Legislative Assembly of Alberta The 27th Legislature Third Session Standing Committee on Public Safety and Services Financial Disclosure Rules for Leadership Contestants Presentations Thursday, July 8, 2010 9 a.m. Transcript No. 27-3-8 Legislative Assembly of Alberta The 27th Legislature Third Session Standing Committee on Public Safety and Services Drysdale, Wayne, Grande Prairie-Wapiti (PC), Chair Kang, Darshan S., Calgary-McCall (AL), Deputy Chair Allred, Ken, St. Albert (PC)* Boutilier, Guy C., Fort McMurray-Wood Buffalo (Ind) Brown, Dr. Neil, QC, Calgary-Nose Hill (PC) Calahasen, Pearl, Lesser Slave Lake (PC) Cao, Wayne C.N., Calgary-Fort (PC) Forsyth, Heather, Calgary-Fish Creek (WA) Johnson, Jeff, Athabasca-Redwater (PC) MacDonald, Hugh, Edmonton-Gold Bar (AL) Rogers, George, Leduc-Beaumont-Devon (PC) Sandhu, Peter, Edmonton-Manning (PC) Xiao, David H., Edmonton-McClung (PC) * substitution for Neil Brown Also in Attendance Notley, Rachel, Edmonton-Strathcona (ND) 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 Senior Parliamentary Counsel Shannon Dean Senior Parliamentary Counsel Corinne Dacyshyn Committee Clerk Jody Rempel Committee Clerk Karen Sawchuk Committee Clerk Rhonda Sorensen Manager of Communications 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 Public Safety and Services Participants Progressive Conservative Association of Alberta ...............................PS-313 Bill Smith Alberta NDP...........................................................PS-317 Rachel Notley Alberta Party...........................................................PS-320 Edwin Erickson Bob Whyte Alberta Liberal Party.....................................................PS-322 Corey Hogan Wildrose Alliance Party ..................................................PS-324 Vitor Marciano Transcript produced by Alberta Hansard July 8, 2010 Public Safety and Services PS-313 9 a.m. Thursday, July 8, 2010 That takes us to number 4 on the agenda, review of financial Title: Thursday, July 8, 2010 PS disclosure for leadership contestants. At the last meeting the [Mr. Drysdale in the chair] committee passed a motion to invite representatives from all registered political parties in Alberta to meet with the committee on The Chair: I guess I’ll call the meeting to order. Welcome, the issues of financial disclosure for leadership contestants. The five everybody, to the Standing Committee on Public Safety and parties who accepted our invitation have been scheduled to make Services. We’ll go around the table and introduce ourselves. When presentations this morning. A half-hour time slot is being set aside we’re done, I’ll ask the members who phoned in to introduce for each group, including up to 10 minutes of presentation time themselves as well. I’ll start with my left. followed by 20 minutes for questions from committee members. At this point I’d like to invite Mr. Smith from the Progressive Ms Rempel: Jody Rempel, committee clerk, Legislative Assembly. Conservative Party to join us at the table. I have some housekeeping things. I’ll remind the presenters that they do not need to operate the Mr. Allred: Ken Allred, MLA, St. Albert. microphones as this will be done remotely and that presentations are a part of public record, that the meeting proceedings are recorded Ms Calahasen: Pearl Calahasen, Lesser Slave Lake. and transcribed by Alberta Hansard, and that a live audiostream is broadcast on the Internet. You have up to 10 minutes for your Mr. Sandhu: Good morning. MLA Peter Sandhu, Edmonton- presentation, and then we’ll have 20 minutes for questions. I’d ask Manning. you to begin by introducing yourself. Mr. MacDonald: Good morning. Hugh MacDonald, Edmonton- Mr. Smith: Good morning. My name is Bill Smith, and I’m Gold Bar. president of the Progressive Conservative Association of Alberta. Dr. Massolin: Good morning. I’m Philip Massolin. I’m the The Chair: Good morning. Thank you, Mr. Smith. I’ll give you the committee research co-ordinator, Legislative Assembly Office. floor to do your presentation. Ms Notley: Good morning. Rachel Notley, MLA, Edmonton- Progressive Conservative Association of Alberta Strathcona. Mr. Smith: Good morning. Thank you very much for having me this morning. On behalf of the Progressive Conservative Party it’s Mr. Johnson: Jeff Johnson, Athabasca-Redwater. an opportunity that we appreciate being given. As you are all aware, we underwent a leadership contest race in 2006. As members of Mr. Rogers: Good morning. George Rogers, Leduc-Beaumont- other parties will know as well as our party members, it’s a very Devon. stressful event, and it’s a very arduous process. At the end of it there are always opportunities for improvement. The Chair: I’m MLA Wayne Drysdale, chair, from Grande