Legislative Assembly Management Committee - Thursday, November 18, 2021
Thursday, November 18, 2021

Hansard Blues

Legislative Assembly

Management Committee

Draft Report of Proceedings

2nd Session, 42nd Parliament
Wednesday, November 17, 2021
Victoria

The committee met at 5:04 p.m.

[Mr. Speaker in the chair.]

Approval of Agenda and Minutes

Mr. Speaker: Item No. 1 is approval of the draft agenda.

Any changes to the agenda as circulated? If not, may I have a motion to adopt the agenda, please?

G. Begg: So moved.

Motion approved.

Mr. Speaker: Item No. 2, review and approval of the draft minutes of the September 3 meeting of the committee.

Any changes to the minutes of September 3? If not, moved?

S. Cadieux: Moved.

Motion approved.

Mr. Speaker: Item No. 3, update from the Clerk.

Kate, the floor is yours.

[5:05 p.m.]

Clerk's Update

K. Ryan-Lloyd (Clerk of the Legislative Assembly): Thank you so much, Mr. Speaker.

Good afternoon, Members. I appreciate this opportunity to provide you with a brief update on some administrative work and activities that are currently underway during this busy time of year.

With only five sitting days left in the fall sitting period, a number of departments have been hard at work to support proceedings in the House and in committee. I wanted to acknowledge and thank the hard-working teams that have sustained us through these proceedings, including some hybrid connectivity, over the past few weeks.

I wanted to acknowledge and thank the hard-working team from Hansard Services; the Parliamentary Committees Office; Sergeant-at-Arms team; IT, for keeping us all connected; the parliamentary dining room, for keeping us all well fed; and also, the Office of the Clerk, of course — each of us playing a role to help to sustain those proceedings. I'm very grateful for everybody's hard work.

Over the past few days, so many in our province, of course, have faced some very significant and dire weather-related impacts. I also wanted to acknowledge our legislative facilities services team, who struggled in the early morning hours on Monday and Tuesday morning with leakage, both some water leakage in the east annex as well as some flooding in the service area off of our ground floor. It took this team an incredible amount of effort to pump out the water from that area and deal with many challenges throughout the day.

I wanted to acknowledge and thank Surjit Dhanota and Tucker Soltau, who were on site from very early morning of Monday. They've done a fantastic job.

The team have also made a number of recommendations to ensure that we work towards a new pumping system as well as adding some highwater alarms to better monitor water levels and to ensure that we have a safe environment for all building occupants and staff. So it's a special thanks to both of them.

As I mentioned, it's a busy time throughout the administration. I know that members will be pleased to know that the human resources team has also been hard at work fulfilling the mandate that it received from your committee during the last budget cycle, with an emphasis on employee learning, training, professional development opportunities.

The team has launched an exciting series of fall learning opportunities. I encourage all assembly administration staff to take advantage of those topics, which range from a variety of offerings related to mental health and wellness, respect at work, information and technology — a range of opportunities there, including a new security awareness, a cybersecurity program, as well that Andrew and I have communicated to members about already.

The training offerings also include project management, professional and plain language writing, and diversity, equity and inclusion training, so a real breadth of offerings. I'm really grateful to Jamie Hanly and her team for bringing those forward.

Finally, I'll just note, as a I mentioned in a members' IT update just last week, that the IT department is initiating a significant 18-month project focused on a constituency office network refresh.

Andrew is here with us this afternoon. I wanted to thank him and his team for their work to ensure a better user experience for all members and constituency office staff when using Microsoft 365 applications and other productivity tools. Addressing issues of network stability is essential, of course, and, really, working to increase the overall security environment within our constituency offices.

I know the project team has met with caucuses and look forward to keeping members updated throughout the course of that work. I really very much wanted to thank Andrew and that team, as well, for all of their work.

With that, I'm happy to take any questions from members, Mr. Chair, or we can proceed on with the agenda.

Mr. Speaker: Any questions or discussion? None? Thank you, Kate.

All right, let's move on to item No. 4 on our agenda, policy non-compliance report.

Kate, again, please take us through that, and Hilary may have to add into that.

Policy Non-compliance Report

K. Ryan-Lloyd (Clerk of the Legislative Assembly): Hilary and I have presented here, in the meeting materials, a policy non-compliance report. That is an obligation that we both share under our policy framework to bring forward to your committee, to ensure that your committee is aware of any instances of policy non-compliance within the Legislative Assembly administration. This report covers two reporting periods, quarter 1 and quarter 2, for this fiscal year.

