EDMONTON—The shortened work week started with inescapable chatter about poppy pins and Don Cherry, but ended with a glut of prickly provincial news.

Government officials spent the week at the Rural Municiaplities of Alberta’s fall convention in Edmonton, but some came under fire from outside in an old-fashioned expense controversy. Meanwhile, debates swirled around funding cuts and a piece of legislation that could restrict abortion access.

Here’s what we learned.

On Tuesday, the Alberta Human Rights Commission’s Human Rights Education and Multiculturalism Fund announced the province had dissolved its $1 million annual grant that helped fund anti-racism and anti-discrimination programs in Alberta since 1988.

The next day, Premier Jason Kenney’s principal adviser, David Knight-Legg, was called out by the opposition NDP for spending more than $45,000 of taxpayer money on trips, including high-end hotels and meals on four separate visits to London, U.K. The United Conservative government defended Knight-Legg, saying he travelled to counter “defamation” against Alberta’s energy sector and meet with major banks, private equity funds and insurers. They wouldn’t say who he actually met with, though.

The questionable bucks didn’t stop there. The NDP asked Alberta’s ethics commissioner to review a $905,000 sole-source contract that the government’s public inquiry awarded to Dentons law firm, as reported by CBC, saying it was inappropriate that inquiry commissioner Steve Allan’s son was a partner in the firm.

In a move that cannabis giant Aurora called disappointing, Municipal Affairs Minister Kaycee Madu announced at the Rural Municipalities of Alberta convention Wednesday that municipalities will now be able to collect property taxes on cannabis production facilities like Aurora Sky — meaning major pot growers will soon start paying more tax.

While some griped about taxes, others were fretting about how to deal with cuts. On Thursday, the Calgary Board of Education discussed its plans to tackle an estimated $48-million funding shortfall stemming from provincial funding cuts. The board plans to hike transportation fees for families and cut overall funding to schools by 2.5 per cent, resulting in layoffs and likely in larger class sizes.

Finally, when Kenney was asked Friday about Bill 207 — a conscience rights bill introduced by backbencher MLA Dan Williams that could restrict access to abortion and medically assisted death — he told reporters he hadn’t even read the bill, despite it featuring prominently in news headlines for a week. Kenney was not present during the vote on the bill’s first reading, when about three-quarters of UCP MLAs voted in favour of it.

With files from Kieran Leavitt, Nadine Yousif and Andrew Jeffrey

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