Mayor Geral Aalbers says he supports Jason Kenney’s constitutional challenge on Bill C-69. Kenney announced his challenge on the bill on September 10. The bill sets up a new authority to assess industrial projects for their effects on public health, environment and the economy.
Provincial Justice Minister Doug Schweitzer argued that the bill reached beyond the authority of the Canadian Parliament in his application to the Court of Appeals on Monday.
Aalbers says he’s in support of the premier’s initiative as he thinks the bill could negatively affect the funding for the new wastewater treatment plant.
“Bottom line is both of the bills (C-48 and C-69) impact our city, residents and industry that supports our community. So there’s a great deal of concern with Bill C-69 and there are also concerns from the municipal perspective. We are still in the process of building our wastewater treatment plant and if someone comes back and says you need to meet more regulations it’s just going to delay us and additional work will have to be done at an additional cost.”Â
The bill came into law on August 28 with the announcement of the challenge came the day before the writ was dropped for the 2019 federal election. Aalbers expects the federal election to cause an impact on the challenge.
“If the government of the day is re-elected the challenge will continue. If the government changes, they may withdraw it. It’s all subject to what happens on October 21.”
Aalbers is one of many other Northern Alberta mayors and reeves who met with the Senate committee to discuss the impact of Bill C-69 and C-48 on the communities.