These bulletins summarize and explain the important and relevant details of potential and upcoming legislation in Alberta, including important and poignant points from the debates between elected Members of the Legislative Assembly as they create law.
New to this feature, RMA will be highlighting notable Orders in Council – the legal instruments used to formalize decisions made by members of the Executive Council (also known as Cabinet). These cover a wide range of topics, including municipal governance, appointments, and regulatory changes, but are often overlooked in favour of legislation despite carrying similar practical impacts.
After a two-month break, the Legislature is back for the first week of the Spring Session. The week wraps up with the release of Budget 2026; RMA has released a full analysis of Budget 2026 here.
Premier Smith also announced that there will be referendum in October on a set of measures aimed at restrictions on immigration and advancing legal changes that Cabinet argues would strengthen Alberta’s constitutional authority within Canada.
The ballot will include nine questions: five assessing public support for a policy direction that reduces immigration, restricts public benefits for nonpermanent residents, and expands provincial control over immigration and voter eligibility; and four assessing support for a coordinated effort among provinces to amend the Constitution in ways that increase provincial autonomy and reduce federal authority over courts, national programs, and areas of shared jurisdiction. These proposals follow an extensive provincial campaign inviting immigration to Alberta and come amid ongoing debate about Alberta’s place within Confederation.
The Legislature also saw significant debate given to the circumstances surrounding the death of Prashant Sreekumar, the 44-year-old father who passed awaiting treatment for chest pains in an Alberta hospital. The lack of an official inquiry into the circumstances was an especially sore spot, though the Government did promise to provide one shortly. The debate was tied to the larger debate over the provision of healthcare in Alberta, an area of considerable political debate.
Visitors to the Legislature included Zhao Liying, consul general of the People’s Republic of China in Calgary, Terry Parker, the executive director of Building Trade of Alberta, an organization that coordinates and promotes the interests of Alberta trade unions, and several junior and high school classes.
Members’ Issues and Related Bills or Activities
Bill 15 – Public Safety and Emergency Services Statutes Amendment Act, 2026
Honourable Mike Ellis, Minister of Public Safety and Emergency Services
Bill 15 is a significant piece of legislation in Alberta’s move to establish a provincial police force.
Bill 15 amends the Police Act to permit the Minister to transfer officers employed by Alberta to another employer. This legislation would grant authority to the Minster to transfer the approximately 600 Alberta Sheriffs currently performing police-like duties into the newly created and currently under-construction Alberta Sheriffs Police Services (ASPS). This includes unionized and non-unionized employees alike.
Government argues that the bill would allow the smooth transition between the closure of the Alberta Sherrif’s department and the establishment and operations of ASPS. The Minister maintains Bill 15 provides for the required training and qualification requirements for sheriffs to operate as police officers in Alberta; however, the legislation itself focuses primarily on transferring employees into comparable roles with similar expectations. This leaves open questions about how training will be funded and whether communities will face gaps in policing capacity during – and after – the transition period both at the Alberta Sherrif and ASPS levels.
Both parties acknowledged the significant challenges facing rural policing, including recruitment shortages, difficult to access areas, slower response times, and the growing financial burden on municipalities to sustain existing police units. Government MLAs argued that, once fully implemented, the ASPS would be better positioned than current RCMP detachments to address these pressures. Opposition MLAs countered that the creation of the ASPS is an unnecessary, costly, and time-consuming workaround when similar policing resources already exist within the RCMP, stating that these should be strengthened instead of replaced. Opposition MLAs also noted the potentially significant cost-discrepancy between training a smaller cohort of new ASPS recruits and investing resources into bolstering existing police services, raising concerns about whether the transition represents the most efficient use of public funds.
Bill 15 swiftly passed its second reading on February 25. The Bill now goes to the Committee of the Whole for evaluation and possible amendment.
Other Notable Legislative Action
Bill 16 – Traveller Protection and Destination Development Act, 2025
Honourable Andrew Boitchenko, Minister of Tourism and Sport
Bill 16 creates a new Act – the Traveller Protection and Destination Development Act – which aims bring a level of certainty to specific tourism fees and costs in Alberta’s tourism sector.
The Act does two things: (1) it allows the Minister to create zones within which a specified destination marketing fee may be levied by hotels onto customers, and (2) forces hotels operating within Alberta to disclose all fees and charges at the time of booking an accommodation or experience.
