Well, it was nice while it lasted.
For a brief shining moment Wednesday afternoon, the squabbling armies of the United Conservatives and NDP laid down their arms in the legislature to debate a motion involving truck safety — specifically the training of commercial drivers.
The ceasefire came when Marie Renaud, the NDP MLA for St. Albert, introduced a motion urging the government to overturn a decision by Transportation Minister Ric McIver who is considering exempting thousands of inexperienced truck drivers and bus drivers from mandatory training.
Renaud’s motion needed the unanimous support of government MLAs to have a debate.
Considering how the UCP and NDP are at each other’s throats every minute in the assembly, unanimity seemed impossible.
But then, it happened.
The UCP members voted to allow debate on the NDP motion that was not only obliquely critical of the UCP government but paid homage to the “rigorous training and testing standards implemented by the previous government.” By “previous government,” read “NDP government.”
Having this motion to proceed was such a miracle it’s a wonder the water fountains in the Legislature hallways didn’t suddenly start spouting wine.
Why did the government allow this?
‘We can’t take any more chances’
The answer sat in the public galleries. Watching Renaud table her motion — and how the government responded — were families of four victims of the horrific 2018 Humboldt Broncos traffic accident where an inexperienced truck driver ran a stop sign and hit a passenger bus, killing 16 people and injuring 13 others, most of them junior hockey players.
These families worry about exemptions for about 6,800 commercial drivers who have fallen in the cracks between when new mandatory training rules were announced and when they took effect.
The families fear that gap will allow a dangerous cohort of undertrained drivers on the roads and could lead to another highway disaster.
“We can’t take any more chances with inexperienced and inadequately trained drivers of semi trucks,” said Shauna Nordstrom, the mother of Logan Hunter who was killed in the crash. “We are flipping the coin for safety. We ask the government to stop these exemptions.”
That’s why the government agreed to debate the motion. Not because of NDP eloquence or official Opposition pressure or because this was an actual miracle.
It was because the government melted under the gaze of four families dealing with incalculable grief.
The debate started — but civility quickly ended.
NDP MLA Rod Loyola questioned the government’s motive for the exemptions, suggesting it was bending to the will of a “special-interest group.”
McIver responded by saying the former NDP government introduced mandatory training for commercial drivers, not because the NDP was a leader in safety, but because the United States had introduced a program called Mandatory Entry Level Training (MELT) — and provinces such as Alberta were simply following suit.
“MELT was not invented by the NDP; it was invented in the United States of America and imposed upon us,” said McIver.
Downhill debate
Then the debate veered off course into a squabble over the history of driver training and testing in Alberta, with the NDP blaming former Conservative governments for running a system riddled with corruption and incompetence.
The UCP countered that while in government the NDP itself allowed exemptions for driver training.
After starting off on a high, the debate had begun rolling inexorably downhill.
“While the tragedy that was the Humboldt bus crash is a tragedy, it’s important to recognize what the official Opposition continues to do in this chamber, not just on this issue but on many issues” declared House Leader Jason Nixon. “It’s shocking.”
And just when the debate seemed to have hit rock bottom, the debaters broke out the shovels.
Nixon began refighting the last election. He pointed to the “track record” of the NDP and said “it’s why they’re the official Opposition. It’s why they were the only one-term government in the history of this province. It’s why they have been sent to that side of the house.”
As the families of the Humboldt victims watched, what had begun as a debate under a flag or truce had degenerated into a hair-pulling melee.
When the smoke cleared, nothing had changed. The government didn’t announce an about-face on the exemptions for new drivers.
McIver met with the families but did not provide any assurances that he’d change his mind.
“They are not happy about that — they made that very clear to me,” said McIver. “I am not sure what we are going to do. And I am not making a promise or an announcement right now, but I am telling the house what I told them: We are going to look at it.”
And that was it.
The debate lasted 90 minutes, the truce on eye gouging about 90 seconds.
But they were a nice 90 seconds while they lasted.
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