Legislative Assembly of Ontario

The committee met at 0901 in committee room 1.

Committee business

The Chair (Ms. Cheri DiNovo): Welcome, and good morning to everybody. This is the first session of the estimates committee.

I’m just going to read the preamble as to the committee’s duties, and then we’ll get going.

As you know, the Lieutenant Governor has transmitted the estimates of certain sums required for the services of the province for the year ending March 31, 2016, to the Legislative Assembly. Pursuant to standing order 59, these printed estimates, upon tabling, are deemed to be referred to the Standing Committee on Estimates. All members of the House should have received a copy of the 2015-16 printed estimates when they were tabled on Thursday, May 14, 2015.

The objectives of today’s meeting are:

(1) to select the estimates of certain ministries or offices for review by the committee; and

(2) to determine the date on which the committee will begin the consideration of the selected estimates.

Standing order 60 sets out the process by which the committee makes its selections. Essentially, each of the recognized parties on the committee shall select the estimates of either one or two ministries or offices in each of the two rounds of selection.

The official opposition selects first, followed by the third party, then by the government. After two rounds of selection, the committee will have selected anywhere from a minimum of six to a maximum of 12 ministries or offices for review.

In making its selection, each party also determines how much time is to be allocated to the consideration of each ministry. A maximum of 15 hours is permitted per selection. For example, if only one selection is made in a round, that single selection could be reviewed for a maximum of 15 hours. If two selections are made in a round, both of them could be reviewed for a combined maximum of 15 hours. How the division of those 15 hours takes place is up to the party making the selection.

At the conclusion of the two rounds of review, the committee could spend up to a maximum of 90 hours in scrutinizing the estimates of all the selected ministries or offices. Pursuant to standing order 60(c), these selections are to be reviewed in the order that they were chosen, and this can only be changed by an order of the House.

The estimates of those ministries or offices not selected for consideration will be deemed to have been passed by the committee. As Chair, I will report those estimates back to the House, and they will be deemed to be adopted and concurred in by the House.

Any supplementary estimates of selected ministries and offices shall be considered by the committee within the time allocated during this selection process.

In accordance with standing order 63(a), the committee must present a report to the House with respect to the estimates it selected and considered by the third Thursday of November this year. That’s November 19, 2015. If the committee fails to report by the third Thursday in November, the estimates and supplementary estimates before the committee will be deemed to be passed by the committee and deemed to be reported to and received by the House.

Do the members have any questions before we begin? Yes.

Mr. Michael Harris: No questions, just—

The Chair (Ms. Cheri DiNovo): Yes, Mr. Harris.

Mr. Michael Harris: I’d like to move a motion for adjournment of the committee until the first sitting day upon returning to the Legislative Assembly.

The Chair (Ms. Cheri DiNovo): So that would be—

Interjections.

The Chair (Ms. Cheri DiNovo): The first sitting day is the 15th of September. Mr. Harris has moved adjournment of this committee until the first sitting day in September, September 15.

Mr. Bob Delaney: Question—

The Chair (Ms. Cheri DiNovo): Yes, Mr. Delaney.

Mr. Bob Delaney: Would you like to do the selection now? I have no problem with the motion as stated, but while we’re here, we might as well do the selection.

The Chair (Ms. Cheri DiNovo): Mr. Harris.

Mr. Michael Harris: Basically, this is the reason: We just received the estimates last week, and we just don’t have the ability or the time to go through them to the extent that we would like, to actually have the confidence to select our ministries today. That’s why we’re asking if we can defer, because we’re not going to hear any ministries over these next two weeks anyways. We will commence in the fall, so let’s pick those ministries then. We just haven’t had enough time, since receiving the estimates package, to make a conscious selection today.

The Chair (Ms. Cheri DiNovo): Any discussion? Mr. Delaney.

Mr. Bob Delaney: A five-minute recess, please? Just five.

The Chair (Ms. Cheri DiNovo): Sure. A five-minute recess. We’ll reconvene, then at 10 past.

The committee recessed from 0906 to 0908.

The Chair (Ms. Cheri DiNovo): We’re going—exciting.

Further discussion on Mr. Harris’s motion? Yes, Miss Taylor.

Miss Monique Taylor: I’m in favour of waiting until September. We did get the estimates late this year, so it would be helpful if we had more time to review.

The Chair (Ms. Cheri DiNovo): Further discussion?

Mr. Bob Delaney: The government has no problem with the suggestion, Chair.

The Chair (Ms. Cheri DiNovo): Okay. We seem to have a consensus, then.

Interjection.

The Chair (Ms. Cheri DiNovo): Do we need to vote? We need to? Okay.

All those in favour? All those opposed? Carried.

We are adjourned until September 15.

The committee adjourned at 0909.

CONTENTS

Tuesday 26 May 2015

Committee business E-405

STANDING COMMITTEE ON ESTIMATES

Chair / Présidente

Ms. Cheri DiNovo (Parkdale–High Park ND)

Vice-Chair / Vice-Présidente

Miss Monique Taylor (Hamilton Mountain ND)

Mr. Bas Balkissoon (Scarborough–Rouge River L)

Mr. Chris Ballard (Newmarket–Aurora L)

Mr. Grant Crack (Glengarry–Prescott–Russell L)

Ms. Cheri DiNovo (Parkdale–High Park ND)

Mr. Han Dong (Trinity–Spadina L)

Mr. Michael Harris (Kitchener–Conestoga PC)

Mr. Randy Hillier (Lanark–Frontenac–Lennox and Addington PC)

Ms. Sophie Kiwala (Kingston and the Islands / Kingston et les Îles L)

Miss Monique Taylor (Hamilton Mountain ND)

Substitutions / Membres remplaçants

Mr. Bob Delaney (Mississauga–Streetsville L)

Mrs. Kathryn McGarry (Cambridge L)

Clerk / Greffier

Mr. Katch Koch

Staff / Personnel

Ms. Anne Marzalik, research officer,
Research Services