Alberta Minute: Province-wide Protests, Firearms Rules, and some Calgary Issues

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

This Week In Alberta:

• The legislature will convene today to continue working through their busy spring agenda. No new government bills are currently scheduled to be introduced this week, however, the NDP will introduce a private member's bill - the Pension Protection Act - on Monday.
  
  
• Bill 15, Bill 16, Bill 17, Bill 20, and Bill 21 are all in Second Reading, while Bill 2, Bill 4, Bill 7, Bill 18, and Bill 19 are all at Committee of the Whole. Details about each bill are available here.
  
  
• The government will also make a final decision early this week about when Alberta will move to Stage 2 of the province's relaunch plan. It had previously been announced that Stage 2 would happen no earlier than Friday, June 19th but, with the number of acute care beds designated for COVID reduced from 2,800 to 1,000 and only 4% of those 1,000 being used, our bet would be on Monday, June 15th instead.

Last Week In Alberta:

• Protests were held across the province - on multiple days in some cities - in the wake of the death of George Floyd in the United States. No matter the issue, we will always support people's right to protest peacefully. Organizers have encouraged protest attendees to get tested for COVID-19, however, which seems like a good idea - especially since the province has now opened up testing to everyone, even if they don't have symptoms.
  
  
• Premier Jason Kenney announced a new Alberta Firearms Advisory Committee tasked with providing recommendations on responding to gun violence while protecting the rights of gun owners. This follows plans for Alberta to assert greater control over gun regulation by taking over the appointment of a provincial firearms officer.
  
  
• If you're a Calgary resident, you've probably heard a lot about City Council's Green Line LRT plan in recent days. If you're not a Calgary resident, you should still be paying attention, because provincial taxpayers are funding this runaway train too! All our readers right across Alberta should sign the petition to Cancel The Green Line being run by our friends at Common Sense Calgary. Those who are in Calgary might want to sign our petition to halt this year's massive 7.5% tax hikes too.

-----

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.