St. Albert MLA Marie Renaud said her office has received a fair bit of feedback in response to the Alberta government shutting down the legislature for two weeks, and most of it isn’t positive.
“People are very frustrated that they can't get answers. I did have a few people that were still working because they're essential workers that do critical work," said Renaud. "They're frustrated that the work of the legislature isn't continuing when they've had to make all kinds of accommodations to get their work done.”
On May 2, the province suspended the spring session of the legislature until May 17, in response to rising COVID-19 cases in an effort to prevent further spread of the virus. The suspension is solely preventative and not due to COVID cases among MLAs or their staff.
Apart from what she is hearing from her constituents, Renaud has her own frustrations over the closure.
“If it's not safe for us to be there in person, then certainly the technology is out there for us to do it virtually, but you know they've chosen not to do that,” she said.
Cabinet and legislative committees are allowing members to work remotely. Renaud said that over the 13 months of the pandemic the Legislative Assembly Offices have developed the technology for committee meetings to happen virtually.
“I'm questioning why the Alberta legislature has not developed that capacity so that if we did have to stay at home that we could continue the work of the people, and they've just chosen not to do that for whatever reason so that's unfortunate because there's some really important work to be done,” Renaud said.
She said they offered to work with the government to pass legislation she believes is needed – such as two weeks of paid sick time for Alberta workers.
“They chose not to take us up on that,” she said.
Renaud said there were other pieces of legislation that were in process and suspended that had some important debate surrounding them.
“One of them in particular that I think is important to St. Albert, although I'm not unhappy that this will delay what they were planning, but I think the debate was important. And it's around Bill 56,” she said.
The Local Measures Statutes Amendment Act is the same bill that would cut Municipal Sustainability Initiative funding to municipalities by 25 per cent over three years. Read this story on the bill.
Bill 56 would also update the Emergency 911 Act, which would include an increase to cell-phone fees from 44 cents to 95 cents to help pay for federally-mandated technology updates. If passed the levy would come into effect in September.
“So, those are really important discussions,” said Renaud.
“Albertans have a lot of questions. We're doing our best to try to amplify those voices and ask those questions and get answers, and the suspension just takes that ability away which is you know, at a time of crisis, and people need information,” she said.
In an email, Margeaux Maron, press secretary to Morinville-St. Albert MLA Dale Nally, said members can be called back to the legislature if an emergency arises and the assembly is required to meet.
Maron said Nally will be attending all work associated with his ministerial portfolio, as well as his constituency work while the legislature is suspended.
She directed inquiries to a statement made by Alberta's government house leader Jason Nixon.
“With COVID-19 continuing to spread across Alberta, the government has determined that having MLAs return to Edmonton from all over the province after constituency week is no longer prudent. Suspending proceedings is the right thing to do as case counts increase,” said Nixon.
