New Brunswick.

• Author: Davies, Shayne
• Position: Legislative Reports

The Second Session of the Fifty-fifth Legislative Assembly, which opened in December, 2004, continued sitting throughout the spring. For the first time, a legislative calendar was adopted by the House, setting out the sitting days for the remainder of the Session. As a result, following a brief sitting in December and January, the House resumed sitting on March 30, 2005, and followed a schedule of three weeks on and one week off. Given the necessity for all Members to be in their chairs due to the closeness of the House, the legislative calendar allowed Members to organize their schedules and plan constituency business for the weeks that the House was not sitting.

Pursuant to the calendar, the Assembly was scheduled to adjourn on June 10, 2005. However, given the heavy workload and the numerous Bills before the House, the Session carried on well past the scheduled end date and, after 57 sitting days, adjourning on June 30. The Legislature is scheduled to resume on December 6, 2005.

From April 29 to May 1, Speaker Bev Harrison presided over the Sixteenth Annual Student Legislative Seminar. Forty-nine students from around the province attended various workshops and lectures focusing on the judicial, executive and legislative branches of government. Guest speakers included Premier Bernard Lord (PC, Moncton East); Shawn Graham, Leader of the Official Opposition (Lib., Kent); Jody Carr (PC, Oromocto-Gagetown); and Kelly Lamrock (Lib., Fredericton-Fort Nashwaak). The weekend event culminated with the students participating in a model Parliament within the Legislative Assembly's historic Chamber.

The Standing Committee on Crown Corporations tabled its first report to the House on May 5. The report outlined the activities of the Committee during the First Session of the Fifty-fifth Legislature, including its review of the province's eight regional health authorities and numerous Crown corporations and agencies. The report also dealt with the March 2004 hearings which reviewed issues surrounding the New Brunswick Power Corporation agreement with Venezuela to secure a supply of orimulsion for the Coleson Cove Generating Station in Saint John. An Analyses of Orimulsion Hearing Transcripts was prepared by a consultant to the Committee and included in the Committee's report to the House. Of significant note, the Committee also agreed to include in its report a dissenting report prepared by the Office of the Official Opposition.

On May 13 the Legislature...