The Assessment Act has been deemed unconstitutional by Alberta’s highest court and Airdrie-Banff MP Blake Richards agrees with the decision.

Richards spoke with Discover Airdrie and explained what the Assessment Act (Bill C 69) is all about and if it is abolished, how it will help Alberta.

“This is what many people refer to as Bill C 69. Essentially what it was, is it was a change to the approvals processes for pipelines and other infrastructure projects, like pipelines to the point where no oil and gas company would even make an attempt to try to get through that process. It's essentially designed to shut down future pipelines.” 

The Alberta Government had taken this bill to court because they think it intrudes on provincial jurisdiction. According to Richards, the Alberta Court of Appeal felt there was a massive federal overreach and it trampled over not only the constitutional rights of Albertans but would do massive damage to investment and economy. 

Richards went on to talk about the Liberal party and their take on the oil and gas industry. 

“They're ideologically opposed to the idea of oil and gas and it's that simple. It just makes no sense that, in a world that's still going to need oil and gas for many years to come, that we wouldn't use Canadian products that are more environmentally friendly, and obviously good for our economy. They are just so blinded by their opposition to the very idea of oil and gas that they just can't see common sense or logic.” 

According to Richards, the Liberals have appealed the decision by Alberta’s highest court and are taking this to the Supreme Court. 

“What they should have done is looked at it went, yeah, maybe we got this one a little wrong and they should repeal this piece of legislation. But that's not what they've done, they've said that they are going to appeal this to the Supreme Court. That will unfortunately drag out this process and see the Supreme Court make a ruling on this.” 

If the bill is abolished, Richards says Alberta will see more pipelines being proposed and built within Alberta. 

“Bill C-69 is one of the absolute worst pieces of legislation they have passed and seeing it out of the way would definitely provide more opportunity for oil and gas to be taken to new markets.” 

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