A new speaker, dozens of new MLAs and an as-yet-unannounced piece of legislation will all come forward this week when the Alberta legislature returns for a brief session.
The legislature convenes today with the election of a new speaker and then a throne speech on Thursday, but government house leader Dave Hancock told reporters Tuesday he expects the legislature would sit only until May 31 before rising for the summer.
Without the brief session, outgoing MLA Ken Kowalski would remain speaker until the house returned in the fall and the legislature's committees could not work on any issue over the summer.
One piece of legislation is expected to come forward, but Hancock declined to reveal what the mystery bill would do.
"Stay tuned, that is the premier's bill and it will deal with one of the election promises she made."
The education act, a comprehensive bill governing the province's primary and secondary schools, will not come back in this session. The bill has twice died on the order paper and is now on its third education minister.
With so many new MLAs, Hancock said he didn't think it was appropriate to bring in such complex legislation without giving them time to review it.
"People should take the time to look at it and have the opportunity to have that input," he said. "I think it is important for a new caucus to take control of the agenda."
The Wildrose have asked the government to consider changes to how the legislature operates, including more questions in question period and more time to debate bills and ideas from the opposition benches.
Part of their proposal includes taking away questions from government MLAs, as is common in many other legislatures, to give the opposition more time, but Hancock said all MLAs should be able to hold the government to account.
"I maintain that there is a significant role for private members in question period."
MLA pay
Also up for debate will be the MLA pay review that retired Supreme Court Justice John Major delivered last month.
The report recommends a flat base pay for MLAs, a return to pensions for MLAs and a large salary increase for the premier.
Premier Alison Redford has already turned down her raise, but Hancock said the rest of the report would now go to the legislature's member services committee for review.
He said while some of the issues, like an end to committee pay and flat salary, could be adopted right away, others, like the proposed pension plan, need further study.
"We will leave that to the member services committee to do more work and see how that could work."
