Government calling for 'decorum' in Alberta legislature

The government under new Premier Jim Prentice is calling for a “new level of decorum” in the Alberta legislature when the session resumes Monday, but one opposition house leader says his party doesn’t plan to stop holding the government to account.

Justice Minister Jonathan Denis, the new house leader for the governing Progressive Conservatives, said Prentice believes that partisanship in the legislature turns people off.

Denis has spoken to the house leaders from the New Democrat, Liberal and Wildrose parties and they all agree.

“All three of them really seemed to be on-point with this in that we’re doing the people’s business,” he said. “So let’s take the temperature down a little bit.”

NDP House Leader David Eggen seemed bemused by Denis’s suggestion that everyone was going to play nice.

“I’m certainly not elected as the MLA from Edmonton-Calder to not speak in a forthright and convincing way for the things that my constituents want and need,” he said.

“The government often tries to do this, to suggest that the opposition should back off. We work within the rules and traditions of the legislature and the parliaments in general and certainly they can expect us to be moving forward in the most vigorous manner.”

Denis said the government plans to introduce nine new pieces of legislation in the session that he says will last Dec. 18th. They include bills on property rights, government accountability and protections for condominium buyers and owners.

The government will outline more of its agenda in this afternoon’s speech from the throne, the first under Prentice's leadership.

Lieut-Gov. Donald Ethell is scheduled to start the speech at about 3 p.m. MT.