CALGARY—Rachel Notley isn’t ruling out more combative tactics from her NDP Opposition in the Alberta legislature as the first United Conservative-led budget looms in the fall.

The first session of the legislature since the UCP’s election victory has been contentious, with the NDP Opposition bringing in some of its campaign themes to take aim at the new government. That included publicly nicknaming Bill 8, which brought in Education Act changes, “Bill H8,” and mounting two filibusters — one of which was the longest in Alberta legislative history, at nearly 40 hours.

“It will very much depend on what (the government) does,” Notley said about what lies ahead for the Opposition approach in an interview with Star Calgary earlier this month.

She sees what the NDP has done so far as successful, even if the 63-seat majority government has been able to push its agenda through anyway.

“When they complain that we’re debating things for hours and questioning them aggressively, they say, ‘Well, you just lost the election. You should have humility.’ We will say, ‘We were just selected to be the official Opposition. We will do our job.’”

The United Conservatives took a majority government away from NDP hands in April’s provincial election, and the move to official Opposition left the NDP with 24 seats — just a few more than the Wildrose Party had when it formed the Opposition after the 2012 vote. But several of the NDP MLAs are coming straight from government minister positions — and in Notley’s case, she was in the premier’s seat just a few months ago — something Alberta hasn’t seen in recent memory.

Read more:

What the gay-straight alliance debate means for Alberta going forward

Filibuster over Alberta minimum wage changes nears 24-hour mark

Combative Alberta legislature session ends after 40-hour debate on gay-straight alliances

The way the Opposition has taken on its new role, in some cases, has meant legislature all-nighters. With Bill 8, the filibuster led to the Alberta legislature’s longest-ever sitting as the NDP prolonged debate over protections for gay-straight alliances at schools.

The Opposition also filibustered Bill 2, which included labour changes, such as cutting the minimum wage for workers younger than 18 to $13 per hour. That led to a debate that lasted 24 hours.

The bills both deal with issues that are closely aligned with the NDP’s left-leaning base, and were also consistent talking points for the party during the 2019 election campaign.

The UCP passed 13 bills during its first session in power, starting with the move to repeal Alberta’s carbon tax.

Notley said her party didn’t “belabour” debate on getting rid of the carbon tax, since that was front and centre in the UCP campaign and something voters clearly said yes to. But the Opposition leader sees other issues, like school GSA rules, differently.

“We think that it is important to dig in really hard and make sure folks know what’s going on and fight as hard as we can on it,” she said. “Now, we weren’t able to stop them. But we think, hopefully, we’ve been able to raise the profile of the issue.”

October will kick off the fall session, including the first provincial budget under UCP leadership. And with the “Blue Ribbon Panel” on government spending due to report back in August, Notley says she’ll be watching that for a preview of what might be coming as the government moves to balance the budget by 2023.

Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading...

Premier Jason Kenney has maintained that a different approach to managing Alberta’s spending will lead to a balanced budget without “deep cuts” to front-line services. But digging into the province’s finances in the wake of a polarized election could lead to another highly charged session in the legislature.

“We have a very strong understanding of how government works,” Notley said. “So we know we can push harder on certain things.”

Read more about: