26 November 2006

Half-time legislature

Newfoundland and Labrador's legislature sits about half the number of days it did in the early 1990s. The total number of hours has dropped but not quite as dramatically.

Between 1990 and 1993, the House sat a total of 274 days or a minimum of 822 hours. Each year the legislature sat at least 90 days, or a minimum of 270 hours. The figures available don't include night sittings.

By comparison, the House sat 45 days in 2005 (180 hours) and will sit around the same number of days in 2006. In 2004, the House sat for 59 days (236 hours); that's a total of 149 days (596 hours), averaging just under 50 days a year (196 hours).

The first year of the Williams administration is typical of the number of sitting days since 1996.

Other provincial and territorial legislatures have not shown such a consistent decline over the past decade.