Alberta legislature to resume sitting Wednesday under physical distancing rules

The Alberta legislature will resume sitting on Wednesday so the government can introduce a bill allowing people who lost their jobs due to COVID-19 to delay utility payments.

Bill 14 would put a promise made in March into legislation, allowing holders of residential, farm and small business accounts to defer electricity and natural gas payments until June 18.

"The time sensitivity to it is a reality," government House leader Jason Nixon said Tuesday. "This is something that has already been agreed to and we need to implement the legislation to accomplish what was committed to in March."

• Alberta MLAs bicker over legislature sittings during COVID-19 pandemic

In addition to Bill 14, MLAs will continue discussing three bills that are in the committee-of-the-whole stage of debate: Bill 3, the Mobile Home Sites Tenancies Amendment Act;Bill 8, the Protecting Survivors of Human Trafficking Act;and Bill 13, the Emergency Management Amendment Act.

The Opposition NDP plans to seekan emergency debate about the reopening of the Cargill meat-packing plant in High River. Nearly half the workforce has been infected by COVID-19 and a woman who worked at the plant for 24 years died from the disease. Two other Alberta meatpacking plants JBS in Brooks and Harmony Beef in Balzac have outbreaks.

The NDP wants the Cargill plant until closed until an investigator from outside the province can evaluate safety procedures. It is also calling for a public inquiry into the Cargill outbreak after the public emergency is over.

Although the odds the UCP majority in the legislature will consent to such a debate are slim, the NDP plans to try.

"If the UCP had any compassion, they will agree to debate this matter in the legislature tomorrow," said NDP House leader Heather Sweet.

When MLAs last sat on April 9, they were following physical distancing protocols. MLAs sat at least a chair apart from each other and both caucuses limited the number of MLAs inside the chamber at the same time.

Nixon saidthe legislature isn't ready to relax those measures but there could be talks on the issue in the next few weeks.He also suggested MLAs may find themselves under the legislature dome throughout the early part ofsummer.

"We will be taking the time to make sure that we pass all the legislation that we intended to pass this spring, that we don't plug up the legislature this fall," he said.