Some time away from the legislature provided an opportunity for the local MLA to get a handle on what area residents are concerned about.
Lacombe-Ponoka Wildrose MLA Ron Orr was in Ponoka to meet with whoever wanted a listening ear of their provincial representative for a couple of hours at the Calnash Ag Event Centre on Thursday, Feb. 11.
Two issues Orr said are dominating discussions among residents are what the new budget - slated to be tabled in the legislature later this spring - will bring in terms of improving people’s lives during falling economic times along with the request from the education minister for school boards to present their policies on best practices for schools in regards to equality among students.
“There is a certain amount of anxiety and misunderstanding when it comes to this issue. There are concerns that the minister isn’t listening to trustees,” Orr said.
“On the budget, people want to see what is going to be done to turn the province around.”
As for how things have gone during the latest legislative session. Orr was quick to pounce on the bungling of the passing of Bill 6 - the farm safety legislation that garnered a huge protest movement against it.
“In some ways, the way the NDP government handled Bill 6 was a gift for us,” explained Orr.
“It gave us a chance to speak to our base who were not entirely opposed to the intent of the legislation, but didn’t like having it shoved down their throat. It certainly dialed up the attention on us and gave us the opportunity to speak and engage with our supporters.”
And while the interim supply budget introduced to get the government through to the next fiscal year budget was also important, it was the highly anticipated royalty review that was recently released which Orr believes could also have been handled much differently.
“It was the long awaited royalty review that wasn’t,” he stated.
“It was simply a minor tweak that took too long, drove out investment and lost Albertans jobs.”
However, he was also quick to credit Premier Rachel Notley for recognizing what was going to the best decision for Alberta.
“I must give her credit with respect to her election campaign NDP mantra that Albertans deserve their fair share of royalties,” said Orr.
“She listened to the review commission and said Albertans are getting their fair share. It’s that change of tone that was nice and we’d like to see more of, rather than burying things.”