Legislative Assembly of Ontario

The committee met at 0900 in committee room 1 and by video conference.

The Chair (Mr. Deepak Anand): Good morning. The Standing Committee on Regulations and Private Bills will now come to order. Today, we have two private bills on the agenda which we will consider. I would appreciate it if you all take a look at the agenda. It is Bill Pr29 and Bill Pr30.

Quadrant Consulting Services Inc. Act, 2020

Consideration of the following bill:

Bill Pr29, An Act to revive Quadrant Consulting Services Inc.

The Chair (Mr. Deepak Anand): We are starting with Bill Pr29, An Act to revive Quadrant Consulting Services Inc. We have MPP Bob Bailey as the sponsor and Mr. Brian Worrad as the solicitor applicant.

I’ll start with MPP Bailey. Please introduce yourself and any comments you want to give.

Mr. Robert Bailey: Thank you, Chair. This is Bob Bailey, member of provincial Parliament for the riding of Sarnia–Lambton. I’m pleased to address the committee today and to introduce Bill Pr29, the Quadrant Consulting Services Inc. Act. That’s the applicant, and they’re going to be represented very ably today by Brian Worrad, who is their solicitor. I assume he’s on the line and going to join you now, Chair.

The Chair (Mr. Deepak Anand): Thank you, MPP Bailey. Now I would like to ask solicitor Brian Worrad to please introduce yourself and any comments you have, sir.

Mr. Brian Worrad: Good morning, Chair, and committee members. My name is Brian Worrad. I’m a lawyer in good standing with a law firm in London, MenearWorrad and Associates.

I’m representing Ms. Fisher in regard to this matter. She had embarked upon reviving the corporation. She incorporated Quadrant Consulting Services Inc. back on May 16, 2000. She had engaged in the process of revival and then went to this process and decided that she probably needed me to come along and just help with paperwork.

Quadrant Consulting Services Inc. was dissolved on December 3, 2014. It was voluntarily dissolved, and then Ms. Fisher has advised me that the current economic climate has made it necessary for her to revive her corporation and carry on with the work that it was doing before that. I would respectfully submit that subsection 241(9) of the Business Corporations Act would give you that discretion, should you choose to enact that.

The Chair (Mr. Deepak Anand): At this moment, I’ll ask if any members want to—yes, MPP Smith.

Mr. Dave Smith: Does the consulting company have any assets right now? When they dissolved, were there any assets that were not dealt with?

Mr. Brian Worrad: This would be a question that I don’t have direct knowledge of. My understanding is that there were none. It was a consulting business, so it was her service work that was done. She is able to log in. She’s been trying to log in. I apologize, but I can have her address that specifically, if you would like me to call her in on that.

Mr. Dave Smith: Is there a bank account some place that hadn’t gotten rid of all of the money in the bank account?

Mr. Brian Worrad: I apologize. I don’t have direct knowledge of that particular information. She was supposed to be here for that, but we can call her in to ask. It was dissolved five years ago. At that point, I would be surprised if there were any assets still in the name of Quadrant.

Mr. Dave Smith: My question, then, is, why revive the company if there are no assets, no bank account sitting there that could be used? Why not just form another company and go that route? It would have been quicker, easier, faster and cost less money.

Mr. Brian Worrad: I asked Ms. Fisher that very same question. Her response to me, because I was brought in on the tail end of this process, was that it was explained to her that it was quicker and easier to revive the corporation. She then proceeded to pay for all of the advertisements and the publications to go through the process. It was only when it came to submitting the paperwork, and she had expended all those monies and effort, that she came to my office. I explained that very point to her, but she was so far in at that point that this was almost a fait accompli to carry the process through.

But there was no other agenda prompting the revival, other than the fact that she had understood and embarked on this course and found herself deep enough into that that it became, probably, a fait accompli to just follow it through to completion.

The Chair (Mr. Deepak Anand): Thank you, Solicitor Worrad. I think your client, Ms. Nora Fisher, is actually on the line right now. MPP Smith?

Mr. Dave Smith: I’ll direct the questions to her this time, then.

The Chair (Mr. Deepak Anand): Good morning, Ms. Fisher. Can you please confirm your name?

Ms. Nora Eileen Fisher: Yes. It’s Nora Eileen Fisher.

The Chair (Mr. Deepak Anand): Thank you.

Mr. Dave Smith: Ms. Fisher, are there any assets that the company had that the company still has?

Ms. Nora Eileen Fisher: No, the assets have been dissolved.

Mr. Dave Smith: I asked your solicitor this question and I’ll ask it to you: Why revive the company and why not just create a new one?

