March 30, 2026 House of Assembly Management Commission No. 101
The Management Commission met at 9:30 a.m. in the House of Assembly Committee Room.
SPEAKER (Lane): Okay, we’re going to call the meeting to order.
(Inaudible) Management Commission. I just want to welcome everyone to our meeting. Today, we have the hon. Lloyd Parrott, the hon. Lisa Dempster, MHA Riley Balsom, the hon. Jamie Korab, the hon. Barry Petten, and my colleague, MHA Jeff Dwyer. Jeff, being the Deputy Speaker, is here to observe. In the off-chance I can’t make a particular meeting, then he would be filling in in my stead.
Of course, we have our Clerk, Kim Hawley George, as well as our Principal Clerk of Committees, Bobbi Russell.
Welcome everyone.
So the first item on the agenda is the approval of the minutes of meetings held on December 9, 2025; February 19, 2026; and on February 23, 2026.
Further, as required under the House of Assembly Accountability, Integrity and Administration Act, I’m advising of decisions from in camera meetings on December 9 and February 23, details of which are included in the draft minutes being approved today.
Are there any errors, omissions or comments to any of the items that I just mentioned by either Member of the Management Commission?
MHA Balsom.
R. BALSOM: For the minutes for February 23, it says I arrived at 10:26 a.m., but then it says adjournment is at 12 a.m.
B. RUSSELL: Yes, I think that might have been a carry-over from a previous – we’ll just have a look at that for –
SPEAKER: Good catch, MHA Balsom. I’m glad to see (inaudible).
R. BALSOM: Thank you.
SPEAKER: We appreciate it.
R. BALSOM: I read the minutes.
SPEAKER: You must be new.
Anyway, okay, so we’re going to make a motion then.
The motion is that the Commission approves the minutes of the meetings held on December 9, 2025, February 19 and February 23, 2026.
All those in favour, ‘aye.’
SOME HON. MEMBERS: Aye.
SPEAKER: All those against, ‘nay.’
The motion is carried.
On motion, minutes adopted as circulated.
SPEAKER: Okay, next on our agenda we have some reports. We have several items that are required to be reported to the Commission where there are no decisions required. It’s just for information purposes.
The items are as follows: the first item, there’s a report outlining rulings on allowance use for Members since the Commission’s last public meeting. The second item, there are financial reports for the period ending the 31st of December 2025, which are required to be presented to the Commission quarterly in accordance with the House of Assembly Accountability, Integrity and Administration Act.
Does anybody have any questions or comments on any of these items? I open the floor.
Seeing nobody, we will move on.
Okay, the next item is approval of an invoice from a previous fiscal year. So this item relates to invoices from the previous fiscal year which cannot be paid in the current fiscal year without the approval of the Commission, further to subsection 7(2) of the Members’ Resources and Allowances Rules. So the rules allow for the payment of office accommodation expenses related to the establishment of a constituency office in an electoral district.
Further to those provisions, an agreement has been entered into for leased office accommodations for the Districts of Baie Verte - Green Bay and Humber - Gros Morne. The House of Assembly did not receive the invoices from the landlords in a timely matter to pay the expenses in the fiscal year to which they relate, therefore, the expenses related to security monitoring were incurred in the 2024-2025 fiscal year. These expenses in question are in compliance with the rules and established lease agreements.
So I’ll open the floor for any questions or discussion.
MHA Dempster.
L. DEMPSTER: Thank you, Speaker.
I don’t really have a question about that, but I just sort of was reflecting on our different CA offices around the province. We don’t all have the security. Is that because some buildings don’t have it or …?
SPEAKER: I’m going to defer to the Clerk to answer that.
CLERK (Hawley George): So some people are in government buildings as well, so there are different types of security monitoring for different types of offices. But if you have a particular question about your office or another office, certainly bring it to my attention or the Sergeant-at-Arms and we can work with that.
SPEAKER: Okay.
I guess everybody is entitled to a secure workspace, obviously, and some of us have it built in, as a result of it being a government office, is what you’re saying, and others may be – they’re all different. Some may require a separate agreement.
