Legislative Assembly of Alberta the 29Th Legislature Fourth Session
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
Legislative Assembly of Alberta The 29th Legislature Fourth Session Standing Committee on Alberta’s Economic Future Bill 201, Employment Standards (Firefighter Leave) Amendment Act, 2018 Friday, June 22, 2018 9 a.m. Transcript No. 29-4-11 Legislative Assembly of Alberta The 29th Legislature Fourth Session Standing Committee on Alberta’s Economic Future Sucha, Graham, Calgary-Shaw (NDP), Chair van Dijken, Glenn, Barrhead-Morinville-Westlock (UCP), Deputy Chair Barnes, Drew, Cypress-Medicine Hat (UCP)* Carson, Jonathon, Edmonton-Meadowlark (NDP) Connolly, Michael R.D., Calgary-Hawkwood (NDP) Coolahan, Craig, Calgary-Klein (NDP) Dach, Lorne, Edmonton-McClung (NDP) Fitzpatrick, Maria M., Lethbridge-East (NDP) Gotfried, Richard, Calgary-Fish Creek (UCP) Horne, Trevor A.R., Spruce Grove-St. Albert (NDP) Littlewood, Jessica, Fort Saskatchewan-Vegreville (NDP) Loyola, Rod, Edmonton-Ellerslie (NDP)** McPherson, Karen M., Calgary-Mackay-Nose Hill (AP) Piquette, Colin, Athabasca-Sturgeon-Redwater (NDP) Schneider, David A., Little Bow (UCP) Starke, Dr. Richard, Vermilion-Lloydminster (PC) Taylor, Wes, Battle River-Wainwright (UCP) * substitution for Richard Gotfried ** substitution for Lorne Dach Also in Attendance Anderson, Wayne, Highwood (UCP) Bill 201 Sponsor Anderson, Wayne, Highwood (UCP) Support Staff Robert H. Reynolds, QC Clerk Shannon Dean Law Clerk and Director of House Services Stephanie LeBlanc Senior Parliamentary Counsel Trafton Koenig Parliamentary Counsel Philip Massolin Manager of Research and Committee Services Sarah Amato Research Officer Nancy Robert Research Officer Elizabeth Peck Acting Research Officer Corinne Dacyshyn Committee Clerk Jody Rempel Committee Clerk Aaron Roth Committee Clerk Karen Sawchuk Committee Clerk Rhonda Sorensen Manager of Corporate Communications Jeanette Dotimas Communications Consultant Tracey Sales Communications Consultant Janet Schwegel Managing Editor of Alberta Hansard Transcript produced by Alberta Hansard June 22, 2018 Alberta’s Economic Future EF-1195 9 a.m. Friday, June 22, 2018 The Chair: Are there any other members that I’ve missed on this? Title: Friday, June 22, 2018 ef Hearing none, for the record I’d like to note that Member Loyola [Mr. Sucha in the chair] is substituting for Mr. Dach and that Mr. Barnes is substituting for Mr. Gotfried. The Chair: Good morning, everyone. I’d like to welcome Before we turn to the business at hand, just a few operational members, staff, guests to this meeting of the Standing Committee items. Please note that the microphones are operated by Hansard on Alberta’s Economic Future. and that the committee proceedings are being live streamed on the My name is Graham Sucha. I’m the MLA for Calgary-Shaw and Internet and broadcast for the dozens of viewers on Alberta the chair of this committee. I’d ask that members joining the Assembly TV. Please set your cellphones and other devices to silent committee at the table introduce themselves for the record, and then for the duration of the meeting. we’ll hear from the members on the phone. I’ll start with the Members, we’ll move to the agenda. Are there any omissions or member to my right. additions that people would like to make to the agenda? Mr. Taylor: Good morning. Wes Taylor, Battle River-Wainwright. Seeing and hearing none, would someone like to move the approval of that? Moved by Member Loyola that the June 22, 2018, Mr. Horne: Good morning. Trevor Horne, MLA for Spruce Grove- meeting agenda of the Standing Committee on Alberta’s Economic St. Albert. Future be adopted as circulated. All those in favour, say aye. All those opposed, say no. And on the phones? That is carried. Mr. Piquette: Good morning. Colin Piquette, MLA for Athabasca- Approval of the minutes. We have the minutes from our last Sturgeon-Redwater. meeting, May 3, 2018. Are there any errors or omissions to note? Mr. Carson: Good morning. Jon Carson, MLA for Edmonton- Seeing and hearing none, would a member like to move adoption Meadowlark. of the minutes, please? Moved by MLA Taylor that the minutes of the May 3, 2018, meeting of the Standing Committee on Alberta’s Ms Fitzpatrick: Good morning. Maria Fitzpatrick, MLA, Economic Future be adopted as circulated. All those in favour, say Lethbridge-East. aye. All those opposed, say no. And on the phones? Excellent. That is carried. Loyola: Good day. Rod Loyola, Edmonton-Ellerslie. We’ll move to the next item on the agenda, review of Bill 201, Mrs. Littlewood: Good morning. Jessica Littlewood, MLA for the Employment Standards (Firefighter Leave) Amendment Act, 2018. beautiful rural constituency of Fort Saskatchewan-Vegreville. Hon. members, the committee received a few written submissions – tentatively the number is 40 – after the June 6, 2018, deadline set Mr. Koenig: Good morning. I’m Trafton Koenig with the by the committee. Sorry. The committee received one submission – Parliamentary Counsel