Alberta MLAs spent more than five hours during the spring sitting arguing alleged breaches of legislative protocol — more time than a full sitting day — according to a Postmedia analysis of points of order raised in the legislature.
Members who believe the legislature’s standing orders have been infringed raise a point of order, prompting Speaker Ric McIver to hear arguments from both sides and then rule on the complaint.
McIver began the sitting in February by noting he had met with Speakers from other provinces, several of whom, he said, have “one, two, or three points of order in a whole six- or eight-week session. I say that in hopes that the honourable members here might use that as some inspiration.”
MLAs failed to live up to that standard, however, with 81 points of order called during the 38 sitting days between Feb. 24 and May 14.
“We have now come to the point of the day where we turn this around shamefully because we don’t have another accident-free day,” McIver said on May 11.
The assembly devoted five hours and three minutes to resolving those complaints throughout all days of the spring sitting, longer than the usual 4 1/2 hour sitting day.
Nearly half of those called, 39, were deemed not to be a point of order while 28 were upheld by McIver, prompting an apology and withdrawal from the offending member. A further 14 points of order were conceded to be violations and resulted in a voluntary apology and withdrawal. Almost all of the points of order were called during the 50-minute oral question period.
Just eight of the 38 sitting days had no points of order, with McIver noting each such occasion.
“Isn’t this a happy occasion? All witness: one day without accidents,” he said on March 30.
The most amount of time devoted to resolving points of order in a single day came on April 16 when the government announced it was again intending to redraw the electoral map. That day saw 17 adjudicated points of order that ate up 38 minutes of the assembly’s time, with McIver calling it “half an hour of my life I will never get back.”
Opposition New Democrat members were the subject of 31 points of order that were upheld or conceded, 16 of which were from Official Opposition Leader Naheed Nenshi, the most of any MLA.
Members of the governing United Conservative Party produced 11 upheld or conceded points of order with government house leader Joseph Schow leading the way with three.
The most common violations over the past months were for imputing motives (21) and for making allegations against another member (20), though the use of insulting (11) and unparliamentary (11) language were also relatively frequent.
