Last week's throne speech, hailing the opening of the new session in the Legislature, focused in on jobs and Alberta's economy.
The speech from the throne, which was delivered by Lt.-Gov. Lois Mitchell on behalf of Premier Jason Kenney, gave Albertans a sneak peak of the UCP’s priorities for the rest of the year.Morinville-St. Albert MLA Dale Nally said the throne speech is a reflection of the clear platform the party campaigned on.
“I think that (Alberta Premier Jason Kenney) reinforced those platform items in his throne speech. The first priority, according to the premier, is going to be a relentless focus on policies that are designed to create jobs, stimulate the economy and diversify the economy as well,” Nally said.
The UCP MLA said the government is going to show the world that Alberta is open for business.
The second priority from the throne speech, Nally noted, was that the government would fight for the province’s natural resources.
“That means getting them to market and getting fair value for those resources as well.”
Nally said the government is also focused on making life better for Albertans.
“We're going to do that by maintaining or increasing funding both (for) health care and education, because that's a priority for this government, and just as (it is) a priority for this government to support the most vulnerable in our society,” Nally said.
St. Albert NDP MLA Marie Renaud said everyday Albertans were left out of the throne speech. Renaud said there was no mention of women, which she said showed where the UCP's priorities were.
“Where are the priorities? We've made significant gains, addressing unemployment of women, we had women joining the world workforce and making more money,” Renaud said.
She noted there was nothing mentioned about childcare, persons with disabilities or combating growing classroom sizes.
“Nothing about people or regular Albertans and that’s who we represent, not big money, not lobbyists ... there was no talk about regular people.”
The speech mentioned upcoming tough decisions, which Nally said will be a sustained period of fiscal restraint that Albertans voted for.
“We made a commitment that we're going to balance the budget by the end of year four and that is going to mean that we're going to need to grow the economy, which is what we're going to focus on. It also is going to mean that we will be in a sustained period of fiscal restraint,” Nally said.
Renaud said the bottom line is the government blew a massive source of revenue by cutting the carbon tax, which will save Albertans $1.4 billion in taxes a year, and the St. Albert MLA said they will have to find the money elsewhere.
“They are already signalling it's going to hurt and we have to make tough financial decisions. I know that code. I have been there and heard it before,” Renaud said.
Along with an eye on the economy the throne speech mentioned some justice reform, including the Saving the Girl Next Door Act to combat human trafficking, and Clare’s Law to combat domestic violence legislation.
The UCP will release its first budget in the fall.
