Alberta government passes contentious suite of bills as spring legislature session wraps up

A legislative sitting that analysts say was defined by a provincial government set on expanding its powers ended Wednesday afternoon with limited debate times on some of the most controversial bills.

Destined to become law is a bill that allows the United Conservative Party government to divvy Alberta Health Services into four organizations, and a bill to create a Crown corporation that will research the province's approach to addictions and mental health.

Three bills that collectively give the government more powers over municipalities, school boards, and post-secondary institutions — or make it easier to exercise existing powers — dominated the spring sitting, pundits say.

"It's not surprising to see the provincial government getting into fights with the governments in Calgary and in Edmonton," University of Calgary political science Prof. Lisa Young said, pointing to progressive city policies that irked the province.

"What was surprising was the willingness of the province to engage in a real sort of knock down, drag-out fight with the broader municipal sector," she added.

Among the trio of legislation angering stakeholders was Bill 18, which would require any federal funding to provincial entities to be vetted by the province; Bill 20, which changes civic election finance law, enhances the government's powers to remove councillors or overturn bylaws, limits vouching options for voters without ID and allows political party names on Edmonton and Calgary ballots; and Bill 21, which would allow the province to take command of a local emergency response without declaring a provincial emergency and enables the diversion of water during a drought.

The suite prompted Rural Municipalities of Alberta president Paul McLauchlin to call the government anti-democratic.

"Our provincial government seems intent on overreaching their powers while accusing the federal government of doing the same to them," he said in a statement on May 13. 

The outcry from municipal leaders nudged Municipal Affairs Minister Ric McIver to amend Bill 20. Instead of giving cabinet the power to dismiss a mayor or municipal councillor, the law will now allow cabinet to call for a local vote on retaining or turfing a local politician.

The amendments also added conditions on when cabinet can overturn a municipal bylaw, but those conditions include bylaws that are "contrary to the policy of the government."

Michael Solberg, a partner with New West Public Affairs who has worked on conservative campaigns, said the government likely put municipalities in their sights when it was clear large city councils weren't rowing in the same direction as the province.

"It obviously has created problems for this government as well — has knocked them a bit off message, and has created a problem with some target stakeholders," he said.

The Opposition NDP was also outraged by a UCP-dominated committee's selection of a former UCP nomination candidate and deputy minister as the province's new ethics commissioner.

Post-secondary institutions a surprise target

What caught Solberg and Young by surprise was the government's move to screen federal funding agreements to post-secondary institutions, which could include peer-reviewed research grants and language and cultural program funds.

Solberg said it's a "bit of a landmine" for the government to stand in the way of that funding. Some researchers have called it an attack on academic freedom.

Post-secondaries are now lobbying for research grants to be exempted from the law.

Health reform

Young thinks the health system reform will ultimately have the largest impact on Albertans' lives.

The new mental health and addiction service agency, Recovery Alberta, is slated to be created this summer, and the government has promised fall legislation to create new continuing and primary care organizations.

The slate of changes prompted the Opposition to create a tagline that the UCP is moving to control "everything, everywhere, all at once," borrowing the title of a 2023 Oscar-winning movie.

Opposition House leader Christina Gray said the government's approach smacks of entitlement.

"Whether that's sole-source contracting, appointing partisans into the independent office of the ethics commissioner, [or] ramming through legislation that they know Albertans across the province have huge questions and objections to," she said Wednesday.

In the legislature, each bill passes through three stages of debate. By late Tuesday night, the government used motions 13 times this sitting to limit a stage of debate to 60 minutes.

The Opposition said the time limits were gross misuses of legislative procedure. Government House leader Joseph Schow told reporters it was necessary, because the Opposition was being "obstructionist" and failing to suggest meaningful improvements to bills.

Professor warns of 'democratic backsliding'

Elizabeth Smythe, professor emerita of political science at Concordia University of Edmonton, said the government sped up a pattern of "democratic backsliding" this spring.

She said democratic backsliding is when governments take steps to concentrate power within the executive branch and erode the democratic powers of voters.

Leaders advancing democratic backsliding will claim governments must take back control of other institutions to fulfil the will of the public, she said. The effect in Alberta's case will be voters electing municipal leaders who can later be removed from office and whose decisions can be overturned.

"Citizens become demobilized," Smythe said. "They become apathetic and for good reason, because their voice is not going to be heard and they can't really directly hold those municipal leaders accountable."

End of an era

Wednesday also marked what is most likely Rachel Notley's last day sitting as Opposition and NDP leader after nearly a decade at that party's helm.

A leadership race is underway to replace Notley, with about 85,000 party members eligible to vote by June 22.

Young says although some of the Opposition's energy was diverted to that competition, it likely would have been more distracting, had Notley not stepped aside voluntarily.

In the legislature, Premier Danielle Smith and several MLAs gave tributes to Notley, who gave an address punctuated by jabs at the government and accolades for her colleagues and staff.

"I'm reminded that this work, with all its warts and cantankerous exchanges, all the hazards of social media and the unending hours outside of this building, is an immense honour," Notley said. "A lot of people like to shake their fists at clouds. Very few of us get to do it professionally."

The session sat a total of 160 hours over 40 days. The fall session is expected to start Oct. 28.