[5:10 p.m.]

There has been one instance of policy non-compliance, with respect to our procurement and contract management policy. To the best of our knowledge, that is the only instance that we are obligated to bring forward to you.

If required, we can provide further detail about the instance. There is the secondary page there. It provides some additional details on that matter. Because we wanted to ensure members were able to be advised of the instance but not to single out any individuals in departments responsible for such, we haven't provided any more identifying information at this point.

We're pleased to submit this relatively brief report to you.

Hilary, did you want to add anything to that?

H. Woodward: I don't think, other than we're happy to see that there was just one instance in this report. We want no instances, but it's better just to have one instance.

K. Ryan-Lloyd (Clerk of the Legislative Assembly): Exactly. We're very pleased with that.

Mr. Speaker: Any discussion or questions? None.

Thanks, Kate. Thanks, Hilary.

Okay, let's move on to item No. 5, 2020-21 quarter 2 financial update.

Mike is not here, but Hilary, can you please take us through it?

Consideration of
Quarterly Financial Statements

H. Woodward: In front of you is the quarter 2 financial report. It provides the year to date and projected financial results for the '22-23 fiscal year.

As at September 30 — so six months into the year, halfway through — our operating expenses were projected to be $100,000 underspent. So essentially, we're operating on budget. Our capital expenditures were projected to be $1.5 million underspent. That's from the first page.

If I can get you to turn to page 2 of the report, you can see the next section essentially shows the forecast by department or functional area. Within operating expenses, there are several functional areas or departments projecting to be overspent by fiscal year-end. These include members' constituency support, a projected overspend of approximately $300,000. This is primarily due to higher-than-anticipated new constituency office lease agreements, at higher rates, and tenant improvement costs following the 2020 provincial general election.

The next overspent department is Office of the Clerk, approximately $116,000 projected. This is primarily due to a new legal counsel position that was approved by this committee mid-year, as well as higher-than-anticipated legal expenses.

Finally, the other department that I will note is information technology. It's projecting to be overspent by approximately $2.3 million. This is primarily due to additional unbudgeted professional services costs related to agreement extensions and IT infrastructure–related improvements.

All of the noted budget overages have been accommodated within projected underspends in other assembly departments. The noted underspends are primarily a result of salary and benefit savings due to vacant positions, operational savings and savings arising from delayed projects.

If we can turn to page 5, I'm going to speak briefly on capital expenditures. As I noted, in capital expenditures, we're projecting an underspend of approximately $1.5 million, or 24 percent of the budget. The projected underspend includes an anticipated underspend in capital contingencies.

Unanticipated major capital project delays are contributing to that as well. That's in large part due to challenges in securing professional services and also some supply chain challenges arising from the COVID-19 pandemic.

In addition, there are a number of cancelled planned projects.

So that's what is contributing to that projected underspend to the end of the fiscal year.

Following that, I'd be happy to take any specific questions on the report.

Mr. Speaker: Any questions?

B. D'Eith: A couple of questions, just in terms of some of the overspend, especially on the technology side. I appreciate during COVID that there were savings. I remember this underspend projected. We seem to be getting closer to more of a balanced budget, so to speak.

My concern there is that considering the amount of savings that we had during COVID going into the following fiscal, are we anticipating similar kinds of overages in some of these areas, or is this more a bump because of having to go through all the changes we've been through with technology, and we expect that to level out next year and the year after? Is that the hope?

[5:15 p.m.]

H. Woodward: Yes, that's the expected outcome. Of course, in the budget that will be coming forward, I believe, on December 16 for consideration by this committee, you will see an increase, of course, in the IT department budget. For those who can recall approval of the prior year budget, it was an estimated budget. We were still, of course, refining some of those costs, and that's what you're seeing in this, overages. As we've refined what the budget expectations are, this is going to be closer to what we should expect in terms of IT infrastructure investments.

If Andrew wanted to comment on that…. He may want to. No.

B. D'Eith: It's especially because we have all of the Internet upgrades that are going on. It just seems like there are these projects that keep coming. They're great, but I wasn't aware that we were going to be doing that until the projects started happening. Are there other projects that are going to result in those kinds of cost pressures over time? That was my only concern.

