Alberta’s governing United Conservative caucus says it wants changes to fix a bill that grants sweeping, unchecked powers to Premier Danielle Smith and her cabinet to pass laws behind closed doors without the scrutiny and approval of the legislature.
Smith, meanwhile, is facing Opposition demands to explain to Albertans whether she is authoritarian or incompetent, given the way her signature sovereignty bill has rolled out.
“She either got caught in her attempt to seize power and is now desperately scrambling to cover that up, or she literally didn’t know what was in her bill and very possibly still doesn’t,” Opposition NDP Leader Rachel Notley said during question period Monday.
“She’s lost people’s trust with this bumbling and stumbling.
“Her bill is beyond saving. Why won’t she just withdraw it?”
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Smith responded that she welcomes the changes.
“I want to make sure that we get this bill right and I’m grateful that my caucus is going to propose amendments to do that.”
Smith said over the weekend that amendments were in the works to reverse provisions of the sovereignty bill that grant her cabinet the unfettered powers.
Smith told her Saturday morning radio talk show that the unchecked powers were never supposed to be in the bill, but she didn’t explain how they got there.
“You never get things right 100 per cent right all the time,” she said on the show.
Smith’s United Conservative caucus said in a news release Monday that it voted to propose an amendment to clarify that any changes cabinet makes to laws under the act can’t be done in secret, but must instead come back to the house for the normal process of debate and approval.
The caucus also voted to change the act to more narrowly spell out when cabinet can take action.
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