Legislative Assembly of Alberta the 27Th Legislature Fourth Session
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Legislative Assembly of Alberta The 27th Legislature Fourth Session Standing Committee on Private Bills Tuesday, April 12, 2011 8:32 a.m. Transcript No. 27-4-2 Legislative Assembly of Alberta The 27th Legislature Fourth Session Standing Committee on Private Bills Brown, Dr. Neil, QC, Calgary-Nose Hill (PC), Chair Woo-Paw, Teresa, Calgary-Mackay (PC), Deputy Chair Allred, Ken, St. Albert (PC) Benito, Carl, Edmonton-Mill Woods (PC) Boutilier, Guy C., Fort McMurray-Wood Buffalo (W) Calahasen, Pearl, Lesser Slave Lake (PC) Dallas, Cal, Red Deer-South (PC) Doerksen, Arno, Strathmore-Brooks (PC) Drysdale, Wayne, Grande Prairie-Wapiti (PC) Hinman, Paul, Calgary-Glenmore (W) Horner, Doug, Spruce Grove-Sturgeon-St. Albert (PC) Jacobs, Broyce, Cardston-Taber-Warner (PC) Kang, Darshan S., Calgary-McCall (AL) Lindsay, Fred, Stony Plain (PC) McQueen, Diana, Drayton Valley-Calmar (PC) Morton, F.L., Foothills-Rocky View (PC) Redford, Alison M., QC, Calgary-Elbow (PC) Sandhu, Peter, Edmonton-Manning (PC) Sarich, Janice, Edmonton-Decore (PC) Taft, Dr. Kevin, Edmonton-Riverview (AL) Xiao, David H., Edmonton-McClung (PC) Bill Pr. 1 Sponsor Rogers, George, Leduc-Beaumont-Devon (PC) Bill Pr. 2 Sponsor Pastoor, Bridget Brennan, Lethbridge-East (AL) Bill Pr. 7 Sponsor Rodney, Dave, Calgary-Lougheed (PC) Support Staff Shannon Dean Senior Parliamentary Counsel/ Director of House Services Florence Marston Administrative Assistant Liz Sim Managing Editor of Alberta Hansard Transcript produced by Alberta Hansard Standing Committee on Private Bills Participants Bill Pr. 1, Alberta Association of Municipal Districts and Counties Amendment Act, 2011 ............................................PB-65 Heather Barnhouse, Associate, Fraser Milner Casgrain LLP Michelle Hay, Policy Analyst, Alberta Association of Municipal Districts and Counties Kim Heyman, Director, Advocacy & Communications, Alberta Association of Municipal Districts and Counties Bill Pr. 2, Galt Scholarship Fund Transfer Act ..................................................................................................................PB-68 Donna Karl, President, Galt School of Nursing Alumnae Society Kathy MacFarlane, Manager, Development Programs, University of Lethbridge Ian Zadeiks, Barrister and Solicitor, Torry Lewis Abells LLP Bill Pr. 7, Hull Child and Family Services Amendment Act, 2011 ...................................................................................PB-71 George Ghitan, Executive Director, Hull Child and Family Services April 12, 2011 Private Bills PB-65 8:32 a.m. Tuesday, April 12, 2011 should have a copy of. Can I have a motion to approve the Title: Tuesday, April 12, 2011 pb minutes as circulated? Mr. Allred. Any discussion? All in favour? [Dr. Brown in the chair] Any opposed? That’s carried. We’ve been joined by Mr. Horner from Spruce Grove- The Chair: Good morning, everyone. Welcome to the meeting of Sturgeon-St. Albert. Welcome. the Standing Committee on Private Bills. I want to thank everyone for being so prompt for an early morning meeting. Mr. Horner: Thank you, Chair. I think we’ll just begin by introducing ourselves. We’ll start with Mr. Boutilier in the far end there. The Chair: We have three private bills to be heard today: Pr. 1, the Alberta Association of Municipal Districts and Counties Mr. Boutilier: Yeah. Thank you. Good morning. Guy Boutilier, Amendment Act, 2011; Pr. 2, the Galt Scholarship Fund Transfer MLA for Fort McMurray-Wood Buffalo, the oil sands capital of Act; and Pr. 7, the Hull Child and Family Services Amendment the world, if you haven’t heard. Act, 2011. Everyone should have a copy of Ms Dean’s report on the peti- Mr. Hinman: Paul Hinman, MLA for Calgary-Glenmore. tions, which pursuant to Standing Order 104 was distributed on Mr. Dallas: Good morning, everyone. Cal Dallas, MLA, Red March 30 in hard copy. Is there anyone that does not have a copy Deer-South. of that? It’s that yellow document. Mr. Morton, we’ll get you a copy. Does everyone have a copy now? Okay. Mrs. Sarich: Good morning. Janice Sarich, MLA for Edmonton- I’m going to take just a couple of minutes to go through the Decore. private bills procedure. The purpose of private bills is to allow an individual or a group of individuals to petition the Legislature for Mr. Drysdale: Wayne Drysdale, Grande Prairie-Wapiti. relief or remedy, something that is not available in the general law. Once the private bill is passed in the Legislature, it is like any Mr. Xiao: David Xiao, Edmonton-McClung. other piece of legislation. Mr. Lindsay: Good morning. Fred Lindsay, Stony Plain. The procedures for the private bills are governed by our standing orders 89 through 106. To summarize, the requirements for compli- Mrs. McQueen: Good morning. Diana McQueen, Drayton Valley- ance of the petitions pursuant to the standing