H. Woodward: And, I think, in some cases, some of these costs, and then with the general provincial election in 2020, so some of those upgrades to constituency offices. What you're seeing is some of the flow-through, also, of those costs. When the next year's budget comes, there'll be some kind of continuation of those, but not all the projects will be ongoing. As we kind of move out, you will see some adjustments.

Mr. Speaker: If there's no further discussion or questions, I just want to tell the audience who may be listening to us that now that the committee has considered the quarter 2 financial update, it will be made available on the Legislative Assembly website tomorrow.

Let's move on to item No. 6, final costing for security enhancement and landscaping improvement project.

Hilary again.

Security Enhancement
and Landscaping Improvement Project

H. Woodward: On March 31, 2021, and in accordance with the Legislative Assembly's policy on capital project review and approval, Legislative Assembly administration management sought and received approval from this committee for additional capital funding for phase 1 of the project in the following amounts. In fiscal 2020-21, we were seeking up to $250,000. In fiscal 2021-22, we were seeking $125,000.

At the time of the approval, Legislative Assembly administration management committed to report back on the final cost for phase 1 of the security enhancement and landscaping upgrade, following completion of all the outstanding work. In August 2021, the Legislative Assembly did issue its final payment to the associated vendors for this project and closed out phase 1.

The funding for phase 1 of the project spanned a total of three fiscal years. The total costs for phase 1 of the project were $2.65 million, or 12.39 percent below the amended budget, as compared to the initial budget of $2.6 million. Phase 1 of the project was $50,319, or 1.9 percent, over the initial approved amount.

There's a table in the document that was previously circulated that does show you the year-by-year comparison of actual budget expenditures.

Mr. Speaker: Any discussion? Any questions?

Thanks, Hilary.

All right. Let's move to item No. 7, formal approval of decisions the committee made via email.

Approval of Committee Decisions
Made via Email

A. Sogomonian: This is just seeking formalization of a decision that the committee made via email.

Members received an email from me on August 18 with respect to a new capital expenditure for caucus room audiovisual upgrades, so just to ensure policy compliance. This is the second time this year that we've brought this ratification process forward.

This document is in its entirety. The briefing note is before members. It's also posted on our website under the meeting documents already, for transparency reasons, so that the public who may be interested in the committee's business is aware.

I do want to acknowledge the process questions that arose about when we seek decisions of the committee via this method and then the governance framework that's now before the subcommittee on administration operations and hopefully will be coming forward to the committee early in the new year. We do have some parameters placed around that form of decision-making that will hopefully address the concerns that were noted previously.

I wanted to acknowledge that as well.

[5:20 p.m.]

Mr. Speaker: Thank you, Artour.

Any discussion?

All right, then we need a motion.

Hon. M. Farnworth: So moved.

Mr. Speaker: It has been moved. Seconder? It has been seconded.

Motion approved.

Mr. Speaker: Item No. 8, Legislative Assembly administration strategic plan. It's the recommendation from the subcommittee on administration and operations.

Kate, please lead on that.

Legislative Assembly
Administration Strategic Plan

K. Ryan-Lloyd (Clerk of the Legislative Assembly): Members will have received in their packages today a briefing note for today's committee meeting as well as a copy of a note prepared for the subcommittee on administration and operations. Then the third sheet, at the end of the package, provides a more detailed update on the work of our strategic plan, the first strategic plan for the Legislative Assembly administration, as it is currently positioned.

This work was undertaken following recommendations from a workplace review that took place, and a report was issued in July 2020. It has been featured within our employee engagement process, so it has been an initiative that we have worked towards for some time, aiming very much to have it reflect all of the unique aspects of this institution.

Like other parliamentary institutions, we balance a respect for continuity and tradition and a commitment to serve our members with an innovative capacity to respond to new challenges. These are all characteristics that define any parliamentary institution. It's really, I think, evident in the balance that forms the foundation of the strategic planning update, which I'm happy to present to you today.

As I said, the initial strategic plan is the result of many hours of discussion and staff engagement to date, and its focus is very much on the administration, so on the supports that we provide to Members of the Legislative Assembly. It also sets out some long-term goals for the assembly as an institution, and it identifies some of the initial priorities that we hope will shape not only the fiscal year ahead and the resulting budget but also address some key risks in our organization.

