Alberta Minute: Legislature Returns, Lethbridge Police, and A Possible Time Change Referendum

Alberta Minute - Your weekly one-minute summary of Alberta politics.

This Week In Alberta:

• The Legislature is sitting this week and will consider the Second Readings of Bill 53 (Service Alberta Statutes), Bill 54 (Irrigation Districts), Bill 55 (College of Alberta), Bill 56 (Local Measures Statutes), Bill 57 (Metis Settlements) and Private Members Bill 211 (which prohibits municipalities from banning firearms under the recently passed new federal law).
  
  
• The Standing Committee on Private Bills and Private Members' Public Bills will also meet on Monday from 10:00 am to 12:00 pm, but no agenda has been released yet.
  
  
• All other Committees will continue the consideration of Main Estimates (aka debating the budget). As we mentioned last week, each Committee will debate the portion of the budget that affects their respective Ministries. There are 8 meetings this week, so rather than trying to summarize them all here, we've added all the details here on our website, where you can also find links to go back and watch last week's sessions.

Last Week In Alberta:

• After an emergency UCP caucus meeting on Monday, Health Minister, Tyler Shandro, announced that the Province was "completing Step 2", effective immediately. This came after the previous week's decision to implement a "Step 1.1" caused significant backlash, both from the public and the government's own backbenchers. Meanwhile, new data showed Alberta's jobless rate dropping to 9.9% - a growth of 17,000 jobs during February. Amazing what allowing businesses to open can do for an economy!
  
  
• More details were also revealed about the police harassment and privacy invasions that were faced by NDP MLA, Shannon Phillips, between 2016 and 2018. It doesn't matter what your politics are, or which party you support, as the Justice Minister said: "The men and women of law enforcement possess a great deal of power, and all Albertans should be outraged when that power is abused."
  
  
• Finally, hopefully, you remembered to change your clocks to Mountain Daylight time on Sunday (and if you didn't, you might be late for work right now!). Momentum seems to be building for Alberta and other jurisdictions to permanently eliminate time changes, and the Province suggested this issue might be included in the list of referendums Albertans will get to vote on later this year. Our view? We support a strict separation of time and state, politicians should keep their hands off our clocks!

-----

Donate:

The Alberta Institute doesn't accept any government funding and never will. We think you should be free to choose, for yourself, which organizations to support. If you're in a position to contribute financially, you can make a donation here.

-----

Share:

If you're not in a position to donate, we understand, but if you appreciate our work, you can help by spreading our message. Please forward this email to your friends, follow us on Facebook and Twitter, and help make sure every Albertan knows what's going on in our province.