The committee met at 7:16 p.m.

[P. Milobar in the chair.]

P. Milobar (Chair): Good evening, everyone. I think we've got everyone here, so we'll get started. My name is Peter Milobar. I'm the MLA for Kamloops–North Thompson and the Chair of the Select Standing Committee on Public Accounts.

Tonight we have the consideration of the Auditor General's report, Managing Hazardous Spills in B.C. Following this, we'll go in camera for our annual feedback session with the Auditor General and return to public session for the consideration of the committee's '23-24 annual report.

Welcome to our auditor general, Michael Pickup. I will turn it over to him for his presentation.

Consideration of Auditor General Reports

Managing Hazardous Spills in B.C.

M. Pickup: Thank you so much, Chair. I have a very brief presentation before I turn it over to Bradley from our team.

I want to begin by acknowledging with respect that at the Office of the Auditor General, we conduct our work on Coast Salish territories. I feel blessed to live and work on these lands and even more so in springtime and on days like this. The camas have been blooming around the region and, in particular, our favourite, Beacon Hill Park. It's a wonderful reminder of their cultural importance to the lək̓ʷəŋən people for food, trade and social activity.

They also inspired our choice of colour for the OAG logo that we use as well. The natural environment of this area and the whole province, of course, is inspiring, and protecting the natural environment lies at the heart report of the report that we are presenting tonight, entitled Managing Hazardous Spills in British Columbia.

I want to give thanks to our audit team for their contributions to this report. Three of our team members are with me to present the report. They are, on my far right and your far left, Bradley Robinson, Suzanne Smith and Laura Hatt assistant Auditor General of the performance audit portfolio.

The team also included Amy Hart, Kelly V. Andre, Emily Yearwood Lee, Pam Hamilton, Jessica Watt and Achoosa Tong Stwanpour. You can see how many people are involved in these performance audits.

I also want to recognize and acknowledge the representatives of the Ministry of Environment and Climate Change Strategy, who worked with us so well during our audit. We truly appreciate your cooperation and professionalism that you provided throughout the entire process. The day-to-day work you do is important to the health and safety of British Columbians and our environment, and we thank you for what you do.

Finally, I would like to acknowledge two staff from the Office of the Auditor General of Guyana. They are a long way from home, and they are with us tonight. They are Marcel Pinder and Sadie Stewart back here. Thank you for coming out tonight and joining us. They are working with staff from our office on a learning experience, for the next eight weeks here in Victoria.

Back to the audit, we did this audit because hazardous spills occur frequently in B.C. The audit focused on government's role in protecting people and the environment when potentially damaging spills occur.

[7:20 p.m.]

Our central question concerned the Ministry of Environment and Climate Change Strategy. We wanted to know if it had effectively managed hazardous spills to protect the welfare of the public and the environment. Indeed, we found that when high-risk