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April 23, 2013               HOUSE OF ASSEMBLY MANAGEMENT COMMISSION              No. 40


The Management Commission met at 5:30 p.m. in the House of Assembly Chamber.

MR. SPEAKER (Wiseman): Good afternoon, people, and welcome to the Management Commission meeting, the House of Assembly Newfoundland and Labrador Management Commission.

To help us start proceedings, I am going to ask members to introduce themselves, starting to my far left.

Mr. Verge.

MR. VERGE: Wade Verge, the Member for Lewisporte district, Deputy Speaker.

MR. GRANTER: Vaughn Granter, MHA, Humber West.

MS SHEA: Joan Shea, St. George's – Stephenville East.

MR. BALL: Dwight Ball, MHA, Humber Valley.

MR. A. PARSONS: Andrew Parsons, Burgeo – La Poile.

MS MICHAEL: Lorraine Michael, Signal Hill – Quidi Vidi.

MR. SPEAKER: Joining me at the Table today…

CLERK: Sandra Barnes, Clerk.

MS RUSSELL: Bobbi Russell, Clerk's Office.

MR. SPEAKER: Thank you very much.

I just want to remind members that our seating arrangement is a little different today than our normal Commission meetings, and that is to help facilitate the quick turnaround from the House of Assembly session to this one. I will ask members, when they go to speak, when I identify them, just pause for a moment until your light comes on so the Broadcast Centre has connected you so it can be heard.

The first item on today's agenda is the minutes of our March 20, 2013 meeting. Everybody has had an opportunity to review them. They were distributed earlier. I would entertain a motion to have them accepted.

Moved by Mr. Ball; seconded by Mr. Granter.

All those in favour, ‘aye'.

SOME HON. MEMBERS: Aye.

MR. SPEAKER: Against?

Motion carried.

On motion, minutes adopted as circulated.

MR. SPEAKER: Maybe I should have asked, are there any issues arising out of the minutes that anyone may want to question or raise?

There being none, then we will move on to the next – under Tab 2 in our package of information there are five different letters of appeal to the Commission. These are circumstances where members submitted claims for reimbursement and the submission of these claims are outside of the time limit of sixty days. They are required then, before payments can be made, to appeal the decision to the Commission and to have the direction provided to Corporate and Members' Services for the payment of these invoices.

The first letter of appeal comes from the Member for the District of Burgeo – La Poile. This is an expense claim of $84.74. As you can see from the note, the expenses that are claimed in this submission are all expenses that would ordinarily be eligible for reimbursement; however, because they were not submitted within the timeline, requires us to go through this process.

So, I will entertain a motion from someone to approve the claim as being submitted outside of the sixty-day timeline.

MR. BALL: So moved.

MR. SPEAKER: Mr. Ball.

A seconder for the motion?

MS MICHAEL: Seconded.

MR. SPEAKER: Ms Michael.

All those in favour, ‘aye'.

SOME HON. MEMBERS: Aye.

MR. SPEAKER: Motion carried.

The next one we have is a similar circumstance. This time it involves the Member for Mount Pearl North. There are two amounts in this particular claim. The submission is one for $78.04; the other is $79.54. Again, these are expenses that ordinarily would have been paid automatically by Corporate and Members' Services, had they been submitted on time, and they are expenses that ordinarily would be eligible for reimbursement.

With that in mind, I will entertain a motion to approve them as submitted.

MR. GRANTER: So moved.

MR. SPEAKER: Moved by Mr. Granter.

A seconder?

Mr. Ball.

All those in favour, ‘aye'.

SOME HON. MEMBERS: Aye.

MR. SPEAKER: Motion carried.

The next one is the same type of issue from the Member for St. John's South. This time the amount is $420. Again, this claim, in terms of the content of it, meets all the eligibility for reimbursement had they been submitted within the sixty-day time period. In the absence of that, the Commission needs to approve this claim before it can be reimbursed.

I will entertain a motion.

Moved by Mr. Parsons; seconded by Ms Michael.

All those in favour, ‘aye'.

SOME HON. MEMBERS: Aye.

MR. SPEAKER: Motion carried.

The next one we have in the same category is from the Member for Trinity – Bay de Verde, and the amount is $118. It is the same kind of circumstance, expenses that would be entitled for reimbursement automatically had they been submitted within the timeline. In the absence of that, it requires a motion of the Commission and I will entertain that motion.

