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Wildrose MLAs look to hold PCs accountable as they start fall session

The fall sitting of the Alberta legislature kicked off Oct. 23 and West Central Alberta MLAs are ready to tackle representing their respective ridings.

The fall sitting of the Alberta legislature kicked off Oct. 23 and West Central Alberta MLAs are ready to tackle representing their respective ridings.Kerry Towle, MLA for the Innisfail-Sylvan Lake constituency, Bruce Rowe, MLA for the Olds-Didsbury-Three Hills riding, and Joe Anglin, the MLA for Rimbey-Rocky Mountain House-Sundre, all Wildrose MLAs, were elected in April.“We're looking forward to keeping this government accountable,” said Towle. “I'm excited to be here. I'm excited to work hard over this fall session.”Towle said transition allowances and RRSP contributions to MLAs' remuneration packages are on the Wildrose's radar.Transition allowances were scrapped earlier this year but are up for debate again after a vote in a member services committee Oct. 16 sought to reintroduce them.“We're absolutely opposed to them (the allowances),” she said.While Premier Alison Redford has come out against them, Towle said the issue won't be as easy to dispense with because of the vote at the committee level.“Albertans do not have an appetite for this pigs at the trough mentality,” she said.Another issue Towle highlighted is the reintroduction of the new Education Act, which was bitterly debated in the spring of 2012 before the election.“Probably the biggest one that's coming forward is the Education Act,” she said.The spring debate was largely over the Progressive Conservatives' attempt to insert a provision about all education materials honouring and respecting the Charter and the Alberta Human Rights Act.That raised concerns from separate schools and home-schooling parents concerned about taking away parental choice.Towle said the Wildrose position is that parental choice is paramount.Towle was speaking to the Mountain View Gazette on Oct. 22, before the revamped bill was introduced in the first sitting of the session. The reference to the Charter and Alberta Human Rights Act was dropped in the new version.Speaking to the Gazette Oct. 24, MLA Rowe noted the Wildrose had campaigned on the issue and now it's been eliminated.“It's exactly what the Wildrose proposed to do with it,” said Rowe. He said there are some other concerns with the bill that will be debated during third reading.This similarity to Wildrose platform points is something Rowe said he's seeing in other bills that are making their way through the legislative process.“It almost looks like the Wildrose wrote them,” he said.He said the Wildrose will keep fighting on issues important to landowners, such as Bill 50, the transmission line legislation, and Bill 36, the Alberta Land Stewardship Act that raised concerns about power over individuals' land.“We are holding their feet to the fire,” he said.MLA Anglin said he's the lead for Bill 50, which will be impacted by the newly introduced Bill 8.Bill 8 would see future transmission line proposals reviewed and approved by the Alberta Utilities Commission and not by the provincial cabinet.Anglin said approval power is something cabinet should have never had.He'll be keeping an eye on the details of Bill 2, which is designed to consolidate regulatory activities into one body instead of having both the Energy Resources Conservation Board and Alberta Environment and Sustainable Resource Development on the job.Streamlining the process is a good thing, he said, but the “devil's in the details.”“We're already finding some details we're not happy about,” said Anglin.One example he gave is giving the government the ability to file a copy of notice of an administrative penalty with the Court of Queen's Bench and have it enforced as a judgment.“There has to be due process of law,” he said.Each MLA has some key issues they'll be lobbying for on behalf of their constituencies as well.Anglin said he's put together what he considers to be a list of critical needs for his riding, including concerns about threats to the Red Deer River around Sundre, getting more doctors in Eckville, and moving on getting Rocky Mountain House a new hospital.He wants to see the government prioritize and then be transparent about the priorities list.“It's called transparency and accountability, something this government has preached but not practised,” he said.Rowe said there are a number of things he's after for Olds-Didsbury-Three Hills, one of which is an overpass for the Highway 27 exit off the QEII.“It's an accident waiting to happen,” he said.Towle highlighted getting Highway 781 reopened, an urgent care facility in Sylvan Lake, and a new seniors' care centre in Innisfail as some of her local concerns.

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