I have highlighted in red, the parts that deal with Bill 13. This meeting took place about a week after the e-mail and Letter campain started.
1st session, 37th Parliament | 1re session, 37e législature
Mon 20 Dec 1999 / Lun 20 déc 1999
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.