Alberta premier says changes coming to sovereignty bill

Alberta Premier Danielle Smith says her government is crafting changes to be debated next week to reverse the part of a bill that gives her cabinet unfettered power to rewrite laws behind closed doors without legislature approval.

The Alberta government is crafting changes to be debated next week to reverse the section of a bill that gives cabinet unfettered power to rewrite laws behind closed doors without legislature approval, the province's premier said Saturday.

Danielle Smith told her Corus radio talk show that her sovereignty bill was never supposed to give cabinet such sweeping authority, adding her government wants to make it clear in law that this is not the case.

“You never get things 100 per cent right all the time,” Smith told her radio listeners.

“I think there’s some confusion on that, so we’re working on some amendments to make it clear.”

The bill, introduced Tuesday by Smith as the signature legislation of her new administration, has faced widespread condemnation for granting her and her cabinet sweeping authority to redress any federal policy, law or program it deems harmful to Alberta.

Critics say such power exercised in secret without legislature oversight is a threat to the checks and balances that underpin a healthy democracy.

For days after Smith introduced the bill, she and her cabinet members rejected accusations, including from legal and constitutional scholars, that the bill granted unchecked power.