After cancelling and restoring the already scheduled fall sitting of Alberta’s Legislative Assembly only days after becoming Premier, Alison Redford and Government House leader Dave Hancock defended a decision yesterday to hold a two day sitting on October 24 and 25 and then break to reconvene for a longer sitting later in November.
This rescheduling will allow Premier Redford to deliver her maiden speech in her new position, which will focus on the global economic crisis. This odd scheduling will allow Premier Redford’s first moments in the Assembly not to be spoiled by the by those pesky opposition MLAs in Question Period. Opposition leaders will be given an opportunity to respond to Premier Redford’s speech before the month long break begins.
The break will allow the new administration to present a legislative agenda in November, something that would have been rushed if the full sitting were to be held in October.
A year ago he was sitting comfortably in the Tory backbenchers and next week Raj Sherman will kick-off his first sitting as leader of the 8 MLA Official Opposition Liberal Party. While most eyes will be on Premier Redford during her first sitting, others will be watching Dr. Sherman to see whether the wildcard PC-turned-Independent-turned-Liberal MLA can lead his new team in the Assembly.
The Liberals are expected to open the sitting with a full-court press with allegations against senior cabinet ministers and their staff, Finance Minister Ron Liepert in particular.
10 replies on “fall legislative sitting: scheduled, cancelled, restored, and now broken up.”
Not sure what Global Economic Crisis they would talk too. In Alberta, every forecaster and industry leader is talking about another massive labour shortage already underway.
Globally, markets have rebounded and are up on the year, Europe’s Debt Crisis has stabilized, and China just reported a 9% growth rate in their economy. By their standards, a very soft landing. The US just had a threshold week of economic reports, showing a defined turn-around in economic indicators to the upside.
I wouldn’t mind if they simply said they need more time to prepare a fall legislative agenda, but if you;re going to blame something, pick something real.
I’d agree Chris, except I’m not sure that the problems in Europe are “under control”. There are still major problems there, and obstacles to getting things sorted.
They are doing this for one reason….they have nothing to discuss. 8 months of Alison crisscrossing the province with supposedly bold ideas and not a single one is ready to be discussed. Not a great start to her leadership.
The Tories have shortened fall session, because they are shuddering at the prospect of getting hammered by Sherman, perhaps even wetting their pants. A shortened fall session is purely in their best interest to prevent public scrutiny and transparency. If the official opposition are doing their job more effectively than previous years, most of the Tory MLA’s will have to wear depends.
Chris I think you are being too optimistic about the global economy. I actually believe the opposite. I also believe that Harper and his Finance Minister are about to repeat the 2008 fiasco. They had no idea a global crisis was on us and they actually spent what the Liberals had left behind. I would put more weight on what TD Bank CEO said yesterday. Canada is way closer to a financial crisis then we believe. Heads is the sand is what he mentioned and I agree. As far as other forecasters, all I have read is that a second recession is very likely.
As far as Alison Redford, I think she is another Obama in the making. I hope I am wrong for the good of this province. The messages so far are of an amazing lack of certainty. As far as having to prepare, I thought we had a budget until the end of the year. Maybe we are not sure as well.
While I’m not a fan of this schedule tinkering, it’s not as embarrassing as the sitting in the fall of 2006. Unless I’m mistaken, it was planned around Ralph Klein’s fishing trip to someone’s BC getaway.
Lib Leader Sherman has been saying for sometime that our economy is going to take a down turn and we need to be prepared and stop our Pork Gov’t spending. This is the last Tory Administration in this province, their days of porking are over. Oink Oink.
I too am puzzled by Redford’s focus on the global economic crisis. The global economy is volatile, but what’s the impact on Alberta.
Industry analysts and oil & gas companies are optimistic. The gov’t has raked in $3.24 billion in land sales already. This is just $200 million less than the all time high in 2006 which was driven by the oilsands.
My worry is that the PCs will use the global economic crisis as a reason to chop the budget so that they can prove they are more “conservative” than the Wildrose.
@Susan
I agree that they may be trying to be more conservative than the Alliance, but it is also part of the neo conservative ideology to cut government no matter what. Government is evil and we saw that show in display in the first couple of years of Klein’s Kingdom with statements referring to public employees as ‘Cheque grabbers’. This is what I expected from Liepert. Agressive, bullyish atittude towards everything and everyone. He is going to slash the budget no matter what and this is just the mental preparation.
[…] Alberta’s Legislative Assembly begins today for a short two-weeks of business. Aside from the two-day speech driven sitting held last month, this will be the first time that new Progressive Conservative Premier Alison […]