have a question around member services,constituency offices. Is there any anticipation that expensescould still be coming in, and is there a deadline by which anyprevious year expenses would have to be submitted?

H. Woodward: Everything is in that’s coming in for thisfiscal.

J. Brar: Any further discussion or questions? None.May I have a motion to authorize the posting of the

unaudited Q4 financial update to the Legislative Assembly’swebsite?

M. Polak: I’ll move it.

J. Brar: Any discussion?

Motion approved.

J. Brar: Update from the Clerk.

Acting Clerk’s Update

K. Ryan-Lloyd (Acting Clerk): Thank you, Jagrup.Good afternoon, Members. I appreciate the opportunity

to briefly update you on a variety of matters that are cur-rently underway at the Legislative Assembly.

I’ve distributed in your packages for this meeting thisafternoon a brief status update on the work that has beenundertaken by Legislative Assembly staff following therelease of Speaker Plecas’s report. I’d be happy to answer anyparticular questions that you might have with respect to thatone-page document in your folders.

The document summarizes the policy work which is con-tinuing to address the concerns raised in the report of theSpeaker on a priority basis. A complete review of theAssembly’s policy suite is underway. I’d be happy to keepyour committee apprised of our specific progress. We’re veryclose now to finalizing and formalizing a number of import-ant policy changes in the coming days.

With respect to space-related matters, there is some spaceavailable in the armoury building that was previously usedby the Shaw broadcasting services when they were undertak-ing their constituency reports and Voice of the Province pro-gramming.

Since this space has been unused and we have received,from staff, great interest in expanding the in-house secureinterior bike storage area at minimal cost, we will be pro-ceeding to expand that space as quickly as possible to makethe space available to staff.

We are also providing through that an opportunity forHansard broadcasting to store some large technical equip-ment in the area. We went over that in some detail. For

104Legislative Assembly

Management Committee Thursday, May 16, 2019

members of the finance and audit committee, they’ll have afamiliarity with that discussion.

[Mr. Speaker in the chair.]

With respect to executive compensation disclosure andfurther to the motion adopted by this committee in Decem-ber 2018, I was able to share with the finance and audit com-mittee earlier this week a proposed outline of detailed com-pensation disclosure for executive staff. That will be pub-lished in conjunction with Q4 releases in June, next month,for the first time.

As we move forward, it is our commitment to match, asbest we can, elements of PSEC’s public sector executive com-pensation models in terms of detailed disclosures.

The finance and audit committee is also, of course, con-tinuing to consider a number of matters referred to it by yourcommittee, including the legal assistance policy for mem-bers, elements of the enhanced proactive disclosure pro-gram, correspondence from caucuses with respect to gov-ernance changes, respectful workplace policy. The commit-tee is also beginning its consideration of a LegislativeAssembly governance manual and will hold further discus-sions on that within the next month, particularly in light ofthe recommendations contained in the report released ear-lier today.

I’ve also had an opportunity to undertake preliminary dis-cussions with the Ministry of Citizens’ Services this week todiscuss the expansion of the province’s freedom-of-inform-ation framework to the Legislative Assembly. I’m happy tokeep your committee apprised of those discussions as weproceed.

Also, on March 6, your committee adopted a motion withrespect to the establishment of a workplace review, an organ-izational reconciliation process. The motion provided that I

was to report back to your committee by May 1, but I havenot had an opportunity to do that over the past few weeks.I provided an email update to the members of the policyworking group on this particular matter.

The instructions contained in that motion have now beencompleted, including the necessary consultations. Based onthe responses to our request for information, we are cur-rently drafting a request for proposals for the workplacereview and organizational reconciliation process which wewill be sharing with the members of the working groupshortly for their input and review prior to posting the com-petitive bidding opportunity on B.C. Bid. So we’re movingforward on that.

Mr. Speaker: Any questions?Next item, and the next item is in camera. Could I have a

motion to move in camera?

J. Brar: So moved.

Motion approved.

The committee continued in camera from 3:15 p.m. to3:32 p.m.

[Mr. Speaker in the chair.]

Mr. Speaker: The only issue we have before us is: is thereany other business?

Not hearing any, I move that this meeting be adjourned.

Motion approved.

The committee adjourned at 3:32 p.m.

Thursday, May 16, 2019Legislative Assembly

Management Committee 105

Hansard Reporting Services

DIRECTORRobert Sutherland

MANAGER OF REPORTING SERVICESChristine Fedoruk

MANAGER OF PUBLISHING SYSTEMSDan Kerr

TEAM LEADERSMike Beninger, Laurel Bernard, Julie McClung,

Karol Morris, Amy Reiswig, Glenn Wigmore

EDITORSJulia Bobak, Janet Brazier, Kim Christie, Jane Grainger, Betsy Gray,

Iris Gray, Mary Beth Hall, Louis Henderson, Barb Horricks,Bill Hrick, Catherine Lang, Paula Lee, Donna McCloskey,

Quinn MacDonald, Anne Maclean, Claire Matthews, Jill Milkert,Linda Miller, Sarah Mitenko, Erik Pedersen, Murray Sinclair,

Robyn Swanson, Antoinette Warren, Heather Warren, Kim Westad

INDEXERSShannon Ash, Robin Rohrmoser

RESEARCHERSNiloo Farahzadeh, David Mattison, Steve Pocock

TECHNICAL OPERATIONSPamela Holmes, Daniel Powell, Patrick Stobbe

Access to on-line versions of the report of proceedings (Hansard)and webcasts of committee proceedings is available on the Internet.

www.leg.bc.ca/cmt

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