Lunch with the Clerk

The Clerk, Deborah Deller, advises the Speaker, counts the votes (ayes & nays), is in charge of a lot of people and a lot of a tasks AND….

HAS LUNCH WITH THE PAGES!

Today we met in Clerk Deller’s office to learn more about her and what she does. She has a big office with many books on shelves and on tables. There were paintings on the walls and big windows at the end of the room. We sat on chairs and she told us how she became the Clerk.

She was going to University and planned to study law but needed a summer job. She found out that you could be a tour guide at the Legislative Assembly. She went for an interview and there was one question that sealed the deal for her getting the job…. “what is your dress size”? The tour guides have to wear uniforms and they had just ordered a bunch. The spot she was supposed to fill was someone who had quit who was a size 7. They already had a size 7 uniform. That happened to be her size! So she got the job! :D

She guided for a couple of summers to have enough money to pay for University. Even when she wasn’t working, she would sit in on some of the committees and watch the debates. She learned a lot about how committees work. When a job spot opened to work in the committees branch, she took it. She made her way up through the branch until she eneded up becoming the Deputy Clerk of Committees.

She made her way up the hierarchy:

From Deputy Clerk of Committees to Clerk of committees.

From Clerk of committees to Depty Clerk of Procedural Services

From deputy clerk of procedural service sto clerk of procedureal services

To deputy clerk.

She was Deputy Clerk for a long time and was happy with the job until the existing Clerk retired. She put her name in for the Clerk’s position to a panel of judges and professionals. Applicants put their names in from across the province of Ontario. The panel selected her! She has now been Clerk for 7 years and has a been working in the buildilng for 35 years!

We saw the Bible that was used to swear her in when she became Clerk. It’s really, really old! There were many signatures in the Bibles form all of the past Clerks who were sworn in using it. It was neat to see such old signatures. 

Another one of her roles is she swears in the Special Constables when they pass their training. They get to choose to use the Bible (it’s the one that’s been used since the Legistlative Assembly opened) or to use a Holy book fo their choosing.

  

Oh, and we noticed that in her book cupboard is a whole lot of PEZ dispensers. We asked if she collected them and she told us a funny story….

When her kids were really little, on her birthday they decided to pool their money & buy her a present. They only had $1.25 between the two of them so they couldn’t buy much. They were in a store, they saw a PEZ dispenser of Gonzo the Muppet. Clerk Deller likes Gonzo. They bought it for her. She kept it on her desk at work. People would go into her office at work and assumed she liked PEZ dispensers. SO for Chsitmas and birthdays, people at work would buy her PEZ dispensers! :D

We also had the opportunity to ask some questions. Here’s what I asked…..

In your opinion, what’s the most important piece of lesgislation that you’ve seen passed?

Everyone thought that was a really good question! 

She had to think for a while because she has seen a LOT of legislation passed. She decided it was one  a long time ago in the 1990’s about public education that she thought would have affected lots of students. She felt it was good that it passed.

Next was LUNCH TIME!

We moved to a different meeting room for a pizza lunch! The room was really interesting because it was designed to look like what the committee rooms looked like when the building first opened. It had the same shape as the Speaker’s apartment room…. long and narrow with the curved wall at the end and big windows. There was a really long table in the middle of the room. The table was green! There were many pictures on the walls.

During lunch we talked about the time that the House sat for 24 hours straight for 9 days in a row! Imagine meeting 24 hours a day for 9 days straight? 

There was a bill that was going to amalgamate the GTA (so places like Scarborough and Etobicoke and Mississauga) into one big MEGACITY but the Opposition didn’t like that idea. The Opposition (the Liberals and NDPs at the time) created 13,000 amendments to that bill that would have to be read into the record and voted on individually!!!!! They made a list of every single street in those areas that would be affected and have to be notified of the changes. Of course, the House couldn’t adjourn until they were done looking at all of those amendments. The Speaker called the Committee of The House (which is where the Chamber turns into a big committee room )

Quick Tip: A committee is where certain people all sit together and discuss a bill section by section and say what should be included, what shouldn’t be included and all of the different amendments that should be made. Committees are made up of members from all parties.

So all the members came to the meeting and the Chamber turned into one giant committee room for discussion! They discussed and debated for 9 days! On the 3^rd day they calculated how long it would take at the pace they were going and calucated it would take 40 days and 40 nights, but the members didn’t want it to take so long so they agreed that moving quickly through everything would mean deferring all the votes to the end of all discussions and trying to work through everything in 9 days (24 hours a day). They managed to do this but not without a couple of hiccups along the way!

One of the streets the Opposition listed to be excluded from the amalgamation accidentally passed the vote so there was one street that for a couple of days was excluded from the Greater Toronto Area! The government quickly fixed that after they realized it, but it meant that everyone living on that street celebrated for a few days! :D 

Lunch with the Clerk, Deborah Deller

We learned a lot from Ms. Deller and had a great time! 


--PeyThePEYge