Emergency debate given precedence in legislature

Bills take back seat to UCP’s request to discuss pipeline

EDMONTON Alberta’s College of Physicians and Surgeons will soon have more control over disciplining members accused of sexual misconduct thanks to an upcoming government bill.

It’s one of a dozen pieces of legislation the NDP government plans to bring forward during the Alberta legislature’s fall session, which kicked off Monday.

But the big debate Monday wasn’t about government bills, it was an emergency debate about the Trans Mountain Pipeline expansion.

The legislature debated the issue in the spring, but the Opposition insisted Monday MLAs needed to address it again following the summer federal court decision that scuttled the project’s approval and sent the Justin Trudeau government back to consult further with Indigenous communities along the route.

New Democrat house leader Brian Mason agreed, as did Speaker Robert Wanner.

“The need for a debate has taken on a renewed energy,” Wanner ruled, putting aside regular legislature business.

In a letter to Mason, UCP house leader Jason Nixon said his party specifically wanted to debate what measures must be taken to ensure the pipeline’s construction.

“The inability to build this pipeline expansion is hurting job-creating investment and contributing to an economically devastating differential in oil prices, one that even your government acknowledges as punishing to our economy,” Nixon wrote.

“We have always been clear that we are willing to work together in good faith to defend our province’s economic interests against efforts to obstruct the flow of our natural resources to tidewater.”

What followed was a debate in which the UCP accused the NDP of not doing enough to support the project and lambasting it for prematurely celebrating a win on the pipeline file, the NDP outlining what it has done and voicing frustration over delays and other parties doubling down on just how important the pipeline is to Alberta’s future.

This session will also see movement on the child intervention file with legislation to enact more recommendations of the all-party panel formed in the wake of the death of Serenity, a girl who was in government care.

Monday’s first bill focused on making post-secondary tuition more affordable for students. Finance Minister Joe Ceci also introduced a bill to modernize financial securities.