Yahoo Finance 20 bills expected during 6-week Alberta legislature sitting
The governing United Conservative Party intends to introduce up to 20 pieces of legislation in the six-week fall legislature sitting which starts Tuesday.
Jason Nixon, environment minister and government house leader, said at a news conference on Monday that the priority will be on economic recovery and growth.
"The fall sitting will focus on legislation that does just that, from setting the stage for geothermal development in the province, to accelerating job creation through new innovations and through the new innovation and employment incentive," he said.
Other legislation will reduce mobility of labour, reduce "red tape" for forestry companies, and establish payment deadlines for contractors.
Changes are also coming to child-care legislation to "improve transparency for parents," Nixon said. The government is also amending justice statutes to speed up the forfeiture of assets for victim restitution and compensation.
Nixon said the fall sitting will start with a debate on economic recovery which will allow MLAs to question the premier and his cabinet members.
MLAs last met on Aug. 27 for a special one-day sitting where the government revealed in its first-quarter fiscal update that Alberta was forecast to end the year with a $24.2 billion deficit and a debt of nearly $100 billion.
Alberta is struggling with the economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and a slump in international oil prices.
Meanwhile, active cases of COVID-19 are continuing to climb but Premier Jason Kenney has so far resisted calls to rollback the closure of businesses and services.
Heather Sweet, Edmonton-Manning MLA and NDP house leader, said the Opposition's focus will be on jobs — the ones Kenney is cutting and the ones he's not creating.
Last week, Health Minister Tyler Shandro announced the government will cut 11,000 positions in Alberta Health Services in an effort to save $600 million. The jobs, mostly in food services, housekeeping and laundry services, will be outsourced to private companies.
"Alberta's NDP official opposition will focus on holding Jason Kenney responsible for his self-inflicted job crisis and the chaos he is creating in health care during a pandemic," Sweet said.
"All Albertans understand that firing 11,000 people during a jobs crisis and firing the people who clean rooms and change soiled bedding and prepare foods in our hospitals during a pandemic is cruel, irresponsible and downright stupid," she said.
Nixon said the UCP government has acted on 75 per cent of the commitments in the election platform. One issue that is still outstanding is recall legislation.
A committee of MLAs is currently examining the issue and Nixon said it is expected to report to the legislation in the middle of the fall sitting. He said the government still intends to introduce a law but it likely won't come until the spring.