orders are that the Calmar. petitioner has to advertise twice, in the Alberta Gazette and for two consecutive weeks in an Alberta newspaper. The petition also has to Mr. Allred: Ken Allred, St. Albert. be filed with the Assembly and with the Lieutenant Governor. There has to be a draft bill presented along with a filing fee of $200. Ms Woo-Paw: Good morning. Teresa Woo-Paw, Calgary-Mackay. Once the petitions are received, they’re referred to the chair, Ms Dean: Good morning. Shannon Dean, Senior Parliamentary who then presents them in the Assembly, as I have, and once the Counsel and director of House services. petitions have been reviewed, I again report to the Assembly. Then we proceed with the hearings, which is what we’re doing The Chair: I’m Neil Brown, chair of the Private Bills Committee. with these three bills today, and we have the petitioners appear before us as well as anyone who is interested. We act in this ca- Ms Marston: Florence Marston, assistant to the committee. pacity in a quasi-judicial as well as a legislative capacity. Following the presentations by the petitioners, we have an oppor- Mr. Rogers: George Rogers, MLA for Leduc-Beaumont-Devon. tunity to ask questions, and once we have asked all the questions Good morning. that we want, then we meet at a later date to deliberate over the Mr. Doerksen: Arno Doerksen, Strathmore-Brooks. bills. Any questions on the procedure before we invite in the first Mr. Jacobs: Broyce Jacobs, Cardston-Taber-Warner. petitioner? Okay. I’d like to invite the petitioners on Pr. 1, then. Mr. Sandhu: Good morning. Peter Sandhu, Edmonton-Manning. [Ms Barnhouse, Ms Hay, and Ms Heyman were sworn in] Ms Calahasen: Pearl Calahasen, Lesser Slave Lake. 8:40 Dr. Morton: Ted Morton, Foothills-Rocky View. The Chair: Welcome to the committee meeting this morning. Could I ask our guests to introduce themselves, please? Ms Pastoor: Bridget Pastoor, Lethbridge-East. Mr. Kang: Good morning. Darshan Kang, Calgary-McCall, air- Bill Pr. 1 port tunnel country. Alberta Association of Municipal Districts and Counties Amendment Act, 2011 Dr. Taft: I’m Kevin Taft, MLA for Edmonton-Riverview. Ms Heyman: My name is Kim Heyman. I’m director of advocacy The Chair: Well, thank you, all. The first order of business on the and communications for the Alberta Association of Municipal agenda this morning is the approval of the agenda for today’s Districts and Counties. Good morning. meeting, which has been circulated. Can I have a motion to ap- prove the agenda as circulated? Mrs. Sarich. Any discussion? Any Ms Barnhouse: Good morning. My name is Heather Barnhouse. additions? All in favour? Opposed? That’s carried. I’m an associate with the law firm of Fraser Milner Casgrain, The next order of business is the approval of our minutes from which is counsel to the Alberta Association of Municipal Districts the March 15, 2011, meeting, which have been circulated and you and Counties. PB-66 Private Bills April 12, 2011 Ms Hay: I’m Michelle Hay. I’m a policy analyst with the AAMD ments is to modernize the bill. This process was started at the time and C. that the AAMD and C decided to go down the path of amending their existing bylaws. At the time the bylaws were being amended, The Chair: I will continue with the introduction of our committee it came to light that some of the provisions in the existing bill members to our guests. I’ll start with Mr. Horner. were a little bit outdated, and it seemed like a good time to under- take the proposed amendments to modernize the bill. Mr. Horner: All right. My name is Doug Horner. I’m the MLA There are basically two purposes for doing so. The first is that at for Spruce Grove-Sturgeon-St. Albert. Welcome. the time the original act was incorporated, in 1923, there were far Dr. Taft: Kevin Taft, MLA, Edmonton-Riverview. fewer municipal districts and counties in the province. Now that there are, I think, 69 – is that correct? – different municipal dis- Mr. Kang: Good morning. Darshan Kang, MLA, Calgary-McCall. tricts in the province, it’s more appropriate that the AAMD and C Welcome. does its work on behalf of the majority or some number less than all of the municipal districts and counties. The original act re- Ms Pastoor: Bridget Pastoor, Lethbridge-East. quired that anything that was done be done on behalf of all of the municipal districts and counties, and that’s just not realistic given Dr. Morton: Ted Morton, Foothills-Rocky View. that there are now 69 municipal districts as opposed to, I think, six Ms Calahasen: Pearl Calahasen, Lesser Slave Lake. or so back at the time that the act was enacted. The proposed amendments are just essentially reflecting that the AAMD and C Mr. Sandhu: Good morning. Peter Sandhu, Edmonton-Manning. does not need to act on behalf of all municipal districts and coun- ties but on behalf of municipal districts and counties, so just Mr. Jacobs: Broyce Jacobs, Cardston-Taber-Warner. removing the word “all”.