Opposition’s fight for bill briefings halted

The NDP’S efforts to get the same bill briefings as members of the media were shut down Monday. Members of the media are often granted access to government summaries of upcoming legislation if they agree to not publish the information before the legislation is introduced in the assembly. Media do not get a sneakpeek of bills in their entirety, however. Last week, the UCP government said it would no longer provide Opposition members with briefings before tabling government bills. The move was in retaliation to an NDP tweet that outlined which ministers were in the legislative assembly to answer questions, something house leader Jason Nixon said broke trust. The NDP said the decision violated parliamentary rules and the rights of elected officials, but Speaker Nathan Cooper ruled Monday that the government did not need to brief MLAS on the content of bills. However, Cooper said if technical media briefings were only provided after bills were introduced, the issue “would obviously be avoided going forward.”