Pipelines dominated spring legislative session
There is a single word that sums up the Alberta legislature spring session: Pipelines.
The issue loomed large over the legislature building well before politicians headed back into session March 8, thanks to an escalating scrap between Alberta and British Columbia over the Trans Mountain pipeline expansion.
If it wasn’t already crystal clear the session would be dominated by pipelines, the throne speech included a promise by Premier Rachel Notley — she would turn off the taps to B.C. if it continued to harass the Kinder Morgan project.
The result was Bill 12, Preserving Canada’s Economic Prosperity Act, which gives the energy minister ultimate authority over crude oil, natural gas or refined fuels being shipped out of the province.
At a session-end news conference Thursday afternoon, Notley said she believed her government had done a good job on pipelines, job creation and helping to build the economy.
OFFICIAL OPPOSITION AWOL
The Alberta, Liberal and New Democratic parties don’t always agree, but there was one issue on which they were all united Thursday — Bill 9, the so-called abortion bubble zone bill, which created protest-free buffers around Alberta abortion clinics.
The United Conservative Party caucus refused to debate or vote on Bill 9, offering a single statement via justice critic Angela Pitt and scampering from the assembly each time bells rang on division.
Alberta Party house leader Greg Clark called the UCP’s actions “shameful” while Liberal house leader David Swann labelled it “disturbing ” and “unacceptable.”
Clark’s message to the UCP? “Do your job.”
“If this is the approach they’re going to take, then I think Albertans — and women in particular — should be very concerned,” he said.
Notley called it “a cowardly version of standing up and voting against women.”
“What they did here was they ran away ... and it doesn’t speak well to the overall democratic process,” she said.
But UCP house leader Jason Nixon insisted during a Thursday news conference that the NDP played “political games” in an attempt to damage his caucus.
“Yes,” Nixon said, “we did our job” when caucus walked out of the vote.
“I believe the UCP opposition did an excellent job of holding the government to account this session. Including on Bill 9.” Other bills of note:
Bill 1: Energy Diversification Act. Despite being first up on the books, Bill 1 didn’t pass third reading until the final week of session. It allows the province to spend up to $1 billion over the next eight years in support of new partial upgrading facilities to help diversify the energy sector.
Bill 5: An Act to Strengthen Financial Security for Persons with Disabilities. The idea behind Bill 5 was to shore up financial support for folks with disabilities by protecting financial trusts.
Bill 7: Supporting Alberta’s Local Food Sector Act. The bill aims to grow the local food industry. It did a few things, including establishing a Local Food Week each August, a new local food council and provincial organic food standards.
Bill 16: Election Finances and Contributions Disclosure Statutes Amendment. A change to election finance rules to prevent parties from pooling funds to break the $2-million election spending limit.