office. my apologies – which was number 40, after the June 6 deadline set by the committee. Therefore, the committee needs to decide Ms Peck: Good morning. I’m Elizabeth Peck, acting research whether it wants to include this submission as part of the review. officer with House services. Are there any thoughts? Dr. Massolin: Good morning. Philip Massolin, manager of Mr. Piquette: I think that, you know, considering how close it was research and committee services. and that it’s not really impeding our efforts – it’s important that we hear from everyone who took the time to respond – I would suggest Ms Rempel: Good morning. Jody Rempel, committee clerk. that we include the late submission. The Chair: Excellent. For the members on the phone, I’ll do a roll call here. The Chair: Okay. Any other members wishing to speak? MLA Coolahan. Mr. Taylor: Yeah. I agree that we ought to bring that submission Mr. Coolahan: Yes. MLA Coolahan. forward so we have a fulsome discussion with all the ones that are here. The Chair: Member McPherson. The Chair: Okay. Excellent. I do have a motion prepared if Ms McPherson: Good morning. Karen McPherson, MLA for someone wants to move it. Moved by MLA Piquette that Calgary-Mackay-Nose Hill. all written submissions received by the Standing Committee on Alberta’s Economic Future by June 21, 2018, in regard to its The Chair: Mr. Schneider. review of Bill 201, Employment Standards (Firefighter Leave) Amendment Act, 2018, be accepted and included in the review Mr. Schneider: Good morning. Dave Schneider, Little Bow. process. With that motion on the floor, I’ll open that up for discussion. The Chair: Mr. Barnes. Seeing and hearing none, I’ll call the question. All those in favour Mr. Barnes: Drew Barnes, Cypress-Medicine Hat. of the motion, please say aye. All those opposed, please say no. On the phones? Excellent. The Chair: Member Connolly. That is carried. Members, we’ll move on to subsection (a), consultation, the Connolly: Michael Connolly, MLA for Calgary-Hawkwood. review of written submission summaries. Our next item of business is to discuss the written submissions made to the committee from The Chair: MLA Anderson. both stakeholders and the public in relation to the committee’s review of Bill 201, Employment Standards (Firefighter Leave) Mr. W. Anderson: Good morning. Wayne Anderson, MLA, Highwood. Amendment Act, 2018. To assist us with that task, the Legislative EF-1196 Alberta’s Economic Future June 22, 2018 Assembly Office research services has provided a submission 9:10 summary document to members. Secondly, the submissions that were opposed to Bill 201. The bill At this point I’ll turn the floor over to Dr. Massolin to explain the would cause employers to “feel forced to comply with imposed summary. legislation,” and it would “create an adversarial working Dr. Massolin: Thank you, Mr. Chair. I will turn it over to Ms Peck, environment” between the employer and the volunteer firefighter. actually, to do the summary, but I thought if I could just beg Secondly, “the Bill may be detrimental to the recruitment of new indulgence from you and the committee to introduce Ms Peck to volunteer firefighters.” If Bill 201 is enacted, some submissions you because she’s new here at the Legislative Assembly Office. suggested that employers would be hesitant to hire volunteer She’s in fact covering off for Sarah Amato, who’s been with the firefighters for fear of human resource issues. committee, as committee members may recall from previous Related to section 2(3) of the bill, if an employer cannot prevent reviews. Ms Peck has a background in anthropology with a an employee from being absent from work to fulfill their specialization in archaeology, a bone specialist, in fact, but she’s obligations, several submissions implied or suggested that a also had experience at the Legislative Assembly in the business could suffer loss of productivity or loss of profit due to one parliamentary context with Hansard and more recently with bills or more employees being absent from work. This was particularly and Journals. She’s been here for nine years, and we’re fortunate pertinent to the small businesses of fewer than five employees. to have her covering off in a secondment position until Sarah is Finally, there were some comments with respect to specific back. provisions of the bill. They related only to section 2(2). The first With that, I’ll turn it over to Ms Peck. one was that there was a suggestion that the employment time period be changed from 90 days to 180 days. Secondly, there was a Ms Peck: Thank you. Good morning again to everybody. I’m request to clarify terminology specific to “occasional unpaid leave” pleased to be presenting the results of the submissions regarding and “assist in fire services.” Bill 201. As previously stated, there were 40 submissions, and out That’s all. of this total, six were from stakeholders and 34 were from the general public, the latter of which includes both volunteer and part- The Chair: Well, thank you, Ms Peck.