MLA's are headed back to the capital today as the third session of the Legislature opens this afternoon with the Speech from the Throne.
 
Lacombe-Ponoka Wildrose MLA Ron Orr is expecting a significant focus in one main area “the rumour has it that we may be addressing labour issues in this particular session which would involve some of the outstanding contracts for public service employees, that will probably come up. And just labour regulations are probably going to be up for some review”.

Alberta's NDP government says they'll be focusing on creating jobs and helping families with their household budgets.
 
Orr says according to the most recent update from Stats Canada, nearly 98,000 Albertans are receiving Employment Insurance support, the most ever recorded.
 
And he points to Premier Notley's promise in the 2016 budget to create 100,000 private sector jobs over 3 years, but since that budget was introduced, Orr says Alberta has lost over 45,000 full time jobs.

1st order of business though according to Orr is the provincial budget “we’re very interested moving forward to see the estimates that will be put forth by the government. We are concerned of course with the economic viability of our province and the importance of getting our deficit spending under control. So that’s probably going to be the first really big focus for us, it takes a couple of weeks of full time attention dealing with estimates”.

Orr says ideas like cutting taxes, reducing red tape, and making responsible reductions in government spending are needed to spur growth in the economy and support families.
 
Government House leader Brian Mason says with an economic recovery expected in the second half of the year his government will act quickly to introduce a flagship bill as soon as the throne speech is read this afternoon.
 
President of the Treasury Board and Minister of Finance Joe Ceci will table Budget 2017 on March 16th.