Specifically looking at the teal page in your package, I'll speak briefly to some of the core elements of this initial strategic plan. The plan opens, of course, with a statement of our purpose, why we exist, who we serve and the impact that we hope to achieve. It states that we support the Legislative Assembly of British Columbia and its members in providing services and infrastructure vital to an accessible, democratic institution. That is really our overarching purpose statement.

The five principles that follow very much define the Legislative Assembly administration, explaining who we are and what matters to us. Those are the values of service excellence, impartiality, openness, integrity and stewardship. These represent our shared commitment of the Legislative Assembly administration to members, who we serve, and the foundation upon which we strive to achieve our goals.

The three goals on the right-hand side of the page define our long-term success and describe what it means to us to fulfil our organizational purpose. It's very much focused around organizational excellence. We strive to provide unified, innovative and seamless services and resources and advice that enable the Legislative Assembly and its members to fulfil their respective roles in parliamentary democracy.

We have, as well, a goal with respect to our healthy workplace commitments, striving to be a model employer in the province. And as a top employer, our employees are inspired to contribute, innovate and collaborate using their diverse skills and perspectives to deliver excellent services as part of a learning organization.

Finally, you'll note a goal with respect to open access, which speaks to our commitment to accessibility, safety and security, very much reflecting the view that I know many members share — that this institution is the people's House, both the setting and the process.

The goal reads: "We provide a welcoming, safe and inclusive physical and digital environment to enable and improve public access to the Legislative Assembly, parliamentary proceedings," as well as the precinct buildings and grounds.

With those three elements expected to remain relatively constant, we're now working towards refinement of the initial priorities and actions that will shape the full launch of the strategic plan, in conjunction with the new fiscal year. The budget team, for example, has been really focused on assessing all of the requests for enhancements, investments within the organization, with a view to achieving the goals and priorities as set out here.

[5:25 p.m.]

The initial priorities we have also had an opportunity to incorporate into our caucus engagement sessions, in terms of our budget planning this fall. The themes that we anticipate will help to shape the budget submission that will go to the subcommittee on finance and audit and then to this committee and help focus our activities in the year ahead are aligned with enhancing organizational capacity; investing in a modern, secure and sustainable infrastructure; and promoting engagement, diversity, equity, inclusion and learning within our staff. Those are the foundational pieces.

As I've mentioned, the budget team have been hard at work to ensure that there is an alignment between the priorities as outlined in this initial strategic plan. We really are very much focused on aligning them, I hope, with the needs of our members through our commitment to that goal with respect to organizational excellence.

We look forward to continuing a discussion with you and members of the subcommittee on finance and audit in the year ahead, particularly around refining our risk management profile, a summary of risks that the organization faces, to ensure that there is, ultimately, an alignment between the strategic plan, the budgetary investments and the risk summary reports that help to inform and shape our work.

With your support, we will be bringing back to this committee a completed multi-year plan to be launched in April of 2022, along a fiscal year cycle, that will also be integrated with the budgetary investments that you'll have an opportunity to review in the weeks ahead. Because it is intended very much to be a departmental-wide initiative throughout the organization, we anticipate further commitment and engagement with employees as we refine and move forward towards implementing the plan and then, of course, measuring and reporting out on our successes to you as well.

With that, I'm pleased to present that overview. I'm happy to take any questions from members this afternoon.

Mr. Speaker: Any discussion? No questions? If not, then may I have a member moving the motion, please.

A Voice: So moved.

Mr. Speaker: Moved, seconded.

Motion approved.

Mr. Speaker: Okay. Item No. 9, legislative precinct parking policy.

Artour, can you please walk us through it.

Legislative Precinct Parking Policy

A. Sogomonian (Clerk Assistant, Parliamentary Services): I know, Mr. Chair, that this is a favourite topic for so many people. I promise there are no surprises in this policy. It reflects the decisions that have been made over the course of the past year or so.

I will note that it was brought to my attention that the maps are difficult to read and navigate. We are going to work on the appendices, the four appendices and the map, and have them redrawn. That's just an administrative thing that we'll take care of afterwards, but as I said, I don't think there are any surprises in this draft policy. I think it received very favourable consideration by the subcommittee.

The recommendation from the subcommittee now stands referred to the committee, and I'm happy to answer to any questions.

Mr. Speaker: Any questions? Okay.

So moved, seconded.

Motion approved.

Mr. Speaker: Thank you, Artour.

Item No. 10, 2020-21 financial statements.

