Not all provincial politicians agree that the fall session was a successful one. Premier Rachel Notley spent her year-end press conference on Wednesday reflecting on her government's successes over the past year and looking forward to 2017.
Not all provincial politicians agree that the fall session was a successful one.
Premier Rachel Notley spent her year-end press conference on Wednesday reflecting on her government's successes over the past year and looking forward to 2017.
Notley highlighted her satisfaction with the passing of the modernized Municipal Government Act, new consumer protection legislation and her government's leadership on climate change, to name a few.
The feather in the cap of the climate plan is the federal government approval of two pipeline projects. Notley noted that Prime Minister Justin Trudeau praised Alberta's climate leadership as a major reason for the two projects getting the green light.
Spruce Grove-St. Albert MLA Trevor Horne agrees and thinks the approval of the pipeline projects was one of the government's biggest accomplishments this year.
“The pipeline announcement being tied directly to some of the climate initiates we were undertaking was definitely a big highlight,” the NDP MLA said.
Horne was also pleased with local developments, such as the opening of new schools.
“Seeing those schools starting to open and seeing new ones coming on their way is really great to see for our community and Alberta as a whole,” Horne said.
St. Albert MLA Marie Renaud was happy with the consumer protection legislation passed that ended door-to-door energy sales. She was also pleased with the updates to the vital statistics.
“One of the things the disability community has been talking about for a very along time is changes to the Marriage Act,” Renaud. “I think its leftovers from the eugenics days, but people with disabilities who wanted to marry had to get a letter from a physician saying that they could.”
She was also very pleased with the Municipal Government Act that was passed, she said.
Renaud says that in the fall session the province saw some of the results of the hard work the government has been doing since they took office in 2015. But she said the tragedy in Human Services, the death of a young girl who was in kinship care, is a reminder that there is still plenty of work to be done.
Barrhead-Morinville-Westlock Wildrose MLA Glenn van Dijken said the fall session and the year were a mixed bag.
Van Dijken said that he appreciated times when the government and opposition were able to work together, such as recognizing Ukrainian Heritage Day and the work with changes made to the adoption laws in the province. The Wildrose MLA said he is proud of his work on the contentious Special Select Ethics and Accountability Committee and the changes made to election financing laws.
But van Dijken is most dissappointed in Bill 34, which allows the government to take on utility debt. This is part of the larger dissappointment for him on the entire energy portfolio changes in the province.
“We are seeing a major change in the way we do electricity in Alberta,” van Dijken said.
He said so far he has been disappointed with the government's level of transparency and said that he wants economic impact reports and economic analysis that the changes will have on the ecnomny.
Spring session has no set starting date, but it is predicted to start in late February or early March.
