Wed, November 30, 2022
OTTAWA — Nothing is off the table when it comes to responding to newly proposed legislation that would give Alberta Premier Danielle Smith's government "exceptional powers," Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said Wednesday.
Trudeau stopped briefly on his way into a Liberal caucus meeting to address the long-awaited legislation Smith's government introduced Tuesday in the provincial legislature.
The bill, called the Alberta Sovereignty Within a United Canada Act, proposes to give Smith's cabinet the power to rewrite provincial laws without legislative debate.
Trudeau said his government will be watching closely what happens next.
"I'm not going to take anything off the table," he said.
"I'm also not looking for a fight," he added. "We want to continue to be there to deliver for Albertans."
Smith promised the legislation when she was a candidate in the United Conservative Party leadership race to replace former premier Jason Kenney. She characterized the bill as a way to push back against Ottawa and made it a major focus of her campaign.
Frustration with the federal government over equalization payments and resource development has been a long-standing issue in Alberta. That anger is part of what Smith is hoping to tap into with the new bill.
But critics say what it really proposes is to consolidate power around Smith's cabinet.
Kenney, who waded into the leadership race for his replacement to call the sovereignty proposal "catastrophically stupid," resigned after she tabled her plan Tuesday.
"We know that the exceptional powers that the premier is choosing to give the Alberta government in bypassing the Alberta legislature is causing a lot of eyebrows to raise in Alberta," Trudeau said Wednesday. "We're going to see how this plays out."
Under Smith's bill, her cabinet would have the power to direct "provincial entities," from municipalities to regional health authorities, to defy federal rules it deems would hurt Alberta's interests.
Liberal MP Anthony Housefather, who represents a Montreal riding, says Smith's proposal goes too far.
"I don't think that this is appropriate for a province to determine whether or not a federal law exceeds its constitutionality. That is for a court," he told reporters.
"If Alberta eventually adopts this bill, we'll have to see how they use it," he said.
Smith's vision for Alberta has drawn comparisons to Quebec, which administers its own provincial pension plan and immigration programs and — in many Albertans' minds, at least — appears to garner more jurisdictional respect from Ottawa when it wants to go its own way.
Housefather said people should be "wary" to use that analogy.
He pointed out that many head offices and residents left Montreal for Toronto when true Quebec sovereignty, meaning the province's formal separation from Canada, was on the table.
"Businesses want stability, I think people want stability, and I don't think the sovereignty act, even if it's called 'the sovereignty act in a united Canada,' offers stability."
Housefather says the bigger question Smith's bill raises is about "how Canadians see their country." Do they see a role for a federal government beyond their province or territory?
"I feel very strongly that as a Canadian, everybody should play in their lane, and playing in their lane means that legislatures don't determine whether something is constitutional from a different level of government," he said.
While Smith has said she hopes the bill does not need to be used, briefing materials provided to reporters show her government is prepared to do so as early as next spring to deal with issues ranging from health care to property rights.
Conservatives in Ottawa were largely silent on the matter Wednesday, with two Alberta MPs saying they still needed to read the bill.
Garnett Genuis, another MP from the province, said the best way to allay Albertans' frustrations with Ottawa is to replace Trudeau.
Genuis had more to say about the proposal during the provincial leadership race, when he backed Travis Toews, who is now a member of Smith's cabinet.
In an opinion piece published in August, he called the prospective sovereignty act a "cheap trick" that violates the constitution and the rule of law.
"If asserting provincial authority were as easy as passing such a law, it would have been done already," Genuis wrote.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 30, 2022.
Stephanie Taylor and Mia Rabson, The Canadian Press
Politicians clash over whether sovereignty act would give province unchecked powers
Wed, November 30, 2022
Alberta Premier Danielle Smith says the sovereignty act wouldn't give Alberta's cabinet unchecked law-changing powers. A law professor says it's not that straightforward. (Jason Franson/The Canadian Press - image credit)
Premier Danielle Smith says the government's proposed sovereignty act would not give the provincial cabinet unchecked powers to rewrite laws, while critics say the premier's signature bill would do just that.
"It gives unprecedented ability to a brand new premier to overwhelm and sidestep the legislative assembly of this province and it is an attack on the democratic rights of Albertans, and through that, an attack on the stability of our economy," NDP Leader Rachel Notley said on her way into the legislative chamber Wednesday.
In question period and in scrums, members of the Smith government denied the Alberta Sovereignty Within a United Canada Act allows cabinet to change, add or suspend laws without the oversight of the legislature.
Smith said she looked forward to educating Notley, who is a lawyer, on the contents of the 12-page Bill 1.
"We know that Albertans want us to act on this," Smith said.
If passed, the bill would allow the legislature to pass a motion identifying an area where it believes the federal government has acted unconstitutionally or in a way that harms Alberta.
That motion would empower cabinet to amend laws or regulations to resist perceived federal incursions into provincial jurisdiction, and could require other provincially controlled public bodies to also disregard the offending federal law.
At a news conference Tuesday, Justice Minister Tyler Shandro acknowledged that once empowered by the act, cabinet's decision to change a law would not have to return to the legislature for a vote — the kind of power that is usually granted to governments temporarily during emergencies.
However, the province's justice ministry issued a clarification on Wednesday saying any proposed legal changes made by cabinet must first be included in a resolution approved by the legislature.
University of Alberta law Prof. Eric Adams said it's not that simple. The bill wanders into uncharted territory in Canadian law, and could be open to interpretation by courts, he said.
