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Alberta\u2019s United Conservative government plans to introduce up to 18 bills in the spring sitting of the legislature which started Tuesday in Edmonton.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The bills include measures that make it easier for businesses to buy and sell across provincial boundaries, place limits on medical assistance in dying and license immigration consultants and international recruiters.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur government is diversifying the economy, creating jobs, building schools and investing in health care,\u201d government house leader Joseph Schow said Tuesday. \u201cAnd that’s what the legislation this session is intended to do.\u201d<\/p>\n
The government is tabling its 2026 budget on Thursday before breaking for a constituency week.\u00a0<\/p>\n
NDP Opposition Leader Naheed Nenshi said the government isn\u2019t focused on Albertans\u2019 desire for help with the cost of living and improved health care and education.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI looked at the titles of some of the bills that are coming forward that Mr. Schow brought forward, and it doesn’t look like they’re addressing any of those things,\u201d he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The first afternoon of the session was dominated by debate on a series of motions introduced by the government to change some of the standing orders or rules of the legislature.\u00a0<\/p>\n
One proposed change would limit debate at all stages of one or more government bills with just one motion, instead of passing a separate motion at each stage.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Another change would give the government 120 sitting days to respond to a written question or a motion for return from private members. The legislature is sitting for 54 days in 2026. The next election is expected in the fall of 2027.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Schow argued the changes would increase debate time. But the Opposition argued they do the opposite.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Nenshi said he believes the changes seem to be in response to what happened during the fall sitting. NDP MLAs spoke out when the government used the notwithstanding clause to shield four pieces of legislation from constitutional changes.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is a government that wants to ram through more, that wants to ram through legislation without debate, without conversation in the house,\u201d Nenshi said. \u201cCertainly they have a majority. They\u2019re going to win every vote.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cBut certainly, also, the parliamentary system requires an opportunity for the opposition to oppose.\u201d<\/p>\n
The UCP was able to use its majority in the house to pass the new standing orders late Tuesday afternoon.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Listen to this article Estimated 3 minutes The audio version of this article is generated by AI-based technology.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":497947,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[194294],"tags":[49,48,23752],"class_list":{"0":"post-497946","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-edmonton","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-edmonton"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/497946","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=497946"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/497946\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/497947"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=497946"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=497946"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=497946"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}