The Alberta NDP government has served notice it is limiting debate on its contentious farm safety bill.
Government House Leader Brian Mason says his caucus will exercise its right to limit debate on each of the final three stages of discussion on Bill 6, the Enhanced Protection for Farm and Ranch Workers Act. Farmers have organized convoys and protest rallies since the bill was introduced three weeks ago, and have shown up by the hundreds at public consultation sessions to berate cabinet ministers.
The Wildrose Official Opposition is not pleased with the move.
“Farmers and ranchers had one very simple message for the government: consult us, and don’t force this law through. Instead, the NDP are ramming through this legislation without any real consultation,” Wildrose Shadow Democracy & Accountability Minister Jason Nixon said. “Premier Rachel Notley once decried these types of heavy-handed tactics to ram through bad legislation. Now she has become the symbol of what she once criticized.”
Nixon says pushing through the legislation is doing a disservice to the democratic process and to farmers in Alberta.
“Ramming through legislation, and shutting down opposition is everything the NDP once despised,” Nixon said. “This move to invoke closure will not help settle unrest among our agriculture community about a government that just won’t listen.”
The bill will bring workers’ compensation benefits and health and safety rules to paid workers on farms but farmers argue that it will bury their operations in red tape and damage the fabric of rural life.
The opposition Wildrose and Progressive Conservative parties have been stretching out debate in the house, talking long into the night. Wildrose Leader Brian Jean has admitted they have been trying to stall the bill to give farmers a chance to have their voices heard.
With files from Global News.
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