Alberta MLAs to debate modernizing securities regulations as fall session begins
Alberta MLAs are expected to debate about a dozen pieces of proposed legislation during the fall session, which starts Monday afternoon in Edmonton.
Government house leader Brian Mason said the government will introduce bills aimed at implementing more recommendations from the child intervention panel, modernizing securities regulations, and giving the College of Physicians and Surgeons the power to penalize members who are accused of sexual assault and sexual harassment.
Mason said the government is working on a bill to regulate donations for municipal election campaigns. If the legislation isn’t ready for fall, it will be introduced by the government in the spring, he said.
Mason said no final decision has been made on a bill to ban conversion therapy, a controversial practice that tries to use psychological or religious intervention to change a person’s sexual orientation or gender identity.
Edmonton-Castle Downs NDP MLA Nicole Goehring was working on a private member’s bill on the issue. Mason said Goehring is now in discussions with Health Minister Sarah Hoffman about how to proceed.
Last spring, the government passed a bill that legislated protester-free bubble zones around private abortion clinics in Edmonton and Calgary.
Some observers felt the bill was designed as a way to get United Conservative Party MLAs to reveal their views about abortion.
Instead, UCP members walked out of the chamber each time a part of the bill came up for a vote.
Mason deflected questions on whether the government would introduce a bill to “trap” the opposition.
“We don’t set out to trap them but somehow they get tangled up in things,” he said. “We do hope this time that they will stay in the chamber to debate all of the bills that are important to the public, and not run and hide if there is a bill where their members’ views might be considered embarrassing.”
UCP to seek emergency pipeline debate
The UCP is starting off the fall session with a request for an emergency debate on the Trans Mountain pipeline expansion.
Official Opposition house leader Jason Nixon said the legislature must discuss what measures need to be taken to get the pipeline built in light of a federal court ruling in August that stopped the project.
The federal government has launched additional consultations with Indigenous groups as well as on marine safety issues to address concerns raised by the court ruling.
The start of the fall session will see two new faces in the Alberta legislature. Laila Goodridge, the UCP MLA for Fort McMurray-Conklin, and Devin Dreeshen, the UCP MLA for Innisfail-Sylvan Lake, won byelections held on July 12.
Strathmore-Brooks MLA Derek Fildebrandt will sit as a member of the Freedom Conservative Party for the first time.
Calgary-Greenway MLA Prab Gill will sit as an independent. Gill resigned from the UCP caucus in July following an investigation into ballot-stuffing at a constituency meeting in Calgary-North East.
Gill said he did not agree with the findings, which were not released to the public.