Ms. Nora Eileen Fisher: Brian’s response is accurate. I had actually done research as to whether or not to start a new corporation versus reviving this corporation. I reached out to a couple of resources; one of them was the committee Clerk, Isaiah Thorning. I was advised that reviving the corporation would likely be a faster path—notwithstanding COVID, obviously, and the global pandemic—and would likely be a less expensive path as well. So I chose to take that route, based on that advice.

Mr. Dave Smith: Okay. Thank you.

The Chair (Mr. Deepak Anand): Does any other member want to ask anything? Seeing none, thank you so much, Solicitor Worrad and Ms. Fisher.

Are the members ready to vote at this time? Thank you so much. All those in favour, please raise your hand.

Interjection.

The Chair (Mr. Deepak Anand): My apologies. I’m going to take that back.

Shall section 1 be carried? All those in favour, please raise your hand. All those opposed? Seeing none, section 1 is carried.

Shall section 2 be carried? All those in favour? All those opposed? Seeing none, section 2 is carried.

Shall section 3 be carried? All in favour? Anyone opposed? Section 3 is carried.

Shall the preamble be carried? All those in favour, please raise your hand. All those opposed? Seeing none, the preamble is carried.

Shall the title be carried? All those in favour, raise your hands. All those opposed? None? The title is carried.

Shall the bill be carried? All those in favour, please raise your hand. All those opposed? Seeing none, I declare the bill carried.

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At this time, I’ll ask the committee members, shall I report the bill to the House? All those in favour, please raise your hand. All those opposed? Seeing none, I will report the bill to the House.

Thank you, Solicitor Worrad and thank you, Ms. Fisher.

2372830 Ontario Inc. Act, 2020

Consideration of the following bill:

Bill Pr30, An Act to revive 2372830 Ontario Inc.

The Chair (Mr. Deepak Anand): At this time, I’ll ask MPP Thanigasalam to introduce himself. MPP Thanigasalam, please go ahead and introduce yourself and any comments you want to make.

Mr. Vijay Thanigasalam: Thank you, Chair. This is MPP Vijay Thanigasalam, MPP for the riding of Scarborough–Rouge Park. Today, I am pleased to introduce Ms. Bibi Morium Tuhin and Mr. Farukuddin Mahmood. They would like to revive 2372830 Ontario Inc. Thank you, Chair.

The Chair (Mr. Deepak Anand): Thank you so much. Good morning, Ms. Bibi Morium Tuhin and Mr. Farukuddin Mahmood. Please introduce yourself and any initial comments you want to make. Thank you so much.

You’re muted. Please wait. You have to unmute yourself. Yes, go ahead. Go ahead, please.

Ms. Bibi Morium Tuhin: Hi. My name is Bibi Morium Tuhin. This is my husband.

Mr. Farukuddin Mahmood: My name is Farukuddin Mahmood.

The Chair (Mr. Deepak Anand): Thank you so much. Any comments you want to make initially?

Mr. Farukuddin Mahmood: We want to just revive our corporation 2372830.

The Chair (Mr. Deepak Anand): Okay. Any members would like to ask any questions? MPP Smith?

Mr. Dave Smith: When you dissolved the company, did you use a lawyer or an accountant to dissolve it?

Ms. Bibi Morium Tuhin: Sorry, sir. I couldn’t hear you.

Mr. Dave Smith: When you dissolved the company, did you use a lawyer or an accountant—

Mr. Farukuddin Mahmood: No, no. My accountant—we had two corporations, two stores. One is Pickering mall; one is the Malvern Town Centre. This was no good. We told him to close the Pickering mall, which was another corporation, but he closed both of them.

After, we had a bank account with earning money. When we go into the tax return, we see that our corporation closed. Then we tried to revive.

Mr. Dave Smith: So you didn’t use a professional to do it. You guys went through the process yourself.

Mr. Farukuddin Mahmood: No, an accountant. My accountant, I told him to do one, just like, another store. But he closed all of them.

Mr. Dave Smith: Okay, thank you.

Mr. Farukuddin Mahmood: This one we have related to—it’s a bank account, our lease, everything. So unfortunately, we had to reopen it, because it is a long process. Vijay had to sponsor. We spent a lot of time, because we have a bank account, we have a lease under this corporation. We have to revive this corporation. Otherwise, we have to be gone, because management is pressuring us. Maybe this month, we have to give it to them that our corporation is revived.

Mr. Dave Smith: The reason I was asking is if you had hired a professional to do it and they made a mistake, bad—

Mr. Farukuddin Mahmood: He was a professional.

Mr. Dave Smith: If you hadn’t, then it’s something where we should go back and look at the process, because perhaps it was a little bit complicated and you were confused. That’s why I was asking. It was more or less to give us information to find out whether or not we should be changing some of the process to make it easier for people to do this without having a mistake made. Thank you, though.

