The old adage of if you don’t like the weather to wait five minutes could also be applied to politics this week; since our last edition, federal conservative leader Erin O’Toole has been ousted from his post by his CPC caucus and the UCP government is set to wind-down COVID-19 restrictions amid unrest on display in the form of convoys and within Premier Kenney’s caucus.

On February 3, 2022 the Premier of Alberta signalled that the Government of Alberta will start lifting Covid-19 health restrictions next week. The Priorities and Implementation Committee of Cabinet meets Monday to decide what restrictions get lifted and when. It’s a slam dunk that the Restriction Exemption Program will be lifted, almost immediately

Listen to New West’s executives discuss the outcome of the Conservative leadership and what this means for the future of the party.

Premier Jason Kenney is currently attending the National Governors Association annual meeting in Washington, D.C. While in D.C. the Premier has been kept busy responding to a cross-border supply chain issue taking place at the border crossing in Coutts, where a truck blockade has closed the border.

Alberta's Legislative Assembly will convene next month to begin the final full year of legislative sittings before next year's general election.

Manitoba Premier Heather Stefanson conducted her first cabinet shuffle since her leadership win on October 30. As expected, there was a large number of changes made to reflect the re-set on the PC government.

This week saw the return of students to in class learning while testing capacity for COVID-19 was greatly reduced.

While COVID-19 and rising cases continue to dominate the news and provincial politics in Alberta, we wanted to start off the year with a look ahead to some of the other key stories and themes you can expect in 2022.

The Omicron variant has once again pushed the COVID-19 pandemic to the forefront in our province, with the government adjusting plans and moving to expand booster dose access and distributing rapid tests to Albertans.

Over the past two weeks, the UCP government has made a series of major announcements related to investment in the province.