Alberta Minute: Municipal Transparency, Union Complaints, and Federal Carbon Tax Hikes

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

This Week In Alberta:

• The Legislature is now adjourned for the Christmas break. It is expected to return in February though some Committee meetings will continue over the break.
  
  
• The Select Special Democratic Accountability Committee will meet on Tuesday and Wednesday. The meetings are scheduled from 9:00 am to 4:00 pm each day, though they may of course conclude earlier. The Committee will be continuing its deliberations and work on their review of the Election Act and Election Finances and the Contributions Disclosure Act.
  
  
• The Alberta government will be releasing the first edition of their Municipal Fiscal Report Card. The province says it will help citizens compare the finances of their local government to others in the province and across the country, but given this is the first report of its kind we won't know the full details until it's released.

Last Week In Alberta:

• The Legislature's fall session finished with a very late sitting on Tuesday night that lasted until 3:00 am on Wednesday morning. The government passed the final Bills on its agenda, leaving only Private Members' Public Bills remaining. The status of those Bills is now unclear, as they will only continue if there is no new Throne Speech when the Legislature returns next year.
  
  
• The federal government announced plans to hike the federal carbon tax to $170 a tonne. Some were surprised by the announcement, but we weren't. In fact, when we warned in the past that the tax wouldn't stop at $50 a tonne, we were accused of spreading disinformation!
  
  
• Finally, the United Nurses of Alberta filed dozens of grievances with Alberta Health Services for hiring non-union nurses to do contact tracing. Seriously?

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