The Chair (Mr. Deepak Anand): Thank you, MPP Smith.

Interjections.

Mr. Farukuddin Mahmood: We don’t know. We have no idea, because we called the office, they sent us the paper: “The procedure is this.” You have to do a Toronto Star ad for four weeks, you have to [inaudible] four weeks, and the local MPP—he’s the best man here—sponsored us. He’s the official original sponsor. And when I was [inaudible], his official always said, “Vijay is going to help you. He is sponsoring the corporation, no problem.”

After that $150 fee—we did a lot of [inaudible], because I know that to open a corporation is less money, but our problem was that our lease is under this corporation, and also my bank account is this corporation. So now, we don’t have any choice. We have a long procedure and this time we have spent a lot of money to this corporation, because otherwise we’re going to be gone. We’re going to lose the store. We’re going to lose everything—we’re going to lose it.

The Chair (Mr. Deepak Anand): Thank you so much. Would any other member like to ask any questions? MPP Jamie West.

Mr. Jamie West: I just want to—because the forms we get are not clear, I want to make sure that I’m understanding it properly. You had two corporations. You wanted to close one of them; both were closed accidentally. You want to revive the one that you didn’t want closed. Is that what happened?

Mr. Farukuddin Mahmood: Yes. One is the—we had the Pickering mall. Those corporation—we told to the accountant, close it over the phone. But he closed both of them. We have Malvern Town Centre in the Scarborough area. This one, Malvern: He closed that one, too.

Mr. Jamie West: I see. Okay, that’s all I wanted to know, Chair. Thank you.

Mr. Farukuddin Mahmood: Thank you, sir.

The Chair (Mr. Deepak Anand): Thank you so much. At this point, would any other member like to ask a question? Seeing none—okay. All right. Seeing no one else asking, are the members ready to vote? Yes? Thank you so much.

At this point, shall section 1 be carried? All those in favour, please raise your hand. All those opposed? Seeing none, I declare section 1 carried.

Shall section 2 be carried? All those in favour, please raise your hand. All those against? Seeing none, I declare section 2 carried.

Shall section 3 be carried? All those in favour, please raise your hand. All those opposed? Seeing none, I declare section 3 carried.

At this time, shall the preamble be carried? All those in favour, please raise your hand. All those opposed? Seeing none, I declare the preamble carried.

Shall the title be carried? All those in favour, please raise your hand. All those opposed? Seeing none, I declare the title carried.

Shall the bill be carried? All those in favour, please raise your hand. All those against? Seeing none, I declare the bill carried.

At this time, I will ask the committee members: Shall I report the bill to the House? All those in favour, please raise your hand. All those opposed? Seeing none, I will report the bill to the House.

Again, thank you so much, Ms. Bibi Morium Tuhin and Mr. Farukuddin Mahmood for coming. We really appreciate it.

At this time, there is no further business. This committee now stands adjourned until 9 a.m. on Monday, November 9, 2020. Thank you so much for your co-operation.

The committee adjourned at 0918.

STANDING COMMITTEE ON REGULATIONS AND PRIVATE BILLS

Chair / Président

Mr. Deepak Anand (Mississauga–Malton PC)

Vice-Chair / Vice-Président

Mr. John Fraser (Ottawa South / Ottawa-Sud L)

Mr. Deepak Anand (Mississauga–Malton PC)

Mr. Toby Barrett (Haldimand–Norfolk PC)

Mr. Will Bouma (Brantford–Brant PC)

Mr. Stephen Crawford (Oakville PC)

Mr. John Fraser (Ottawa South / Ottawa-Sud L)

Ms. Laura Mae Lindo (Kitchener Centre / Kitchener-Centre ND)

Mrs. Gila Martow (Thornhill PC)

Mr. Paul Miller (Hamilton East–Stoney Creek / Hamilton-Est–Stoney Creek ND)

Mr. Billy Pang (Markham–Unionville PC)

Mr. Dave Smith (Peterborough–Kawartha PC)

Mr. Jamie West (Sudbury ND)

Substitutions / Membres remplaçants

Mr. Aris Babikian (Scarborough–Agincourt PC)

Mr. Jim McDonell (Stormont–Dundas–South Glengarry PC)

Mr. Vijay Thanigasalam (Scarborough–Rouge Park PC)

Also taking part / Autres participants et participantes

Mr. Robert Bailey (Sarnia–Lambton PC)

Clerk / Greffier

Mr. Isaiah Thorning

Staff / Personnel

Ms. Jennifer Gold, legislative counsel