Pallister bids farewell to departing MLAs, but no election call on last day of spring legislature sitting By: Larry Kusch and Jessica Botelho-Urbanski Posted: 7:00 PM CDT Monday, Jun. 3, 2019

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 02/06/2019 (1936 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

On the last scheduled spring sitting day of the Manitoba legislature, Premier Brian Pallister thanked several departing MLAs for their service but held his tongue on the timing of a rumoured summer election.

MLAs were expected to sit well into the evening Monday for passage and royal assent of a string of government bills, the approval of which is assured, according to the rules of the legislature.

Included are bills that would lower the provincial sales tax to seven per cent from eight per cent effective July 1, allow peace officers to suspend a driver’s licence on the spot based on a blood-alcohol reading, and create a pilot project to test a new dispute-resolution model that will allow families to sort out property, custody and child-support issues outside the courts.

Pallister has scheduled a press conference Tuesday morning to discuss the spring sitting. Presumably he’ll have more to say about the timing of the election. He has already hinted strongly that it will be held this year, rather than Oct. 6, 2020, the date set under the province’s fixed election law.

The premier refused to answer questions about the timing of the election as he strode from the chamber to his office, surrounded by reporters and photographers, following question period Monday.

In the legislature, he thanked several MLAs who have indicated they will not seek re-election for their service, including former interim NDP leader Flor Marcelino (Logan), NDP MLAs James Allum (Fort Garry-Riverview), Rob Altemeyer (Wolseley) and Andrew Swan (Minto) and independent MLA Cliff Graydon (Emerson).

Several of the departing MLAs gave farewell speeches in the legislature.

Barring an election, MLAs are scheduled to return to the legislature Oct. 2 and sit for 19 days, bringing the fourth session of the 41st Manitoba legislature to a close on Nov. 7. But it’s likely that Monday marked the final sitting day of the session.

NDP Leader Wab Kinew said he has heard from “numerous independent sources,” who he would not name, that Pallister has decreed that all government advertising will voluntarily cease on June 14. That would roughly conform to the 90-day blackout that exists under the province’s fixed election date legislation, pointing to an election date in mid-September.

In the legislature, Kinew speculated that the closure of the Concordia Hospital emergency room had been timed so that necessary advertising would be in place in advance of the government’s self-imposed blackout.

The fact the premier bid farewell to several MLAs Monday indicates that it was the final day of the session, Kinew said.

“It does tell me that starting tomorrow (Tuesday), we’re heading into campaign season,” he added.

Liberal Leader Dougald Lamont laughed when asked whether he thought a provincial election would happen before the legislature reconvenes.

“You know, frankly it’s just really frustrating because it’s a bunch of game-playing. And this isn’t poker,” Lamont said. “We have a fixed-date election law and we have it to avoid all this sort of nonsense so that we can actually get organized and have fair elections.”

Like Kinew, Lamont said the signs are pointing to a September election.

Independent MLA Steven Fletcher did not attend question period Monday. He has announced he will be the People’s Party of Canada’s candidate for Charleswood-St. James-Assiniboia in the Oct. 21 federal election. Fletcher has sat as an independent since June 2017, when he was kicked out of the Progressive Conservative caucus for taking public stances critical of the government.

Neither was embattled Kildonan PC MLA Nic Curry in the legislature. Curry has been a no-show since April 9, when the Free Press published a story, citing government and party sources, alleging the first-term MLA was embroiled in a controversy involving inappropriate behaviour with female staff.

About four weeks ago, Curry posted a message on his personal Facebook page saying he had informed the Speaker of the legislature that he was away on personal business and would return to the House on a “soon but unspecified date.”

larry.kusch@freepress.mb.ca

jessica.botelho@freepress.mb.ca

Larry Kusch
Legislature reporter

Larry Kusch didn’t know what he wanted to do with his life until he attended a high school newspaper editor’s workshop in Regina in the summer of 1969 and listened to a university student speak glowingly about the journalism program at Carleton University in Ottawa.

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