Alberta NDP leader wants Ottawa to drop 'just transition' bill

Alberta NDP leader Rachel Notley wants the federal government to drop the so-called "just transition" legislation it plans to introduce in the House of Commons this spring.

The legislation is expected to lay out Ottawa's plan to retrain workers to move into green or renewable energy jobs so they don't get left behind as the world moves away from oil and gas.

But Premier Danielle Smith has cited the plan as evidence Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is plotting to kill Alberta's oil and gas industry and eliminate tens of thousands of jobs.

At an unrelated news conferenceWednesday, Notleyrepeated comments first reported in a Calgary Herald column the previous day. She accusedSmith and her government of incompetence for not knowing more about what is contained within the bill.

Notley alsoblamed Ottawa for not consulting with Albertansand releasing the proposed legislation afew months before the provincial election.

"Just take it ... and basically get rid of it," Notleysaid.

Debate over the proposed bill escalated after talking points prepared for federal Natural Resources Minister Jonathan Wilkinson about moving to a low-carbon economy surfaced last week.

Smith is relying on one page of the 81-page document thatdiscusses the amount of training workers will need in certain sectors to move into green or renewable energy jobs. She and her cabinet ministers said the number of jobs cited on that page are how many that will be lost.

The federal government says theyare the number of jobs in each sector that could be affected by a transition to a low-carbon economy. Liberal cabinet minister and Edmonton Centre MP Randy Boissonnault said the just transition plan will create jobs not eliminate them.

Last week, Notley said the federal government needed to increase investment in energy projects that reduce emissions, such as carbon capture, utilization and storage and hydrogen technology, to move oil and gas workers into those jobs.

'We need to end it'

Notley's call for Ottawa to drop the bill completely is new.

When asked if she thought the move would alienate her base, who favours moving away from oil and gas production to stop climate change,the NDP leader said she wasn't certain.

"Maybe, maybe not," she replied. "Not sure. It's hard to say."

Now that Notley has publicly refuted the bill, Smith suggested in a video posted to social media on Wednesday that the NDP leader isn't going far enough.

"Rachel Notley made a comment that the prime minister and Jagmeet Singh should put the brakes on this issue," Smith said. "Well, that's clearly the wrong approach. We don't need to pause this. We need to end it.

"And as a member of the NDP party, she must demand that her NDP leader, Jagmeet Singh, end the Just Transition Plan for good."

The next provincial election is at the end of May and polls suggest the NDP is running neck and neck with the United Conservative Party.

The governing UCP is eager to discredit Notley by trying to connect her with Trudeau and Singh, who are unpopular in Alberta.