| Premier Ralph Klein won’t be in attendance for most of the fall legislative session, and Opposition leaders say the premier’s absence and the fact that the government has scheduled such a short session are indicative of its contempt for the democratic process.
"It will be a short sitting – perhaps 12 sitting days – and we’re not expecting (the premier) to bother turning up for more than half of it," says Liberal leader Kevin Taft. "We need a premier that’s fully engaged in his job and is fully committed to the legislature, and I feel like the premier is letting down the province and letting down all the people of Alberta."
The legislative session begins on November 15. Premier Ralph Klein will attend for the first week, but then he will be going on a speaking tour in Ontario, Quebec and Nova Scotia. After that, Klein will attend a first ministers meeting on November 24 with the prime minister, other premiers and aboriginal leaders, where they will discuss the future of aboriginal people in Canada.
Jerry Bellikka, spokesperson for the premier’s office, says the premier’s speaking engagements were scheduled months ago.
"He’s going to be talking to business leaders in the East and in Quebec about Alberta and how Alberta’s prosperity benefits the rest of the country," he says.
Bellikka says the opposition leaders are trying to guess how long the legislative session will last, but he says it depends on the length of debate. He predicts the session will extend until at least the first week in December.
"Most provinces have a lengthy spring sitting and a shorter session in the fall," says Bellikka. "The session is scheduled for approximately three weeks. It could be longer. It could be shorter. Much of that depends on the debate that takes place."
However, Taft says Alberta routinely has shorter legislative sessions than other provinces. Opposition parties only have the opportunity to directly challenge government policy when the legislature is in session.
"Alberta is notorious for having extremely short sessions. This fall sitting the government will ram through several billion dollars in spending with almost no meaningful debate so there’s a real breakdown of the basic institutions of democratic accountability," says Taft. "We’ll be pressing the government on its spending and surplus policy, or lack of a surplus policy. It really seems that spending decisions are being made on a whim here. It’s almost random now."
The government has already made various announcements on how it will spend the province’s multibillion dollar surplus. Those spending promises will be voted on in this session.
New Democratic Party house leader Ray Martin says opposition parties will only get three days to challenge the government on its supplementary budget and that’s not enough.
He says he can’t understand why the premier couldn’t have rescheduled his speaking engagements in the East so that he could attend more of the legislative session.
"I think it just shows absolute contempt for the legislature, for democracy in Alberta, and we sit so little, you’d think the masterminds could organize a tour for him that wouldn’t conflict with the very short sessions that we have, but I think he likes it this way. He doesn’t like to be around the legislature. He doesn’t want to be accountable," says Martin.
Martin says politicians in Alberta probably spend the least amount of time in the legislature of any other province in Canada.
"It’s part of this sort of one-party rule, of arrogance," says Martin.
Both the Liberals and the NDP plan to focus their attention on health care and post-secondary education in this session. Both will push the government to offer tuition relief for students and to challenge the government’s move towards allowing more privatization in the health care system.
The Alberta Liberals recently released Conservative documents that discussed options to "open the market to private insurance and remove barriers to private delivery," including amending the Alberta Health Care and Insurance Act and Hospital Act so that doctors and dentists could provide "medically necessary" services in both the public and private system. That’s currently prohibited under the act.
The NDP will also push for changes in labour legislation, including first contract arbitration. |
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