Legislative Assembly of Alberta The 30th Legislature Second Session Standing Committee on Resource Stewardship Public Interest Disclosure (Whistleblower Protection) Act Review Wednesday, April 28, 2021 10 a.m. Transcript No. 30-2-19 Legislative Assembly of Alberta The 30th Legislature Second Session Standing Committee on Resource Stewardship Hanson, David B., Bonnyville-Cold Lake-St. Paul (UC), Chair Ceci, Joe, Calgary-Buffalo (NDP), Deputy Chair Amery, Mickey K., Calgary-Cross (UC)* Dach, Lorne, Edmonton-McClung (NDP) Feehan, Richard, Edmonton-Rutherford (NDP) Ganley, Kathleen T., Calgary-Mountain View (NDP) Getson, Shane C., Lac Ste. Anne-Parkland (UC) Guthrie, Peter F., Airdrie-Cochrane (UC) Issik, Whitney, Calgary-Glenmore (UC) Loewen, Todd, Central Peace-Notley (UC) Reid, Roger W., Livingstone-Macleod (UC)** Singh, Peter, Calgary-East (UC) Turton, Searle, Spruce Grove-Stony Plain (UC) Yaseen, Muhammad, Calgary-North (UC) * substitution for Whitney Issik ** substitution for Searle Turton Office of the Public Interest Commissioner Participants Marianne Ryan Public Interest Commissioner Chris Ewaniuk Manager Support Staff Shannon Dean, QC Clerk Teri Cherkewich Law Clerk Trafton Koenig Senior Parliamentary Counsel Philip Massolin Clerk Assistant and Director of House Services Michael Kulicki Clerk of Committees and Research Services Sarah Amato Research Officer Melanie Niemi-Bohun Research Officer Nancy Robert Clerk of Journals and Research Officer Warren Huffman Committee Clerk Jody Rempel Committee Clerk Aaron Roth Committee Clerk Rhonda Sorensen Manager of Corporate Communications Jeanette Dotimas Communications Consultant Tracey Sales Communications Consultant Janet Schwegel Director of Parliamentary Programs Amanda LeBlanc Deputy Editor of Alberta Hansard Transcript produced by Alberta Hansard April 28, 2021 Resource Stewardship RS-597 10 a.m. Wednesday, April 28, 2021 The Chair: Thank you, sir. Title: Wednesday, April 28, 2021 rs All right. For the record I’ll note the following substitutions: [Mr. Hanson in the chair] Roger Reid for Searle Turton and Mickey Amery for Whitney Issik when she has to jump off for another meeting or an announcement, The Chair: Thank you very much, everyone. I’d like to call this I understand. meeting of the Standing Committee on Resource Stewardship to A few housekeeping items to address before we turn to the order and welcome everyone in attendance. business at hand. According to the February 22, 2021, memo from My name is David Hanson, MLA for Bonnyville-Cold Lake-St. the hon. Speaker Cooper I would remind everyone of the updated Paul and chair of the committee. I’d ask that members and those committee room protocols, which encourage members to wear joining the committee at the table introduce themselves for the masks in committee rooms and while seated, except when speaking, record, and then I will call on those joining by videoconference. at which time they may choose not to wear a face covering. Based We’ll begin to my right. Mr. Dach. on the recommendations from the chief medical officer of health regarding physical distancing, meeting attendees are reminded to Mr. Dach: Good morning, all. Lorne Dach, MLA for Edmonton- leave the appropriate distance between themselves and other McClung. participants. Mr. Feehan: Richard Feehan, MLA for Edmonton-Rutherford. Please note that microphones are operated by Hansard staff. Committee proceedings are live streamed on the Internet and Mr. Koenig: Good morning. I’m Trafton Koenig with the broadcast on Alberta Assembly TV. The audio- and videostream Parliamentary Counsel office. and transcripts of meetings can be accessed on the Legislative Assembly website. Those participating by videoconference are Dr. Massolin: Good morning. Philip Massolin, Clerk Assistant and asked to please turn on your camera while speaking and to mute director of House services. your microphone when not speaking. Members participating virtually who wish to be placed on a speakers list are asked to e-mail or send Mr. Huffman: Good morning. Warren Huffman, committee clerk. a message in the group chat to the committee clerk, and members The Chair: I will try to go through the list so that we don’t get in the room are asked to please signal the chair. Please set your confusion on the phones. Mr. Ceci. cellphones and other devices to silent for the duration of the meeting. Member Ceci: Yes. Thank you very much, Mr. Chair. Joe Ceci, Approval of the agenda. Are there any changes or additions to the MLA for Calgary-Buffalo and vice-chair of the committee. draft agenda? If not, would someone like to make a motion to approve the The Chair: Ms Ganley. agenda? I see Mr. Feehan. Thank you, Mr. Feehan. Moved by Mr. Feehan that the agenda for the April 28, 2021, meeting of the Ms Ganley: Kathleen Ganley, MLA for Calgary-Mountain View. Standing Committee on Resource Stewardship be adopted as The Chair: Mr. Getson. distributed. All in favour? Any opposed? Thank you. That