Legislatures don't usually make laws by passing a motion, he said. A motion comes with a lesser degree of public scrutiny and debate than introducing, debating and voting on legislation, he said.
"The idea that the democratic legitimacy of whatever the cabinet does can be traced back to and authorized by a simple vote on a motion is fundamentally flawed reasoning," Adams said in an interview.
Notley said it's clear the bill isn't ready, and the government should withdraw it before it causes economic damage. She says even talk of the legislation during the nearly-five month UCP leadership campaign spooked investors.
Cabinet ministers change their tunes
Also defending the act Wednesday were three cabinet ministers who panned the idea during this summer's United Conservative Party leadership race.
In September, leadership candidate Travis Toews called it a "false bill of goods." Brian Jean said Smith was "deceiving UCP members about reality" by making unachievable promises with the act. Rajan Sawhney called it a "Pandora's box" and urged Smith to call a general election before introducing the bill.
All three are now cabinet ministers in Smith's government. They said on Wednesday the premier listened to feedback from caucus and cabinet, and made changes to the proposed legislation that quelled their concerns.
Jean, now minister of jobs, economy and northern development, said it's "not the case at all" the act would give cabinet unchecked law-making power.
"It says specifically that we're going to have more democracy in this place than anywhere else in Canada, because nothing can happen without us voting on it first, which is unlike what's been happening in the past," Jean told reporters.
The bill has raised questions — even by the Alberta government — about whether Canada's governor general could use the power of disallowance to forbid a provincial law that could enable Alberta to ignore federal laws the province says are harmful or unconstitutional.
In Ottawa Wednesday, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said he wasn't ruling any options out, but wasn't looking for a fight.
"We know that the exceptional powers that the premier is choosing to give the Alberta government in bypassing the Alberta legislature is causing a lot of eyebrows to raise in Alberta, and we're going to see how this plays out," he said.
Wed, November 30, 2022
Alberta Premier Danielle Smith says the sovereignty act wouldn't give Alberta's cabinet unchecked law-changing powers. A law professor says it's not that straightforward. (Jason Franson/The Canadian Press - image credit)
Premier Danielle Smith says the government's proposed sovereignty act would not give the provincial cabinet unchecked powers to rewrite laws, while critics say the premier's signature bill would do just that.
"It gives unprecedented ability to a brand new premier to overwhelm and sidestep the legislative assembly of this province and it is an attack on the democratic rights of Albertans, and through that, an attack on the stability of our economy," NDP Leader Rachel Notley said on her way into the legislative chamber Wednesday.
In question period and in scrums, members of the Smith government denied the Alberta Sovereignty Within a United Canada Act allows cabinet to change, add or suspend laws without the oversight of the legislature.
Smith said she looked forward to educating Notley, who is a lawyer, on the contents of the 12-page Bill 1.
"We know that Albertans want us to act on this," Smith said.
If passed, the bill would allow the legislature to pass a motion identifying an area where it believes the federal government has acted unconstitutionally or in a way that harms Alberta.
That motion would empower cabinet to amend laws or regulations to resist perceived federal incursions into provincial jurisdiction, and could require other provincially controlled public bodies to also disregard the offending federal law.
At a news conference Tuesday, Justice Minister Tyler Shandro acknowledged that once empowered by the act, cabinet's decision to change a law would not have to return to the legislature for a vote — the kind of power that is usually granted to governments temporarily during emergencies.
However, the province's justice ministry issued a clarification on Wednesday saying any proposed legal changes made by cabinet must first be included in a resolution approved by the legislature.
University of Alberta law Prof. Eric Adams said it's not that simple. The bill wanders into uncharted territory in Canadian law, and could be open to interpretation by courts, he said.
Legislatures don't usually make laws by passing a motion, he said. A motion comes with a lesser degree of public scrutiny and debate than introducing, debating and voting on legislation, he said.
"The idea that the democratic legitimacy of whatever the cabinet does can be traced back to and authorized by a simple vote on a motion is fundamentally flawed reasoning," Adams said in an interview.
Notley said it's clear the bill isn't ready, and the government should withdraw it before it causes economic damage. She says even talk of the legislation during the nearly-five month UCP leadership campaign spooked investors.
Cabinet ministers change their tunes
Also defending the act Wednesday were three cabinet ministers who panned the idea during this summer's United Conservative Party leadership race.
In September, leadership candidate Travis Toews called it a "false bill of goods." Brian Jean said Smith was "deceiving UCP members about reality" by making unachievable promises with the act. Rajan Sawhney called it a "Pandora's box" and urged Smith to call a general election before introducing the bill.
All three are now cabinet ministers in Smith's government. They said on Wednesday the premier listened to feedback from caucus and cabinet, and made changes to the proposed legislation that quelled their concerns.
Jean, now minister of jobs, economy and northern development, said it's "not the case at all" the act would give cabinet unchecked law-making power.
"It says specifically that we're going to have more democracy in this place than anywhere else in Canada, because nothing can happen without us voting on it first, which is unlike what's been happening in the past," Jean told reporters.
The bill has raised questions — even by the Alberta government — about whether Canada's governor general could use the power of disallowance to forbid a provincial law that could enable Alberta to ignore federal laws the province says are harmful or unconstitutional.
In Ottawa Wednesday, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said he wasn't ruling any options out, but wasn't looking for a fight.
"We know that the exceptional powers that the premier is choosing to give the Alberta government in bypassing the Alberta legislature is causing a lot of eyebrows to raise in Alberta, and we're going to see how this plays out," he said.
No comments:
Post a Comment