Destination marketing fees are charges collected by hotels and pooled into a fund used for promotion, marketing, and tourism development. The Act gives the Minister authority to set the fee amount in designated areas and adds new auditing requirements to ensure the fees are properly tracked.
The Act would require hotels to disclose all mandatory fees – including the destination marketing fee – and charges at the time of booking. The Act also requires hotels to disclose the purpose of each mandatory fee and charge before the transaction is completed. Including how the funds will be used.
While the regulation of this aspect of the tourism industry will likely add certainty to travellers, it also removes the ability for local groups that have entered a destination marketing fee sharing organization to control this aspect of resource pooling, potentially restricting the ability to use the collected funds efficiently and effectively.
Bill 16 passed its first reading on February 25.
Bill 204 – Public Interest Disclosure (Publicly Funded Health Entity Whistleblower Protection) Act, 2025
Honourable Heather Sweet, Member for Edmonton-Manning
Bill 204 seeks to provide protection to public healthcare employees who provide reliable information that implicates or insinuates wrongdoings on the part of members of the employer.
Bill 204 arrives within the context of the “Corrupt Care” scandal – allegations of corruption, political interference, and high-level coercion of former AHS officials in the procurement of health services that has implicated several current ministers. The allegations are currently subject to an RCMP investigation.
“Wrongdoings” under Bill 204 include general breaches of legal responsibility, but explicitly define actions that create a danger to health and safety of individuals, danger to the environment, gross mismanagement of public funds, or failure to perform specified duties in relation to the provision of public health services.
Bill 204 passed its first reading on November 26. As with most things related to Alberta’s health services, there has been extensive debate on this matter. As of February 27, a vote after the second reading continues to be delayed.
Orders in Council
Order in Council 053/2026
Honourable Nate Horner, President of Treasury Board and Finance
OIC 053/2026 authorizes the Finance Minister to raise an aggregate principal amount of $40 billion. This permits the Finance Minster to incur debt up to $40 billion. This Order was affirmed before Budget 2026 was announced.
Order in Council 053/2026
Honourable Brian Jean, Minister of Energy and Minerals
OIC 055/2026 authorizes the Alberta Petroleum Marketing Commission (APMC) to borrow $250,000 for the purpose of funding procurement expenses. Created in 1974 under the Petroleum Marketing Act, the APMC is a public agency that manages the marketing of the Crown’s and lessees’ royalty share of petroleum in the province.
Order in Council 068/2026
Honourable Brian Jean, Minister of Energy and Minerals, and the Honourable Nate Horner, President of Treasury Board and Finance
OIC 068/2026 expands applicable exemptions under the Funds and Agencies Exemption Regulation applicable to the APMC to any subsidiary corporation under the AMPC’s control – directly or indirectly.
This means that certain sections of the Financial Administration Act – the Act designed to ensure efficient and transparent financial operations of the GOA and its agencies – no longer apply to the AMPC and its subsidiaries. These include exemptions to requirements to employ accounting and expenditure officers, the requirement to make compromises to retain the greatest cost recovery possible on property and goods, and oversight by the Treasury Board on contractual obligations.
Order in Council 062/2026
Honourable Jason Nixon, Minister of Assisted Living and Social Services
OIC 062/2026 updates the language used in the Adult Guardianship and Trusteeship Regulation; however, the Order also weakens protections for potentially incapacitated individuals.
OIC 062 updates the language of the Regulation to adopt recent changes to overarching healthcare legislation, including the new names for colleges and other related organizations.
Concerningly, however, OIC 062 removes the rights of a potentially incapacitated individual – an individual that is required under law or under request of a loved one to go under a capacity screening – to an interpreter, choice of assessment time, and, in the instance of a requested assessment, the decision to undergo the assessment. The amendments also remove requirements on the assessor to fully inform the assessed of the potential consequences of the assessment. These include screenings for both the capacity to make personal health choices – such as preferred care, MAiD, and DNR orders – and personal financial decisions.
Standing and Select Special Committee Meetings
March 24:
Standing Committee on Public Accounts
March 31:
Standing Committee on Public Accounts
Ian Profiri
Policy & Research Analyst
825.319.2352
ian@RMAlberta.com
Wyatt Skovron
General Manager of Policy & Advocacy
780.955.4096
wyatt@RMAlberta.com