TRANtastic

Originally published on the DaninOttawa.com site on June 14, 2011.

Late yesterday the all party standing committees were announced in the House of Commons and I was very honoured (and excited) to be named to two of them. The first committee I was named to serve on is the Standing Committee on Transport, Infrastructure and Communities (knows as TRANS here on the `Hill). I very much enjoyed my time serving on Penticton City Council and am very excited to be placed on a committee in an area that is very important to me. I also believe my selection for this committee was in part related to the good work that we did on Penticton City council over the past two years. To my surprise, the core services review and resulting tax rate decrease made national news and even some of my colleagues here in Ottawa have asked me more on that subject.

The recently completed Penticton community swimming pool was also a good example of our Economic Action Plan at work, and working well. In our case the City of Penticton was able to deliver a beautiful new community facility both on time and on budget. This was a challenge given the tight timelines of the funding criteria. I am greatly looking forward to meeting the eleven other MP`s from around Canada who will join me on this committee. 
 
The other committee I will be serving on is REGS, the Joint Committee on Scrutiny of Regulations. REGS is a joint committee meaning that members of the Senate may also form part of the membership. REGS is more of a technical committee that reviews Statutory Instruments. This is an area of Government that has always been of interest to me, and more within the vast size of the Federal Government. I am looking forward to the opportunity to learn more about governance and the executive branch of government including the relationship to decision making and how that can relate to statutory authority.   

I believe my first TRAN committee meeting will likely be next week and I will provide a further updates on my committee work as it evolves. For more information on Committees you can find out more by clicking here.