The Alberta Liberals have joined the growing crowd calling for a public hearing into Bill 50, the proposed $15 billion electricity transmission line upgrade between Calgary and Edmonton.
“We can not effectively stop a bill in legislature with nine members out of 70,” said Opposition leader David Swann. “All Albertans, businesses, organizations, municipalities are impacted by this … clearly there’s a lot of stakeholders in this Bill 50 debate, we need to hear from them,” he said.
Swann called the bill a “disruption of the democratic process” adding the Alberta Utilities Commission should have been involved.
He said the project would cost Albertans hundreds extra on their power bill a year.
“Albertans have a right and a responsibility to play some role in deciding to what extent we’re going to continue the old centralized power production,” Swann said.
Calgary city council also wants a public hearing. They unanimously passed a motion this week calling on the province to give the public a chance to speak.
“There are a lot of people at the community level and certainly citizens mainly who are very concerned about the long-term impact and consequences of Bill 50,” said Ald. Diane Colley-Urquhart, who called for and received city council’s support for a hearing at Monday’s meeting.
