COMMITTEE BUSINESS

CONTENTS

Monday 20 December 1999

Committee business

STANDING COMMITTEE ON GENERAL GOVERNMENT

Chair / Présidente
Ms Marilyn Mushinski (Scarborough Centre / -Centre PC)

Vice-Chair / Vice-Présidente
Mrs Julia Munro (York North / -Nord PC)

Mr Toby Barrett (Norfolk PC)
Mrs Marie Bountrogianni (Hamilton Mountain L)
Mr Ted Chudleigh (Halton PC)
Mr Garfield Dunlop (Simcoe North / -Nord PC)
Mr Dave Levac (Brant L)
Mr Rosario Marchese (Trinity-Spadina ND)
Mrs Julia Munro (York North / -Nord PC)
Ms Marilyn Mushinski (Scarborough Centre / -Centre PC)

Substitutions / Membres remplaçants
Mr Jean-Marc Lalonde (Glengarry-Prescott-Russell L)
Mr Jerry J. Ouellette (Oshawa PC)

Clerk / Greffier
Mr Viktor Kaczkowski

Staff /Personnel
Mr Jerry Richmond, research officer, Research and Information Services

The committee met at 1623 in committee room 1.

COMMITTEE BUSINESS

The Chair (Ms Marilyn Mushinski): I call the meeting to order. The purpose of today's meeting is to consider the future business of the committee pertaining to the following private member's public bills that have been referred to this committee: Bill 13, An Act to preserve Ontario's marine heritage and promote tourism by protecting heritage wrecks and artifacts; Bill 15, An Act to regulate the discharge of ballast water in the Great Lakes; and Bill 29, An Act to amend the Ambulance Act to provide for the minimum staffing and equipping of ambulance stations.

When I say "consideration" of the future business, this is really an attempt to set the schedule for this committee to consider these three bills. I have had an opportunity to discuss that with the three members who wrote these bills and I believe you're all going to be subbed on to this committee. Is that correct? If you could advise the committee of your preferred agenda, we'll discuss it. We'll start with Mr Lalonde.

Mr Jean-Marc Lalonde (Glengarry-Prescott-Russell): Yes, definitely the sooner the better so that we could discuss Bill 29, the Ambulance Amendment Act (Minimum readiness). As you probably know, in eastern Ontario there are only two places at the present time where we don't have a minimum of 12 hours a day of protection or on-site ambulance service seven days a week. We know that out of all those areas of eastern Ontario, of which I'd be willing to give a copy to everyone-

The Chair: Mr Lalonde, we're not actually getting into the merits of each bill today; it's really to discuss the schedule. If we are going to meet before the House comes back, probably in the spring, we will need to get the permission of the House to meet during that time. That's really all we're here to discuss today, not the merits of the bill.

Mr Lalonde: Madam Chair, I would be ready to wait until March, if we could wait till March.

Mr Jerry J. Ouellette (Oshawa): I'm content to wait till the House resumes. That way we are at Queen's Park and all the members will be in attendance at that time. Rather than try to set a date in accordance with the House calendar, when the House resumes is fine by me.

Mr Toby Barrett (Haldimand-Norfolk-Brant): With respect to the Ontario Marine Heritage Act, I've chatted with a couple of the members and I also feel it would be quite appropriate to wait until the House resumes rather than calling this committee out on the road between sessions.

Mr Ted Chudleigh (Halton): I move that all three bills be considered in the spring session.

The Chair: Mr Lalonde, is that OK with you?

Mr Lalonde: I'll go along with that.

The Chair: I have a motion to consider these three bills as the first order of business for this committee when the House resumes in the spring.

Mr Chudleigh: That wasn't my motion; it wasn't the first order of business. We may be given a government bill and that would take precedence. There was no reference to it being the first order of business.

The Chair: We'll discuss it in the spring; forget the first order of business.

Mr Dave Levac (Brant): That was three quarters of my clarification. The other quarter is, would there be, then, a decision on how the bills are introduced and what we do in terms of either public submissions or discussion from the committee level? I'm just not aware of what the process is.

The Chair: The process, if Mr Chudleigh's motion passes, is that it will be referred to the subcommitee, which will meet to send a recommendation to the committee as to the schedule.

Mr Levac: That subcommittee wouldn't meet until the House resumes?

The Chair: That's correct.

Mr Levac: Thank you. I just needed that clarification.

The Chair: That then gets around the issue of the order of business as well.

Mr Ouellette: Are you expecting any more bills to be referred to this committee?

The Chair: Not at this point.

Mr Ouellette: OK, just asking.

The Chair: Who knows what's going to happen between now and when this session ends?

Mr Chudleigh: There was a motion in the House I believe today that only two committees would sit in the intersession, being finance and estimates.

Mr Levac: The only thing that you think would happen then between now and tomorrow-

Failure of sound system.

The Chair: -if you were wanting to discuss any of them before the House reconvenes in the spring, we would need to get permission. I'm not quite sure what the requirement would be. I'm assuming if there is a referral from the House to this committee, the House would also deal with the scheduling at the same time. We'd have to assume that the House leaders will look after that matter.

Mr Lalonde: One more question, Madam Chair. When those bills are discussed at the committee, are there any public hearings where the public is invited? I've never attended that.

The Chair: Yes, indeed. That is what the discussions of the subcommittee will be, and the subcommittee of course comprises members from both the government side and the two opposition parties. So you will have input into that process to determine the public hearings.

Does everyone understand the motion before you, that we discuss these three matters when the House reconvenes in the spring?

All in favour? That's carried.

Can I have a motion to adjourn?

Mr Chudleigh: So moved.

The committee adjourned at 1632.