Alberta government says jobs, economy, COVID to be focus of fall legislature sitting
CBC
The Alberta government plans a busy fall legislature sitting aimed at adding jobs and diversifying the economy while focusing on tamping down the renewed surge of COVID-19.
Government house leader Jason Nixon says this will include proposed legislation on recognizing professional credentials to address labour shortages. The bill will be introduced by Premier Jason Kenney.
"Our focus will be on Alberta's workforce, a couple of bills around diversifying the economy, a big focus on building infrastructure for our future, [and] growing our resources, particularly on the energy side," Nixon said in an interview Friday.
There will also be new initiatives on environmental protection and conservation.
Nixon said there will be 18 to 20 bills for the sitting, which begins Monday and is scheduled to run to the first week of December.
"It's a very robust fall agenda," he said.
Nixon said the government will continue to take steps to reduce COVID-19 cases, which have severely stressed the health system.
No COVID-19-specific bills are planned, he said, noting they were passed in previous sittings.
"There's certainly other stuff to be done to manage the pandemic but we'll stand ready if Alberta Health needs us to pass any legislation to deal with the pandemic."
He said debate in the chamber is expected to return to some semblance of normalcy.
In the spring sitting, both the United Conservative government and the Opposition NDP reduced their numbers in the chamber to prevent the spread of the virus.
This time, with all NDP members and all but one on the UCP side vaccinated, all will be allowed back in for debate.
The lone UCP member has a medical exemption and will be tested regularly, said Nixon.
He said there are still masking rules and members will try to maintain distancing where possible.
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