Danielle Smith willing to make changes to her signature Alberta sovereignty bill following criticism
Just days after introducing her first bill as Alberta’s premier, Danielle Smith says she is prepared to make changes after widespread criticism that the legislation grants unchecked power.
“It‘s surprising for something that was her signature policy that more care wasn’t put into drafting it,” said Duane Bratt, political scientist at Mount Royal University.
If passed into law, the Alberta Sovereignty within a United Canada Act would give Smith’s cabinet sweeping authority to decide what federal laws, programs and policies infringe on Alberta’s jurisdiction and order institutions in the province not to enforce them.
It would also let cabinet rewrite laws without legislature approval.
“That’s not the way things operate and that would be a huge erosion of democracy in this province, something that only occurs in exceptional, almost war-like situations,” Bratt said.
After days of rejecting criticisms like this, Smith now says she is open to making changes to clear up those concerns.
“If there’s some things that we need to change to be able to make it clear that the legislature has the ultimate authority, I’m prepared to do that, but the purpose of the bill is to make sure that Ottawa stays in its own lane, and that’s the reason we put it forward,” Smith said in an interview with CTV Power Play on Friday.
In a statement on Sunday, the premier’s office said Smith will speak to her caucus on Monday about potential amendments to ensure the bill clearly enables the legislative assembly to direct cabinet to take action to defend the interests of Albertans.
However, even with those amendments, Alberta’s NDP says it won’t support it.
“Regardless of the size or number of amendments that the government tries to bring in, this bill cannot fix the damage that’s been done to Alberta’s reputation. The only way to restore our reputation is to kill this bill,” Alberta NDP Economic Development Critic Deron Bilous said at a press conference on Sunday.
The premier’s office said it’s disappointed that the NDP has already voted against the bill before seeing it or proposing any amendments.
The bill is currently in its second reading. There will be more debate this week before third and final reading on this legislation.
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
'They needed people inside Air Canada:' Police announce arrests in Pearson gold heist
Police say one former and one current employee of Air Canada are among the nine suspects that are facing charges in connection with the gold heist at Pearson International Airport last year.
Why drivers in Eastern Canada could see big gas price spikes, and other Canadians won't
Drivers in Eastern Canada face a big increase in gas prices because of various factors, especially the higher cost of the summer blend, industry analysts say.
Customers disappointed after email listing $60K Tim Hortons prize sent in error
Several Tim Horton’s customers are feeling great disappointment after being told by the company that an email stating they won a boat worth nearly $60,000 was sent in error.
Toronto Raptors player Jontay Porter banned from NBA
Toronto Raptors player Jontay Porter has been handed a lifetime ban from The National Basketball Association (NBA) following an investigation which found he disclosed confidential information to sports bettors, the league says.
House admonishes ArriveCan contractor in rare parliamentary show of power
MPs enacted an extraordinary, rarely used parliamentary power on Wednesday, summonsing an ArriveCan contractor to appear before the House of Commons where he was admonished publicly and forced to provide answers to the questions MPs said he'd previously evaded.
Woman who pressured boyfriend to kill his ex in 2000s granted absences from prison
A woman who pressured her boyfriend into killing his teenage ex more than a decade ago will be allowed to leave prison for weeks at a time.
Trump lawyers say Stormy Daniels refused subpoena outside a Brooklyn bar, papers left 'at her feet'
Donald Trump's legal team says it tried serving Stormy Daniels a subpoena as she arrived for an event at a bar in Brooklyn last month, but the porn actor, who is expected to be a witness at the former president's criminal trial, refused to take it and walked away.
Attempt to have murder charge quashed against alleged serial killer dismissed by judge
A motion filed by the man accused of killing four Indigenous women in Winnipeg to have one of those murder charges quashed has been dismissed by the judge – weeks before the start of his trial.
Government proposes new policy for federally regulated employees to disconnect from work
In their 2024 budget, the federal government wants to amend the Canada Labour Code, so employers in federally regulated sectors will eliminate work-related communication with employees outside of scheduled hours. If implemented, this would affect roughly 500,000 employees across the country.