Prairie- One of the things that came out of our leadership contest was Wapiti. I’d also like to point out for the record that Mr. Allred is some recommendations in terms of leadership campaign contribu- participating as an official substitute for Dr. Brown. Now we’ll go tions, disclosure of those items. At that point in time there was no to the people on the phone. I think Heather’s there for sure. legislation in place, and our party did not have any specific rules governing contributions. A number of our leadership candidates Mrs. Forsyth: Hi. Heather Forsyth, Calgary-Fish Creek. chose to rely on the Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act in disclosing the contributors to their campaign. That, Mr. Boutilier: Good morning. Guy Boutilier, MLA, Fort of course, requires that they have consent of the individuals to McMurray-Wood Buffalo. release the information. As a result of that we found, obviously, at the end of the process that that wasn’t the ideal process. The Chair: Good morning, Guy. Following that, in 2007 at our annual general meeting a resolution was passed by our party to recommend to the government of Alberta Mr. Boutilier: Good morning. that legislation be enacted regarding disclosure of campaign contributions and expenses. We fully supported that. That resolu- The Chair: So that’s all. We have two on the phone. Good tion passed at our AGM. I believe it was in 2008 the Chief Electoral morning, everyone. Officer made this as one of his recommendations, and then that was First of all, we’ll approve the agenda. Everybody has had a followed up by the tasking from the Minister of Justice to this chance to look at the agenda. committee to look into this issue and to make recommendations, as I understand the way this is to go. The Progressive Conservative Mr. Rogers: So moved, Mr. Chairman. Association of Alberta believes in openness and transparency and believes that it’s critical for Albertans and our party members that The Chair: Okay. Thanks, Mr. Rogers, who moved the agenda. All we as a party be as open and transparent in our processes as we can in favour? Any objections? The motion’s carried. in order to maintain the confidence of Albertans and members in the Next we’ll adopt the minutes from the previous meeting of June political process. 9, 2010. Any errors or omissions? You know, I would congratulate the Legislature on some legisla- tion that they’ve passed under the leadership of Premier Stelmach, Ms Calahasen: No. I move the minutes. most recently the legislation regarding the lobbyist registry. We think that that’s a terrific piece of legislation regarding openness and The Chair: Moved by Ms Calahasen to adopt the minutes from June transparency. The fact that cabinet ministers’ expenses are available 9, 2010. All in favour? Opposed? Carried. PS-314 Public Safety and Services July 8, 2010 online: we think that’s a great step forward. We think that the Mr. Rogers: Fair enough. Thank you very much. availability of access to information on government contracts is also great. We as a party support openness and transparency. The Chair: Thank you, Mr. Rogers. As such, myself as president of the party along with the leader of Ms Calahasen, followed by Ms Notley. the party, we have committed as a party that before the next leadership contest that we’ll have within our party, we’ll require of Ms Calahasen: Thank you very much. First of all, thanks for our candidates full disclosure of all campaign contributions and coming to present. It’s good to see a president of an association expenditures regardless of whether legislation is passed by that point come forward to be able to bring some comments in terms of the in time or not. Frankly, we would challenge all other parties to look proposed legislation. My questions are a few. You indicated that to that end. you would support the idea of and the PC Party would want to see Other than that, I really don’t have a lot to go on about. I look financial reporting by individuals who are in a leadership race. So forward to your questions. Again, thank you for allowing me to my question is: should the identities of the contributors and the participate. specific amounts contributed by them be also a part of that disclo- sure, and what amount should be the required amount that, in your The Chair: Thank you, Mr. Smith. view, should be considered? We have some people on the speakers list. We’ll begin with Mr. MacDonald, followed by Mr. Rogers. Mr. Smith: I guess there are about three different provinces and the feds that have rules around that right now. The disclosure amount, Mr. MacDonald: Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman, and good I think, in B.C. is $325 or something of that nature before you’re morning, Mr.