Moved by Mr. Granter; the seconder for the motion is Mr. Ball.

All those in favour, ‘aye'.

SOME HON. MEMBERS: Aye.

MR. SPEAKER: Motion carried.

The next item, I will step out of the Chair because it pertains to the District of Trinity North. I will ask Mr. Verge if he would sit in the Chair for this discussion.

MR. SPEAKER (Verge): Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

This item is an appeal based on the sixty-day submission deadline. It is for the Member for Trinity North. It is in the amount of $169.50. It does meet the criteria for reimbursement. I would entertain a motion to accept this claim.

Moved by the Member for Burgeo – La Poile; seconded by the Leader of the Official Opposition.

All those in favour, ‘aye'

SOME HON. MEMBERS: Aye.

MR. SPEAKER: Carried.

I will pass the Chair back to the Speaker.

MR. SPEAKER (Wiseman): Thank you, Mr. Verge.

The last item on today's agenda deals with the amendments to the Members' Resources –

AN HON. MEMBER: (Inaudible).

MR. SPEAKER: Oh, I am sorry. I am jumping over an item on the agenda, my apology.

The Audit Committee is made up of two members of this committee appointed by the committee. The membership consists of one person who is representing the governing party and the other member on the Audit Committee represents an Opposition party. Ms Jones, who recently resigned, held the position on behalf of the Opposition in that Audit Committee and with her resignation this Commission needs to appoint a new person to that Audit Committee.

With that said, I will entertain a motion to have someone appointed to that committee.

Mr. Ball.

MR. BALL: (Inaudible) Andrew Parsons as the Audit Committee member.

MR. SPEAKER: Is there a seconder for that motion?

MS MICHAEL: Seconded.

MR. SPEAKER: Seconded by Ms Michael.

It has been moved and seconded that Andrew Parsons be appointed to the Audit Committee.

All those in favour of that motion, ‘aye'.

SOME HON. MEMBERS: Aye.

MR. SPEAKER: All those against, ‘nay'.

Motion carried.

Thank you.

Mr. Parsons, officials from Corporate and Members' Services will arrange an orientation for you so you will have some sense of the role in the Audit Committee. I think there is a meeting about to be called.

The item under Tab 4 on the agenda deals with proposed amendments to the Members' Resources and Allowances Rules. You might recall at a previous Commission meeting I laid out a procedure that we have to go through to make amendments to these rules.

Firstly, we dealt with it as a Management Commission, and then based on the decisions of the Management Commission at that time it went to the House of Assembly. You recall last week there was a discussion in the House and a motion that was voted upon by the House endorsing the recommendations made by the Management Commission.

Now, procedurally, it is required to come back to this Management Commission again for a ratification of the decisions that have been made by way of a motion in the House of Assembly. There is a briefing note that provides the explanations, and this briefing note is the exact same one that was used in the first discussion we had at the Commission. Its content reflects the content of the resolution passed in the House of Assembly.

To give effect to those two previous processes we have gone through and to allow these rules now to finally be implemented, it requires a motion of this Commission that would reflect the wordings as identified under the section Action Required on page 2 of the briefing note. We would need a resolution of this Commission that would be worded in this fashion. So now we would then be able to proceed to get the Office of Legislative Counsel to draft the wording to the amendments to the regulations that would give effect to these decisions.

I will entertain a motion to that effect.

Mr. Ball.

Seconder?

Ms Shea.

Are there any questions with respect to any of this before I call for the vote?

There being none, all those in favour of the motion, ‘aye'.

SOME HON. MEMBERS: Aye.

MR. SPEAKER: All those against, ‘nay'.

Motion carried.

What will happen now is this will be the last time that we will require a discussion of these changes and they will be effective when – the Legislative Counsel will now draft them and they will get gazetted, and once they are gazetted they will come into effect. Our officials will work on that immediately.

There being no further business on the agenda, I would entertain a motion to adjourn.

MR. GRANTER: So moved.

MR. SPEAKER: Moved by Mr. Granter, seconded by Mr. Parsons.

Thank you very much for your quick attention to this issue, and I understand the House now is getting ready for the Estimates Committee meeting that is going to start in fifteen minutes.

Thank you very much.

On motion, meeting adjourned.