I believe the genesis of this was really several media articles that dominated the newspapers in Toronto and other parts of Ontario, which identified the current government as having what were deemed cash for access events. There would be private dinners with substantive amounts of money to gain entry. There might be only 20 or 30 people, and the dinners might be with perhaps the Minister of Finance, the Premier, or other influential individuals. There were a number of articles throughout Ontario during that time frame last spring, March and April, and the government at that point deemed it necessary to address that, which resulted in the creation of Bill 2 and the committee travelling the province to hear from Ontarians.
On October 17th, 2017. See this statement in context.