Yes, MHA Parrott, or Minister Parrott, sorry.
L. PARROTT: We went through an audit process with that over the last two years, did we not? So the previous Sergeant-at-Arms, there was lots of different email correspondence and stuff, but I agree with you. In my office, we have a monitoring system. We only have one point of egress and ingress, which is an issue. But I think every office is different, that it needs to be looked at in that way. We’ve got that alarm, that it has been utilized and no response. So that’s the other side, right?
So there are –
CLERK: So, Speaker, if I could.
SPEAKER: Yes, go ahead.
CLERK: So I’ll just advise Members that the new Sergeant-at-Arms is actually – we’re in discussions now and he will be contacting you all, as well as your constituency offices, and we’re working on those sorts of matters. Absolutely, you have a right to a secure space and so does your constituency assistant.
We are limited sometimes in the places we can lease because there are limited options in certain smaller communities as well, so we will certainly work with you on that.
SPEAKER: Okay, thank you.
Any further comments or questions?
Okay, so we need a motion for this. So the proposed motion here is that the Commission approves payment of expenses, as follows, related to the 2024-25 fiscal year, with the expenses to be charged to the applicable allocation for the current fiscal year of 2025-26: one, $79.21 for leased office accommodation expenses for the District of Baie Verte - Green Bay; and two, $134.34 for leased office space accommodation expenses for the District of Humber - Gros Morne. Pretty low numbers.
All those in favour, ‘aye.’
SOME HON. MEMBERS: Aye.
SPEAKER: All those against, ‘nay.’
The motion is carried.
The next matter relates to ratification of an urgent budget transfer. So section 5 of the Transfer of Funds Policy delegates authority for approval of a transfer of funds that’s required urgently and there is not sufficient time for the Commission to schedule the meeting.
In accordance with the policy, a transfer of funds was approved to transfer funds into various activities under the Legislature. While the Commission has already approved the transfer for processing, a ratification of it is required in accordance with the policy. The briefing package outlines further details on the amounts transferred and the reasons for the transfers.
So just to be clear, I guess, for the record, we would have sent out an email, of course, to all Members of the Commission, so it’s not like myself or the Clerk or anyone are just making these decisions and asking for permission afterwards. Under the process, we would have emailed all Members of the Commission, explained what we were doing, the rationale for it, and we would have sought concurrence, which we did receive in this case. So now just to make it official, we need to pass the motion.
Does anyone have any questions about the process or about any of the actual items that are listed here?
Okay, so the proposed motion then, if that’s the case: The Commission ratifies the following transfer of funds in accordance with section 5 of the Transfer of Funds Policy, from 1.1.04.09 Members’ Allowances and Assistances, $432,300, and that’s being transferred to 1.1.03.01, Committees, Policy and Communications - Salaries $134,400; 1.1.06.01, Government Members Caucus - Salaries, $43,100; 1.1.07.01, Official Opposition Caucus - Salaries, $50,700; and finally, 1.1.04.01, Members’ Resources - Salaries, $204,100.
All those in favour, ‘aye.’
SOME HON. MEMBERS: Aye.
SPEAKER: All those against, ‘nay.’
The motion is carried.
Okay, next we have the audited financial statements of the Legislature and statutory offices for the fiscal year ending the 31st of March 2025.
So the House of Assembly Accountability, Integrity and Administration Act requires an annual audit of the accounts of the House of Assembly and statutory offices by an auditor appointed by the Commission. In accordance with the act, the Audit Committee must review the audited financial information, the audit report and any recommendations with the auditor, and recommended their approval to the Management Commission.
The Auditor General informed the Audit Committee that no significant matters were identified to report. Further to correspondence dated February 6, 2026, the Audit Committee recommends that the Commission approve and sign the audited financial statements for the House of Assembly and statutory offices for the fiscal year ended the 31st of March 2025.
Certainly, I thank you MHA Balsom for chairing that Committee. You were so willing to do so and we really appreciate that.
Does anybody have any questions? Just to be clear, this is a financial audit. It is not a performance audit and, of course, there’s a big difference between the two. Simply saying that, from a financial point of view, the Auditor General has found that everything is in order, but the report is there. Does anyone have any questions about the report itself?
