House of Assembly holds first morning sitting in recent memory
It was a strange sight in Confederation Building on Wednesday morning: politicians, in the legislature, debating things, before lunchtime.
In recent years, MHAS would never dream of convening proceedings in the House of Assembly at such an hour.
And up until this spring, the House of Assembly has spent Wednesdays discussing nonbinding resolutions that rarely amounted to anything of consequence.
But the Liberal government is pushing to reform the legislature, and one of the tweaks Government House Leader Andrew Parsons has made so far is instituting a morning sitting on Wednesdays from 10 a.m. to 12:30 p.m.
“It is an honour to stand in the House on this early Wednesday morning,” Finance Minister Cathy Bennett said shortly after 10 a.m.
“It’s exciting to be the first one to speak this morning.”
Bennett was speaking about an amendment to the Financial Administration Act that would allow for multiyear funding grants for community-based organizations.
The government also conducted a procedural step to allow for a bill that “would amend the Public Safety Act to decommission the Boiler Pressure Vessel Advisory Board.”
In addition to the Wednesday morning sittings, the House of Assembly will start observing constituency weeks once a month, which allow MHAS to head home and get back in touch with their districts.
The Liberal government has also published a sitting schedule for the House of Assembly for 2017 and 2018 — previously the sitting schedule was a closely guarded secret until a few days before MHAS convened in the legislature.