motion is carried. Mr. Getson: Shane Getson, MLA for Lac Ste. Anne-Parkland. Approval of minutes. Next we have the draft minutes of our February 4, 2021, meeting. Are there any errors or omissions to The Chair: Ms Issik. note? Hearing none, would a member like to make a motion to approve Ms Issik: Good morning. Whitney Issik, MLA for Calgary- the minutes? I see Mr. Dach has decided to move that. Moved by Glenmore. Mr. Dach that the minutes of the February 4, 2021, meeting of the Standing Committee on Resource Stewardship be approved as The Chair: Thank you. distributed. All in favour? Any opposed? Thank you. That motion I’ll get to the substitutions in a moment. is carried. Mr. Singh. Hon. members, I’d like to note for the record that on February 7, Mr. Singh: Good morning, everyone. Peter Singh, MLA, Calgary- 2021, the committee received a letter from David Hutton from the East. Centre for Free Expression at Ryerson University, who was one of the stakeholders invited to present to the committee at the The Chair: Mr. Yaseen. stakeholder meeting on February 4. This letter was posted to the internal committee website for members to review. For the Mr. Yaseen: Good morning. Muhammad Yaseen, Calgary-North. information of members, no motion on this letter is necessary unless the committee desires to take further action with respect to it. At The Chair: Thank you very much, everyone. Have I missed this time I would like to open the floor to members if they have any anyone? comments on this item in particular. I see Mr. Reid on there. He’s also a substitute for Mr. Turton. Hearing none, we will move on to the review of the Public Interest Mr. Guthrie, I see you’re on. Commissioner’s report on stakeholder recommendations. As Mr. Guthrie: Yes. Thank you, Chair. Peter Guthrie, MLA for requested by the committee at its last meeting, the office of the Airdrie-Cochrane. Public Interest Commissioner submitted a report to the committee detailing the key recommendations from the stakeholder The Chair: Okay. My understanding is that Mr. Loewen is now presentations and the commissioner’s response to those recom- online. mendations. As well, the commissioner provided a tool kit document outlining how the commissioner’s proposed amendments to the act Mr. Loewen: Yes. MLA Todd Loewen, Central Peace-Notley. would align with international best practices. RS-598 Resource Stewardship April 28, 2021 I would note that we have representatives from the office of the Go ahead, Commissioner. Have you got anything you’d like to Public Interest Commissioner joining online today to provide add? technical assistance and to answer any questions members may 10:10 have as the committee goes through the recommendations: Ms Marianne Ryan, Public Interest Commissioner, and Mr. Chris Ms Ryan: Good morning. Thank you, Mr. Chair, and thank you for Ewaniuk, manager of investigations with the office of the Public the question. I will say that many of the recommendations from the Interest Commissioner. Thank you, both, for joining us today. various stakeholders did align very closely, if not exactly, to some At this time I’d like to open the floor to a discussion of the of the 22 recommendations we made in our initial submission. Also, commissioner’s response to the stakeholder recommendations. If as Mr. Dach commented, we did meet as a team. We examined all members prefer, the committee could start at the beginning of the the recommendations extensively. We also reviewed other appendix A document and then review the responses in the order jurisdictions, both nationally and internationally, to, you know, they appear there. inform us if this was a recommendation that other jurisdictions had Additionally, I would note that as the committee will likely hold also adopted. But we gave all of the recommendations, as I said, its final deliberations on the act in late May or early June, the extensive consideration in preparing this report. primary purpose of today’s meeting is to review and discuss these recommendations. However, to provide some flexibility in the The Chair: Okay. Thank you very much, Commissioner. process today, if it appears that the committee can arrive at a quick Are there any other committee members wishing to comment on agreement on some of them, I am prepared to allow a substantive recommendation 1? motion to be put forward to accept the recommendation provided Member Ceci: Mr. Chairman, yeah. that the committee grants unanimous consent to allow the motion to be put forward. The Chair: Go ahead, Mr. Ceci. Members will be reminded that for the purposes of the committee’s report to the Assembly, a motion to accept the Member Ceci: Commissioner Ryan, how many of the investigations stakeholder recommendation is necessary only if the committee would regularly go beyond the 120 days and need the additional would like to adopt it as one of its own recommendations to the two months? Like, what proportion of the investigations: most, a Assembly.