Kate and Hilary, please take us through that.

Financial Statements

K. Ryan-Lloyd (Clerk of the Legislative Assembly): Thank you. I'll invite Hilary to lead the committee through the financial statements as presented to this committee, but I will, at the outset, express appreciation to Hilary, to Michael Burke, the director of financial services, and the audit team from the Office of the Auditor General. There is always a great deal of work that goes into preparing information, both for production within the financial statements, as led by management here at the Legislative Assembly, as well as working closely with the audit team.

We're very pleased to anticipate a clean audit opinion to accompany these financial statements and look forward to making these a public document in due course, but many thanks to all involved.

Hilary, I'd welcome your comments as well.

H. Woodward: As Kate mentioned, our financial statements are audited annually by the Office of the Auditor General. That is the Legislative Assembly's designated external auditor. No major findings were identified as part of this financial statement audit, and as Kate has said, we are expecting that the Auditor General will be issuing a clean audit opinion on these financial statements.

I thought I'd just briefly highlight some of the year-over-year financial results for the committee.

[5:30 p.m.]

With respect to financial results for the fiscal year ending March 31, 2021, the net cost of operations for Vote 1 was $77.9 million, or $7.1 million lower than the budget of $85 million and $1.5 million higher than the actual spending in the prior year, in fiscal year 2019-2020.

Costs relating to the October 2020 provincial general election were accommodated within the Legislative Assembly's budget, although not specifically budgeted for. The assembly also incurred $4.7 million in capital expenditures. That was an increase of $1.5 million as compared to 2019-20; however, an underspend of $1.3 million in comparison to the budget of $6 million.

The financial assets themselves have not changed significantly from the prior year, and financial liabilities increased as a result of the transitional assistance liability for former members, following the 2020 provincial general election.

In the materials that were provided to you, you received the financial statements themselves. In addition, we included the management and discussion and analysis document that essentially provides more detail on the year-over-year variances and projected costs. Sometimes it's an easier read than walking through financial statements.

The one thing I would like to add is that I did circulate, just previous to this meeting…. There is one change to the financial statements. That's in note 18 — that is, the subsequent events note.

A subsequent event occurs if something happens after an organization's year-end period but before the financial statements have been released, so the financial statements essentially remain open. Even though the financial period ended March 31, 2021, we are open until today's date, at which the anticipated sign-off and approval by this committee of the financial statements.

Essentially, during that period, we needed to update the subsequent events note to address the recent ratification of the new collective agreement between the B.C. NDP MLAs, the constituency assistants and the B.C. Government and Service Employees Union, the BCGEU.

I want to point out that there were no other changes to the financial statements, and the updated note 18 will be incorporated into the financial statements following this evening's meeting.

I’m happy to take any questions.

Mr. Speaker: Any questions?

If not, then the motion that we have to move is the financial statements of the Legislative Assembly for the year ending March, 31, 2021, be approved as amended.

G. Begg: So moved.

Mr. Speaker: Moved, seconded.

Motion approved.

Commercial Interest
and Personnel Matters

Mr. Speaker: Now we have some other items. May I have a motion to proceed in camera to consider a commercial interest and personnel matters.

Hon. M. Farnworth: So moved.

Mr. Speaker: Moved, seconded.

Motion approved.

The committee continued in camera from 5:33 p.m. to 6:17 p.m.

[Mr. Speaker in the chair.]

Mr. Speaker: Some weeks ago I sent a copy of the mandate letter that I drafted for the head Clerk and sent it to you all for your review, your comments. I haven't received any. I take it that it was okay as it was, although we'll be having another one next year.

If that's the case, then we would make it….

K. Ryan-Lloyd (Clerk of the Legislative Assembly): We can table it today as part of the committee's documents from this meeting.

Mr. Speaker: We'll table it today. It becomes part of the committee's proceedings.

Okay, any other business? None.

A motion to adjourn.

Hon. M. Farnworth: So moved.

Mr. Speaker: Moved and seconded.

Motion approved.

The committee adjourned at 6:18 p.m.

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NOTICE: This is a DRAFT transcript of proceedings in one meeting of a committee of the Legislative Assembly of British Columbia. This transcript is subject to corrections and will be replaced by the final, official Hansard report. Use of this transcript, other than in the legislative precinct, is not protected by parliamentary privilege, and public attribution of any of the proceedings as transcribed here could entail legal liability.