October 26th
Edmonton Sun, Tanara McLean

EDMONTON  - A 10 day fall sitting of the legislature may be short, but is still plenty of time to pass needed legislation, say Alberta opposition parties.

After a brief two-day sitting this week, MLAs will not be back under the dome until Nov. 21, after the government called for a break to draft legislation.

The break is unnecessary said Wildrose Party MLA Rob Anderson, adding there’s plenty to be debated right now.

“There’s over 40 private members bills and motions on the order paper to debate. These are very good debates to have,” said Anderson.

Aside from government proposed legislation, opposition parties and non-cabinet MLAs have the opportunity to put forward laws and changes to laws to be debated during house sittings.

As it stands, there are eight private member bills that could be debated, including BIll 201, or the Seniors’ Property Tax Deferral Act, which allows seniors living in their own home to delay property taxes.

In addition to private member bills, close to 60 private member motions are ready to be debated, however Liberal MLA Laurie Blakeman said the government will likely only put forward “non-controversial” legislation after the break.

“I think there’s certainly time to do one or two other bills, but not one or two controversial bills,” said Blakeman, suggesting that Premier Alison Redford’s campaign promise to appoint an independent child advocate will likely be on the agenda.

“If that bill came forward, that’s certainly something that’s been supported by the opposition for a long time and I would expect that bill to pass very quickly,” said Blakeman.

“The assembly can be very cooperative if there’s a bill that everyone agrees with and it can clip along very easily.”

Private member items are only debated on Monday’s during session.

Blakeman and Anderson would also like to see something proposed for setting the upcoming 2012 election date, another Redford campaign promise.

“I think that’s a bigger problem for them in their caucus, and they’re not going to put anything on the floor until they’re all ok with it. If there’s controversy in government caucus on that one we will not see it,” she said.

Ultimately, Anderson said, Redford and her new ministers need to answer “tough” questions the Wildrose is hearing from Albertans.

“Health, education and accountability. Our ER system is in crisis again; we need to know what the premier plans to do about it and we have some suggestions that we think she should take to heart,” said Anderson.

Although Redford already announcing that she will re-instate the $107 million taken from the recent education budget, where the money is coming from still needs to be decided, and debated in the house.

“I’m hoping we’ll debate getting the education system its $107 million and finding in-year savings to do that, not just to borrow more debt or dip into our savings,” said Anderson.

The government-proposed Education Act is still on the schedule to be debated Nov. 21, however some critics say the mere eight days remaining in the fall sitting isn’t enough time to have a full debate.

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