By Jack Farrell and Lisa Johnson The spring sitting of Alberta’s legislature began under the cloud of a health-care contract corruption scandal and ended with a firestorm of renewed separatist angst. The sitting, which wrapped late Wednesday, saw Premier Danielle Smith’s United Conservative government pass 19 pieces of legislation. Included were bills to lower the bar for citizen-initiated referendums to take place, force those suffering from addiction into treatment without consent and to set the stage for a provincial police force. Also passed was legislation to regulate online gambling, overhaul the provincial auto insurance scheme to something similar to a no-fault system, and strip municipal councils from having codes of conduct. Smith’s government also passed a budget that delivers a long-promised tax cut while forecasting a $5.2-billion deficit, which might…
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