CONTENTS
Wednesday 12 December 1990
Organization
Adjournment
STANDING COMMITTEE ON THE OMBUDSMAN
Chair: Morrow, Mark (Wentworth East NDP)
Vice-Chair: White, Drummond (Durham Centre NDP)
Curling, Alvin (Scarborough North L)
Duignan, Noel (Halton North NDP)
Fawcett, Joan M. (Northumberland L)
Henderson, D. James (Etobicoke-Humber L)
Huget, Bob (Sarnia NDP)
Mammoliti, George (Yorkview NDP)
Mathyssen, Irene (Middlesex NDP)
Murdoch, Bill (Grey PC)
Wessenger, Paul (Simcoe Centre NDP)
Witmer, Elizabeth (Waterloo North PC)
Substitution: Carr, Gary (Oakville South PC) for Mrs Witmer
Clerk: Carrozza, Franco
Staff:
McNaught, Andrew, Research Officer, Legislative Research Office
Murray, Paul, Research Officer, Legislative Research Office
The committee met at 1007 in room 151.
ORGANIZATION
The Chair: I call the meeting to order. I would like to introduce myself. I am Mark Morrow, Chair of the standing committee on the Ombudsman. We are having this current meeting on organizational aspects of the committee. The subcommittee met last Thursday. I would like to read you its report.
"Your business subcommittee met on Thursday 6 December 1990 and has agreed to recommend the following:
"1. That the committee adopt a supplementary budget (see attached). The budget is to cover the period from 7 December 1990 to 31 March 1991, after which the committee should prepare a new budget for the new fiscal year.
"2. That the committee direct the business subcommittee to review and make a recommendation to the hiring of a committee legal counsel.
"3. That the committee set aside some time to review its role as stated in its order of reference as contained in standing order 104(h)."
Are there any questions or comments on the subcommittee's report? Can I now have somebody move the adoption of the report?
Mr B. Murdoch: I will move that.
The Chair: Thank you very much. Carried? Okay, now we can move on to other business. Is there any other business before this committee?
Mr Wessenger: Could I just ask a question? Did we in effect approve the budget without saying it?
The Chair: Actually, because the budget was part of the subcommittee, yes, you just have approved the budget.
Mr Wessenger: Which we have not seen.
The Chair: Copies were sent to you. If you wish to ask questions, even though it has been approved, I would now entertain questions.
Mr Wessenger: I see I have a copy here. I did not get a copy sent to my office, or it may have come yesterday.
Mr B. Murdoch: I would think, as we are a new committee, that if someone had a problem with something in the budget, would we not be open to discuss it, say at our next committee meeting?
The Chair: I do not really have any problem with that, but if there are any problems we should be able to discuss them now.
Mr B. Murdoch: I have no problems, but I thought maybe some of them had not read it, and we are all new. I do not think we are that tied down that if somebody had a real problem --
The Chair: I do not see any problems with that.
Mr Duignan: I trust this budget will be prorated from 7 December through to 31 March?
The Chair: Yes, it would.
Mr Duignan: I was just wondering, in relation to meetings, how you are going to prorate the meetings. Are we planning to have any meetings between now and the end of March?
The Chair: I guess I can inform the committee -- you will be receiving letters about this -- that I informed the House leader's office yesterday and I informed Franco that this committee will not be meeting while the House is in recess. The subcommittee will be meeting, but the committee itself will not be meeting.
Mr Duignan: In fact, then, the budget for the remainder of the fiscal year will be very small.
The Chair: Yes, it will.
Mr Mammoliti: I want to bring up the item of hiring a lawyer or looking at the same lawyer.
The Chair: That will be dealt with in the subcommittee.
Mr Mammoliti: I just think the committee should have a chance at perhaps saying how it feels. I do not know.
The Chair: I have just been informed by the clerk that the subcommittee will make a report to the committee as a whole, just as we did with the budget here, and it will be aired by the committee at that point. Are there any further questions?
Mrs Fawcett: Congratulations on your chairship. Why will we not be meeting in the break? Is there no business before us?
The Chair: There is no business before this committee at this point.
Mrs Fawcett: Is that not great? There are no problems out there. My goodness.
The Chair: I have just been informed by the clerk that the Ombudsman report is released in the summer. Okay?
Mrs Fawcett: All right, thank you.
Mr Duignan: Will the report from the subcommittee on the question of hiring a committee legal counsel come in the form of a recommendation to the committee, and will we get a chance to air our points of view on that?
The Chair: I would like to believe that you will be able to air your views also on the recommendation.
Mr White: Through you to the clerk: I am curious about the correspondence subcommittee. Is there correspondence which is waiting to be received by that committee?
Clerk of the Committee: There is always some correspondence from individuals who wish to receive information regarding the committee. If it is a minor matter, I respond to it. If there are serious matters for the subcommittee to review. I inform the Chairman of that fact, and then the subcommittee meets to look at the correspondence before it. The clerk does not handle everything.
Mr White: And at the moment there are no serious matters for that subcommittee?
Clerk of the Committee: There is one particular letter from the Ombudsman, which was presented to the Chair. The recommendation was that we wait until we have a legal counsel to review this matter that the Ombudsman wished to discuss with the committee.
The Chair: Any further questions? Seeing none, can we move on to new business? Seeing none, I would entertain a motion to adjourn at this point.
The committee adjourned at 1015.