The NDP government can’t ignore Wildrose requests all the time
Wildrose leader Brian Jean wants the NDP government to hold a special “jobs summit” to help figure out ways to help Alberta through its economic recession.
It’s an idea that manages to be both worthwhile and useless.
On paper it’s worthwhile because, let’s face it, we need all the help and ideas we can get as the province sinks deeper into a recession created by the collapsing price of oil.
Jean would like the summit to look at how the government can better respond to that collapse by inviting business leaders, energy experts, representatives from charities, and politicians of every stripe to participate. Who could argue with that? Well, here’s one argument. Over the years, Alberta’s former Progressive Conservative government held summits on a litany of troublesome issues … and in practice all of them proved a waste of time.
We had a health-care summit in 1994 and another in 1999, followed by more public discussions and an international symposium on health care in 2005. We had the Future Summit of 2002 that looked into, among other things, what to do with the Heritage Savings Trust Fund — and reached no consensus.
To paraphrase an old adage, a camel is a horse designed at a summit.
That’s one reason for the government to reject a jobs summit.
Another is that it sure sounds like Jean would like to use the summit simply as a club to hammer the government. He wants the summit to, among other things, delve into the consequences of the NDP’s tax hikes and the “dramatic” increase to the minimum wage as well as look at the impact to investor confidence by the government’s new climate change strategy.
“If the NDP won’t call back the legislature to discuss jobs, this summit would make sure all the experts are in one room together evaluating government policies and putting forward the best ideas to fix the economy,” says Jean.
The key phrase here is “if the NDP won’t call back the legislature.” If he doesn’t have access to question period, Jean apparently wants to use the summit as a platform to attack the government.
Politically, you can see why the government has rejected the job summit.
However, spare some sympathy for Jean.
As leader of the official Opposition it is his job to hold the government to account and present opposing ideas. And the government is making his job more difficult — and arguably thumbing its nose at democracy — by delaying the opening of a new legislative session to March, rather than February.
And there’s another reason Jean deserves sympathy.
He has been asking since last May for an office in the Legislature Building.
Currently, the opposition politicians are housed in the newly renovated Federal Building, a five-minute jog away from the assembly.
Jean says he’d like to have a presence in the building that is the seat of Alberta’s democratic life. It is a reasonable request. Back when the New Democrats were the official Opposition in the 1980s, their leader’s office was on the main floor of the legislature, one floor below Progressive Conservative Premier Don Getty’s office.
After Ralph Klein became premier in 1992, the newly elected Liberal opposition moved to the legislative Annex building and their old office space was turned into the headquarters for the premier’s ballooning communications staff.
These days, the Wildrose does have access to two small rooms in the Legislature used as temporary offices when the assembly is sitting. These are tiny workspaces — more broom closet than office.
It’s not as if the Legislature doesn’t have space: the government of Jim Prentice had room for 20 cabinet ministers’ offices; the NDP has just 13 ministers.
The government says it’s willing to consider Jean’s request for an office. But the government has been saying that for eight months.
It is understandable why the NDP won’t approve Jean’s questionable request for a jobs summit, but it is not understandable why the NDP won’t approve Jean’s reasonable request for a proper office in the Legislature.