Seeing none, we’re going to move a motion.
The proposed motion: The Commission approves the audited financial statements for the House of Assembly and statutory offices for the period from the 1st of April 2024 to the 31st of March 2025, as recommended by the Audit Committee.
All those in favour, ‘aye.’
SOME HON. MEMBERS: Aye.
SPEAKER: All those against, ‘nay.’
It’s carried.
Now that the motion has passed, we need to sign that, and I believe our Principal Clerk of Committees has something here for myself, as Chair, and any other Member to sign.
Thank you, Sir.
Okay, so the next one is the audited financial statements of the Office of the Auditor General.
So for the information, I guess, of the public, the Auditor General also gets audited. That’s a good thing. It ensures accountability, which is what we all desire to have of course.
So further to section 32 of the Auditor General Act, the Management Commission appoints an auditor to annually conduct a financial audit of the Office of the Auditor General. Subsection 32(3) of that act provides that the auditor appointed submit their report to this Commission and to the Auditor General. In accordance with those provisions, the audited financial information for the Office of the Auditor General for the fiscal year ended the 31st of March 2025 is presented to the Management Commission.
There is no decision required by the Commission on it. It’s for our information purposes only. It is attached to your package.
Before we move on, does any Member of the Commission have any questions or concerns relating to anything in that report?
Seeing nothing, we’ll move on.
The next item: appointment of an auditor. So the next item relates to the appointment of the auditor for the House of Assembly and statutory offices. Pursuant to subsection 43(2) of the House of Assembly, Accountability, Integrity and Administration Act, the Commission must appoint an auditor of the accounts of the House of Assembly and statutory offices before the end of each fiscal year upon the recommendation of the Audit Committee.
In correspondence dated March 26, 2026, the Audit Committee recommends that the Auditor General be appointed as auditor pursuant to paragraph 23(7)(b) of the act. Your briefing package outlines further details.
There is a motion required here, but before we move to the motion, does anybody have any questions or concerns about the process or about anything that’s contained in your package relating to this matter?
MHA Korab.
J. KORAB: The only question I have is, so it’s recommended the Auditor General be the auditor for the House management. Why isn’t that just standard? I’m just curious why we’re even voting on that.
L. DEMPSTER: That was my question.
J. KORAB: I know it’s how it’s been done, but –
SPEAKER: I think it is standard, but I just think a motion is probably required. But I’m going to ask the Clerk.
CLERK: Thank you, MHA Korab.
So the answer to the question is that it’s the way the act is structured, the section is structured, that somebody has to be appointed. It can be the Auditor General, or it can be a different auditor, but it defaults to the Auditor General if nobody is appointed and then there’s a reporting process. So that’s the act as it currently exists and that’s why we do it this way.
B. RUSSELL: The Audit Committee recommends that, too.
CLERK: The Audit Committee recommends that piece. Thank you, Bobbi.
L. DEMPSTER: Has there ever been anyone other than – not in my years here.
CLERK: No, not since the act came into force.
SPEAKER: So I guess the rationale would be if, for some unknown reason, the Auditor General wasn’t able to do it, then at least they’d have the opportunity to go to somebody else if –
CLERK: I can’t really speak to that, but that is – you know, it’s a possibility.
SPEAKER: It’s a possibility.
CLERK: Yeah.
SPEAKER: Okay, any further questions to comments?
Okay, so the recommended motion on this one is that the Commission directs, pursuant to subsection 43(2) of the House of Assembly Accountability, Integrity and Administration Act, that the Auditor General of Newfoundland and Labrador be appointed to audit the accounts of the House of Assembly and statutory offices for the fiscal year ended the 31st of March 2026.
All those in favour, ‘aye.’
SOME HON. MEMBERS: Aye.
SPEAKER: All those against, ‘nay.’
The motion is carried.
This concludes our meeting.
I thank all Members for their time and for their input.
With that said, I now call for a motion to adjourn.
Moved by MHA Dempster.
Meeting is adjourned.