Legislative Assembly of Alberta The 27th Legislature Third Session Standing Committee on Health Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act Review Officers of the Legislative Assembly and Public Presentations Thursday, September 2, 2010 9:02 a.m. Transcript No. 27-3-8 Legislative Assembly of Alberta The 27th Legislature Third Session Standing Committee on Health McFarland, Barry, Little Bow (PC), Chair Pastoor, Bridget Brennan, Lethbridge-East (AL), Deputy Chair Blakeman, Laurie, Edmonton-Centre (AL)* Elniski, Doug, Edmonton-Calder (PC)** Forsyth, Heather, Calgary-Fish Creek (WA) Groeneveld, George, Highwood (PC) Horne, Fred, Edmonton-Rutherford (PC) Lindsay, Fred, Stony Plain (PC) Notley, Rachel, Edmonton-Strathcona (ND) Olson, Verlyn, QC, Wetaskiwin-Camrose (PC) Quest, Dave, Strathcona (PC) Sherman, Dr. Raj, Edmonton-Meadowlark (PC) Taft, Dr. Kevin, Edmonton-Riverview (AL) Vandermeer, Tony, Edmonton-Beverly-Clareview (PC) * substitution for Kevin Taft ** substitution for Fred Horne Department of Service Alberta Participant Hilary Lynas Director, Access and Privacy Office of the Auditor General Participant Kerry Langford General Counsel Office of the Ethics Commissioner Participant Brad Odsen, QC Registrar, Lobbyists Act, and General Counsel Office of the Information and Privacy Commissioner Participant Marylin Mun Assistant Commissioner Support Staff W.J. David McNeil Clerk Louise J. Kamuchik Clerk Assistant/Director of House Services Micheline S. Gravel Clerk of Journals/Table Research Robert H. Reynolds, QC Law Clerk/Director of Interparliamentary Relations Shannon Dean Senior Parliamentary Counsel/Clerk of Committees Corinne Dacyshyn Committee Clerk Jody Rempel Committee Clerk Karen Sawchuk Committee Clerk Rhonda Sorensen Manager of Corporate Communications and Broadcast Services Melanie Friesacher Communications Consultant Tracey Sales Communications Consultant Philip Massolin Committee Research Co-ordinator Stephanie LeBlanc Legal Research Officer Diana Staley Research Officer Rachel Stein Research Officer Liz Sim Managing Editor of Alberta Hansard Transcript produced by Alberta Hansard Standing Committee on Health Participants Edmonton Police Service ................................................ HE-505 Karen Andersen Alberta Weekly Newspapers Association.................................... HE-509 Brian Bachynski Dennis Merrell Officers of the Legislative Assembly ....................................... HE-513 Gord Button Brian Fjeldheim Merwan Saher Neil Wilkinson Alberta Press Council................................................... HE-517 Bauni Mackay Stanley Tromp re B.C. Freedom of Information and Privacy Association ........... HE-522 David Haddad......................................................... HE-526 Excela Associates Inc.................................................... HE-530 Alec Campbell Service Alberta........................................................ HE-537 Paul Pellis September 2, 2010 Health HE-499 9:02 a.m. Thursday, September 2, 2010 copies of the meeting materials – I don’t see anyone with a hand up Title: Thursday, September 2, 2010 HE – they are available. [Mr. McFarland in the chair] Okay. Any additional items that anyone needs to have added to the agenda? Seeing none, could we have a motion to approve the The Chair: Well, good morning, everyone. Welcome back on the agenda as circulated for today’s meeting of the Standing Committee second day of September. Everyone is happy to be here, I’m sure. on Health? Mr. Olson. All in favour? That’s carried. Just for the I know Ms Blakeman is. She’s looking forward to a whole day of record we don’t need to have a seconder for any of these motions. FOIP review. To those that are on the air listening in, welcome. Our future meeting dates. We currently have September 13 and I think we’ll start the morning, as we normally do, with an 14 booked as review dates from 9 till noon each day and October 28 introduction of ourselves for the record. If I could start on my shown as the date for the review of our draft report. Now that we’re immediate left with our committee clerk. further along in the process, I’d like to suggest that we look at how to balance the review and how it may unfold considering the revision Mrs. Sawchuk: Karen Sawchuk, committee clerk. of and adding or changing some of the meeting dates. Because of the research component to it I’d like to suggest that we move the Mr. Quest: Good morning. Dave Quest, MLA, Strathcona. September 13 and 14 dates to September 27 and have one day from 9:30 in the morning to 4 p.m. to review all the recommendations and Mr. Olson: Good morning. Verlyn Olson, Wetaskiwin-Camrose. to decide which of these recommendations the committee wishes to put forward on the final date. Dr. Massolin: Good morning. Philip Massolin, committee research By way of explanation, then, I could say that this would give