WATCH: After just three-and-a-half weeks in the house, Alberta’s MLAs are heading home. Tom Vernon takes a look back at the fall session.
EDMONTON – Premier Jim Prentice’s first tour of duty in the Alberta legislature was a disappointing “do-over” that foreshadows little vision and a hard swing to the political right, critics said Thursday.
“I don’t see the leadership forward. I see the leadership back and sideways,” said Liberal house leader Laurie Blakeman, a day after the legislature wrapped up its first session under Prentice.
“It’s definitely going hard right. He is chasing that right vote.”
The house sat for 15 days over the past four weeks, passing legislation to clean up government while pulling back on controversial rules surrounding gay students setting up school friendship clubs.
Prentice took over in September from scandal-plagued former premier Alison Redford.
Redford quit the top job in March ahead of a party and caucus revolt over, among other issues, lavish spending by her on herself and her inner circle.
Prentice promised new rules to clean up government and on Wednesday, the house passed Bill 2, the Alberta Accountability Act. The bill expands conflict of interest guidelines for political staff, extends the cooling-off period for those who leave government but want to come back later to lobby or work for it. It also restricts the amount of severance that can be paid out to departing staffers, and changes the rules to assure a more level playing field for companies bidding on government work.
READ MORE: Premier Prentice promises new Accountability Act
However, the severance and procurement changes are contained not in legislation, but in Treasury Board directives, meaning they can be changed on short notice by the governing Tories behind closed doors.
NDP Leader Rachel Notley says Prentice promised to put those changes in law, adding the watered down bill is “all hat, no cattle.”
“I’ve seen a clear pattern of over-promising and under-delivering (by Prentice),” said Notley.
“Overall, this session has been marked by a premier who has done nothing but undo the record of the previous premier.
“That to me is not vision. That’s panicked issue management.”
Notley called the session a “do-over” for the Tories.
Prentice’s team also cancelled previously passed legislation – which had never been enacted – that rural landowners said gave the province wide latitude to expropriate their land for megaprojects while giving them little redress or adequate compensation.
The session saw a renewed, pitched battle over the rights of students to form gay-straight alliances. The alliances, known as GSAs, already exist in some public schools in Edmonton and Calgary. They are friendship clubs home to gay students and supportive classmates. Supporters say the clubs help gay students feel comfortable and protected and reduce bullying.
The Tories were criticized in the spring when some joined with Wildrose members to defeat a non-binding motion supporting GSAs in the spring. The battle was enjoined again this session when Blakeman brought in a private member’s bill mandating that all schools accept GSAs.
Prentice and his team countered with a hastily written bill of their own that knocked Blakeman’s off the order paper while not mandating schools accept GSAs. As public anger over the Tories’ Bill 10 grew on social media, the Tories amended it to promise that if the schools said no, the government would set up the GSA.
WATCH: Alberta premier has put Bill 10 on hold, after much opposition.
Critics said forcing students off school grounds to set up a GSA was akin to segregation of blacks in the United States in the middle of the last century.
As the story gained traction nationally and figures such as TV personality Rick Mercer and Stampeders star running back Jon Cornish labelled the Tories backward and intolerant, Prentice put the bill on hold pending further consultation.
Prentice admitted while trying to strike the right compromise he made the issue worse.
Notley said while Prentice projects himself as fiscally conservative and socially progressive, the GSA issue revealed he is conservative on both counts.
“That means the history of Conservative neglect of key programs that matter to regular Alberta families will continue,” she said.
The house was also home to musical chairs.
Before the session began, Wildrose member Joe Anglin quit to sit as an Independent ahead of a caucus vote to oust him. Wildrose Leader Danielle Smith described Anglin at the time as a loose cannon in caucus and accusing him of secretly taping them. Anglin denied it and Smith offered no proof.
The Wildrose lost two more members when Kerry Towle and Ian Donovan crossed the floor to join Prentice, saying they believed in where he was taking the province.
Towle’s departure was acutely damaging to Smith given their personal friendship and the fact Towle had proven herself a rising star and fierce advocate for seniors’ rights.
Overshadowing the session was the steep drop in oil prices, taking the driver of Alberta’s economy from a high of US$100 a barrel in the summer to $60 a barrel this week.
READ MORE: The winners and losers from crashing oil prices – for now
Prentice has promised to balance the budget in the current fiscal year but says hard times and budget belt tightening are coming if oil does not rebound.
Smith said Prentice needs to institute some fundamental changes to avoid Alberta’s spending being tied to the whims of world pricing.
“This is not business as usual and this PC government can no longer pin its hopes on a return to $100 oil,” said Smith in a statement Thursday.
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