Rookie MLAs headed back to school for four-day crash course in… everything

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This article was published 12/10/2023 (737 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

A boot camp for beginners gets under way next week when “New MLA School” is in session.

Before the legislative session begins in the coming weeks, a four-day comprehensive training program for 26 new members of the Manitoba Legislative Assembly by a dozen branches of the legislative assembly will scratch the surface of what they need to know and where to find it.

“It’s this very fast orientation and then we start the immersive experience of being an MLA,” recalls Lisa Naylor, who was a student in the 2019 crash course after being elected in Wolseley for the New Democrats.

“We’re trying to introduce them to the kind of information they need to know, emphasizing all along the way that, ‘The people you’re going to meet will be available to you on an ongoing basis the whole time you’re an MLA,’” a spokesperson for the clerk of the assembly said.

“We learned a lot about the budget for constituency offices,” said Naylor, who was re-elected on Oct. 3. “That was a big focus of the training — learning how that works, and some of the surprises a lot of folks running for election haven’t really thought about,” she said Thursday.

“No one tells you, ‘By the way, one of the first things you have to do is secure a building and negotiate a commercial lease and hire a staff,” said the former Winnipeg School Division trustee and Women’s Health Clinic counsellor. “Depending on where you’re coming from or your background, those might be experiences that are completely unfamiliar.”

In addition to details of what happens in a sitting of the 57-member legislature — the structure of the day, how question period works, respectful workplace policies and payroll issues — a panel of past MLAs will talk about lessons they learned, Naylor said.

She recalled one panelist saying their constituency office was far away from available meeting rooms at the legislature, so they made sure the space they leased had a big boardroom with capacity to host meetings.

“It’s those little details that you can’t possibly know until you’ve been in the role and understand what you might need,” she said.

For first-time Progressive Conservative MLA-elect Kathleen Cook, the job is new, but the surroundings and some faces are familiar. In 2005-06 the University of Winnipeg political science grad was a legislative assembly intern with the Tory caucus at the same time that Mark Rosner, premier-designate Wab Kinew’s chief of staff, interned for the NDP.

“We’ve both turned that into a meaningful career,” said Cook, who went on to become the regional director for the Canadian Federation of Independent Business and has worked for the PCs on and off over the years.

Now, as an MLA, she said she still has much to learn and is looking forward to it.

“I think that constituency piece is probably the most important for me right now,” said Cook, who will represent the Roblin constituency in west Winnipeg. “I’m taking over for an MLA who was there for 25 years.”

Longtime PC incumbent and house Speaker Myrna Driedger retired this year, choosing not to seek re-election.

“I want to make my own mark in the constituency and I’m looking forward to that,” said Cook. “Setting up a new office and hiring new staff — all of that’s going to be really important to make sure that I’m present and accessible for my constituents,” she said Thursday.

“The ins and outs of the legislative process is going to be really interesting, I think, for some of my colleagues,” said Cook, who is one of 10 new PC MLAs. “There’s a huge crop of rookies this year and they come from varied backgrounds. Some of us have a little more knowledge than others.”

Fort Richmond MLA-elect Jennifer Chen — one of 16 rookie New Democrats — hopes her time as a Winnipeg School Division trustee comes in handy for her new role in provincial politics.

“That experience will help me to do the constituency work and bring people’s voices to the table,” she said. The new member said she’s scouting south Pembina Highway for a constituency office “so people can easily find me.”

She’s also keen for New MLA School to begin.

“I’m excited to be with all the MLAs to learn, so we can start to work,” said Chen, who was at the legislature Thursday with her five-year-old daughter Sophia, who just started kindergarten.

“We have a number of MLAs elected who have young kids,” noted Chen, who also has a seven-year-old son. The Chinese-Canadian said it’s important for constituents — and the next generation of MLAs — to see themselves in their elected representatives.

“It reflects diversity and the population we represent.”

carol.sanders@freepress.mb.ca