our co-ordinator and table officer, Legislative Assembly Office. research staff time to compile all the requested research and have this information for posting the week prior to the meeting. Currently Ms LeBlanc: Stephanie LeBlanc, legal research officer, Legislative we wouldn’t be able to do that with September 13 and 14 because Assembly Office. there are only four business days after we complete our meeting tomorrow, and this would likely not provide sufficient time for the Ms Lynas: Hilary Lynas, Service Alberta. work to be completed and circulated, as is required, in advance of the meeting dates. Ms Mun: Marylin Mun, office of the Information and Privacy Commissioner. Ms Blakeman: Where does the chair anticipate the recommenda- tions will come from if we don’t meet between the end of seeing the Ms Blakeman: Laurie Blakeman. I’d like to welcome each and presenters and deciding and debating which recommendations will every one of you to my fabulous, still summerlike constituency of go forward? I anticipated that we’d be meeting to develop those Edmonton-Centre. recommendations, to go through and say that these are the ones that we want to discuss, and then come back and discuss them. Who’s Mr. Vandermeer: Good morning. Tony Vandermeer, Edmonton- going to be developing these recommendations? Beverly-Clareview. The Chair: Could I ask Dr. Massolin to give us a hand here with Mr. Groeneveld: George Groeneveld, Highwood. this, please? Mr. Lindsay: Good morning. Fred Lindsay, Stony Plain. Dr. Massolin: Yes. I can just speak to the issue, I guess, of the lead time that might be required, depending on what the committee asks Mr. Elniski: Good morning. Doug Elniski, the MLA for for. I think, if I can say, the chair was asking for a little bit more Edmonton-Calder, substituting for Fred Horne. lead time for our research staff to prepare requested documents; for instance, perhaps a summary of not only the information that the Ms Pastoor: Good morning. Bridget Pastoor, Lethbridge-East and committee has received to this point but also the information it will deputy chair. receive today and tomorrow so that there could be a list, basically, of the standout issues, if I can call them that. The committee at the The Chair: I’m Barry McFarland, chair, from Little Bow. subsequent meeting could go through those issues and deliberate on them and decide which ones. You know, in addition to the ones we Mrs. Forsyth: I’m Heather Forsyth. present, obviously, there’s an opportunity to indicate additional information as well. The idea there, I think, is just to give a little bit The Chair: Good morning, Heather. more lead time than has been allotted here with the 13th and 14th of September meetings. Mrs. Forsyth: Good morning. The Chair: Anyone else? Ms Blakeman: Yeah. I don’t have a problem with giving the staff more time – that’s very reasonable – but my experience on these Ms Blakeman: Sorry, Mr. Chair. I forgot to mention that I’m committees is that it does take the committee a while to hash through substituting somewhat permanently for Dr. Taft. all of the recommendations that are in front of us and make a decision as to how things are going to go forward. I would really The Chair: Thank you, Ms Blakeman. caution against narrowing this down to one day rather than the two Members now have probably received the revised meeting agenda days that were anticipated. At one point these were two full days. and the supporting documents. They have been updated, and they Now they’ve turned into two half days, and now we’re talking about were posted to the internal committee website. If anyone needs trying to do this in one day. That’s going to be really difficult just HE-500 Health September 2, 2010 given the complexity of what’s in front of us and how important this Mr. Groeneveld: Yes. issue is. Thanks. The Chair: Okay. The Chair: I may be wrong about the timing, Ms Blakeman, but I Ms Pastoor: Mr. Chair, I think that so far we’ve only heard that it do know that we had two half days scheduled. Now it’ll be one full will be a problem for Mrs. Forsyth and myself. I can wiggle around day. Maybe Karen could elaborate a little bit more if you don’t my obligations on the 27th if that would help. I’m not sure about mind. Mrs. Forsyth. Mrs. Sawchuk: Mr. Chair, I believe that just during discussions Mrs. Forsyth: No. I am booked solid on the 27th – I’m sorry – as through the last few meetings the committee had set the times for is the rest of our caucus. those two dates, and that’s when they were posted on the websites. That’s what we did have on the record. The Chair: Okay. We have Mr. Vandermeer. Then we’ll have Mr. Quest. Ms Blakeman: And I probably complained at the time that going to two half days wasn’t a good idea, but there we are. Mr. Vandermeer: I would suggest that we go with the 27th. With all our schedules it’s going to be so hard. I mean, somebody is Mrs.