MLA Kelvin Goertzen expects more discussion in the Manitoba Legislature this week about when the spring session will end. The Opposition House leader brought forward a motion last week to extend the session until the end of the year to give proper time to discuss various bills and motions and it was approved.

"I asked leave of the House to allow us to sit in June, July, August, September, October, November and December and the House agreed. I don't know if the Government was caught off guard, or if they hadn't really thought about it, or what the end result was, because, later in the afternoon, they tried to change it and tried to bring forward a motion that would close the House down in only a few weeks. So I'm not really sure what the NDP is up to."

The Session was supposed to end June 11th. Goertzen says that's ridiculous because they are nowhere near getting through the work that's before them.

"No, in fact there's a lot of business in the Legislature left to go through, not just 30-some Bills, but there's all the estimates process where you go line-by-line through the budget which is, I know, a technical thing, but an important thing. We're not even halfway through that. And so it looks like there's going to be a long haul ahead yet in terms of where the Legislature is going to go and that's all because the NDP came back late because of their own family feud."

Goertzen expects the NDP will try again this week to cut the session short. Government House Leader Dave Chomiak says he doubts the Opposition is serious about sitting through the summer. He does say the Government is prepared to sit as long as it takes.

Goertzen says it's time for a better scheduling system for the Legislature.

"My concern has always been that I don't think the way the rules are in Manitoba, which allow the Government to sit a very short period of time, are appropriate. I have said for many years, and I've said it on the record and I've said it in the Legislature and I've said it in articles, that we need to have a system in Manitoba that has a set minimum number of days where the Legislature has to sit every year. We've seen different years where the Legislature sits for a month or a month-and-a-half and that's not a respectable way to deal with the government business. It's not a respectable way to deal with people who have issues that they want brought to the Legislature."