UCP to focus on health care, affordability in spring sitting

Alberta's UCP government says it'll be focused on improving health care and growing the economy, but the Opposition NDP was quick to question the province's wildfire readiness when lawmakers reconvened Wednesday.

Government house leader Joseph Schow told Postmedia Tuesday the agenda will see between 10 and 12 bills, including legislation on health care, municipal governance and red tape reduction before the end of the sitting in late May.

“I think you can expect really more of the same — just fulfilling the campaign commitments we made to Albertans, talking about a prosperous Alberta, one that focuses on balanced budgets, trying to keep life affordable, making sure that Albertans have access to good quality health care, and they feel safe where it matters most, in the streets and in their homes,” Schow said. “We laid out pretty clearly in the election campaign what we intend to do.”

The government is set to release its 2024 budget on Thursday, but it will not include a personal tax cut first promised in the election creating a new eight per cent bracket for those making less than $60,000 — at least not this year.

The UCP is also in the midst of planning a health-care system restructuring that will see Alberta Health Services dismantled and four new governance organizations created. First announced in November, the effort will require legislation this spring.

NDP QUESTIONS WILDFIRE PREPAREDNESS

During question period Wednesday, Opposition NDP Leader Rachel Notley pressed the UCP about proposed restrictions on health care for trans youth, Alberta's opposition to a national pharmacare plan, and the delayed tax cut.

After the province declared an early start of the wildfire season last week, NDP forestry critic Heather Sweet took aim at the UCP'S wildfire plans, noting that demands that an advisory committee be struck have not been met.

Sweet called for an emergency debate on wildfire preparation in the legislature, saying the province needs to release a comprehensive plan for municipalities that will be affected and for wildfire and municipal firefighters.

Forestry Minister Todd Loewen said the province now has more than 200 firefighters with boots on the ground, along with 429 permanent staff, and expects more than 900 personnel will be hired and trained by mid-april, and nearly 1,200 by mid-may.

“We have been working non-stop this past year to be certain we're prepared for the season ahead,” he said, reiterating the province's efforts so far, including to enhance night operations, streamline training and get more equipment.

Still, UCP members voted to shut down any emergency debate.

What did go up for debate was Premier Danielle Smith's motion, first introduced in the fall, highlighting the aims of the contentious Sovereignty Within a United Canada Act.

Also on the order paper for the sitting is a private member's motion from UCP caucus whip Shane Getson recognizing the impacts of wildfires, and calling for a bill to “increase the penalties for committing an offence” under the Forest and Prairie Protection Act.

At a news conference Wednesday morning, Schow said a proposal first pitched in the 2023 election campaign — the Compassionate Intervention Act, which would allow for mandatory addiction treatment for adults — likely won't be introduced this spring.

PUSH FOR LOCAL POLITICAL PARTIES

On Tuesday, at an unrelated news conference, Smith said legislation changing municipal rules was coming this spring sitting, but she did not confirm what exactly it would entail.

When asked by a reporter why the provincial government was considering bringing partisan politics to the local level, Smith said voters should be informed about a candidate's political stripes, particularly in Calgary and Edmonton.

“(Municipal councils) are straying into areas that I think are actually provincial issues, they are straying into areas that are federal issues, and oftentimes, that is not very clear when people go to vote for what the ideology of the people are who are putting their names forward,” said Smith, referring to local single-use item bylaws.