Alberta Legislature session's close ends rough ride for Tories

Premier Jim Prentice and his Progressive Conservative Party have been left a bit battered and bruised after the Alberta Legislature's month-long session adjourned Wednesday night.

The session, the first with Prentice in the premier’s seat, opened Nov. 17 and has been dominated with debate on gay-straight alliances and concerns over the plummeting price of oil.

A strong start

The Tories had the upper hand coming into the sitting, having swept four provincial by-elections in October that pushed the opposition back on their heels and saw cabinet ministers Stephen Mandel and Gordon Dirks handily win seats.

The party was at its height in late November when two Wildrose MLAs, including the opposition’s former seniors’ critic Kerry Towle, crossed the floor to the PCs.

But just days later, Prentice made a political misstep on gay-straight alliances.

Liberal MLA Laurie Blakeman introduced a private members bill that would make the student clubs mandatory for any school where students wanted on.

Bill 10 and GSAs

Prentice quashed Blakeman’s bill with his own Bill 10, which proved immediately controversial.

The government’s bill would have forced students to appeal to the courts if their local school board didn’t allow GSAs, angering many in caucus.

“They actually brought in a bill that would have legalized discrimination in our school systems," NDP Leader Rachel Notley said. "That they even proposed such a thing doesn’t make me very optimistic about the future of our province’s ability to be inclusive.”

A hastily-passed amendment that allowed students to go to the education minister instead did little to calm opponents. Prentice later dropped the bill.

“Bill 10 has added to, rather than resolved these divisions, and I accept personal responsibility for that as the premier," Prentice said Dec. 4.

With Bill 10 pulled back, and Blakeman’s bill quashed, the question of gay-straight alliances remains unresolved in the province. Blakeman said it's an issue that needs to be addressed.

“If I was him, I wouldn't go into an election leaving that one hanging out there,” she said.

“It's not going to help him. So, I hope we see some kind of resolution because that's certainly what the public are asking for and I just haven't seen this kind of engagement across Alberta.”

Low-down on low oil prices

Prentice also has to deal with the hit that provincial coffer are taking from the low price of oil.

During the fiscal update in November, the finance minister said the province was basing the rest of its books for the year on oil going for $75 a barrel. However, since then, the price has been plummeting — $70, $65 and finally dipping under $60 a barrel by Thursday afternoon. That could mean a shortfall of billions of dollars.

For a province so reliant on its resource wealth, Prentice said that the price drop would have serious “consequences.” He said the province would have to do more to control spending, but didn’t give specifics as to what measures would be taken, leaving the NDP's Notley questioning how public services will be protected in a time when government revenues are plummeting. 

"But we didn't have a conversation about that — just a lot of vague generalities — and if I hear the word ‘prudence’ one more time I think I may lose it because it's a lovely word but it doesn't mean anything," she said. 

With the province expected to see 840,000 new residents over the next decade, provincial unions say that public services are already stretched thin, and can’t survive any further cuts.

The province needs a “course correction” when it comes to the budget, according to Wildrose.

“With the price of oil at around $60 per barrel, Mr. Prentice's first budget will be a challenge. This is not business as usual and this PC government can no longer pin its hopes on a return to $100 oil,” Wildrose Leader Danielle Smith wrote in a release.

On top of that, she said the province also needs to find a way to deal with overcrowded hospitals, substandard senior care and delayed school projects.

Both the Wildrose and the Tories say Alberta’s budget woes are more than just a short-term problem. 

With the legislative session closing with the talk of a spring election among the parties, it is sure to be one of the dominant issues as Alberta heads into the new year.