Alberta’s United Conservative Party government has moved the province one step closer to a referendum on pulling out of the Canada Pension Plan, despite resistance from the NDP.
Alberta wrapped up the fall sitting of the legislature in the early hours of Dec. 6, after achieving third reading for Bill 2, the legislation that would make the referendum a reality. It passed with a 45 to 32 vote, and will become law once it receives Royal Assent.
Debate Time Restrictions
Premier Danielle Smith’s government nipped debate on Bill 2 in the bud earlier in the session in a bid to pass it before the end of the night, limiting the last two stages of debate to one hour.Government house leader Joseph Schow said the one-hour restrictions were imposed because the Opposition NDP had vowed on social media it would try to stall the bill for weeks with continuous speeches about it in the house.
“They have threatened on social media, they have threatened in a number of instances that they want to sit all the way until Christmas,” he said during the session. “We’re not going to allow it to happen. We will complete the people’s business.”
NDP house leader Christina Gray called the time restrictions “antidemocratic.”
“For many members, they’ve only had minutes to talk about this bill because of how quickly it’s gone through,” Ms. Gray said. “There is so much more to say, and I believe we deserve this opportunity.”
NDP Accusation
Ms. Gray accused Mr. Schow of threatening NDP MLA Rakhi Pancholi during the debate amid loud cross-aisle clamour.“The Government House Leader was overheard to say to me, speaking about the Member for Edmonton-Whitemud, control her and, quote: ‘deal with her, or I will deal with her’,” she said, adding that Ms. Pancholi viewed the comments as “a threat.”
“It has made her feel unsafe and threatened,“ Ms. Gray said. ”Her ability to perform work as an MLA is impeded by feeling threatened in this place.”
Ms. Gray asked Speaker Nathan Cooper to sanction Mr. Schow for the comment. Mr. Cooper said he would investigate the accusation and address it when the house resumes sitting in the new year.
Alberta Entitled to Half of CPP Assets
A report commissioned by the Alberta government and released in September said the province should receive more than half of the CPP assets if it opted to leave. The Lifeworks report calculated that would be $334 billion or 53 percent of the fund.Ms. Smith has told Albertans that the numbers would be available before a referendum vote.
Phase 1 Public Engagement Ends
The Alberta government said in a Dec. 8 press release that the first phase of public engagement on the proposed Alberta Pension Plan has wrapped up.Seventy-six thousand Albertans participated in five telephone town hall sessions, and 94,000 filled in an online survey, the government said.
“The first phase of the engagement is now complete, and the panel will now analyze what it has heard from Albertans so far,” the release said.
