The NDP is claiming United Conservative House Leader Jason Nixon deliberately misled the legislature when he said no one used the earplugs distributed by Premier Jason Kenney during last week’s debate on a bill to delay wage talks for 180,000 public sector workers.
NDP House Leader Deron Bilous raised the issue to Speaker Nathan Cooper through a rarely-used point of privilege in the Alberta legislature on Monday.
“We’re calling on the Speaker to rule that the premier and the house leader must apologize and pledge to never lie in the house like this again,” Bilous told reporters at a news conference.
The NDP is taking issue with how Nixon characterized what happened after Kenney passed out earplugs to UCP MLAs around 11:25 Wednesday night, in the middle of a marathon session that ended at 7:00 the next morning after Bill 9 passed third and final reading.
Nixon told the house during last Thursday’s question period that “nobody from the government plugged their ears during debate.”
Bilous said that isn’t true.
“The government house leader is one of the people who put orange earplugs in his ears,” Bilous said.
Nixon argued to the Speaker that he did not mislead the house, He dismissed Bilous’s complaint as a frivolous issue unworthy of raising as a point of privilege.
“I think [Bilous has] achieved his strategic objective by abusing the ability of members to call a point of privilege so that he can re-debate an issue from last week, mainly, that the Official Opposition does not approve of Bill 9,” Nixon said.
The Speaker is reserving his decision until Tuesday afternoon.
Alberta Premier <a href=”https://twitter.com/jkenney?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw”>@jkenney</a> handed out earplugs to some members of his caucus during a legislative debate Wednesday, sparking outrage from opposition MLAs. At first, Kenney’s office called it a “light-hearted” morale-booster. Here’s how Kenney explained it today. <a href=”https://t.co/aAFlAAturV”>pic.twitter.com/aAFlAAturV</a>
—@PnPCBC
The NDP said the earplugs show the disrespect Kenney and the UCP have for both the legislature and people affected by the Bill 9.
“This is also an act of arrogance to levels I have never seen sitting in the house,” Bilous said.
Bill 9 delays public sector wage arbitration hearings until the end of October. The government said it wants to hear from a panel looking into Alberta’s finances before discussing compensation with 180,000 nurses, teachers and government workers.
Kenney’s office initially called the stunt a light-hearted moment, aimed at raising the spirits of UCP MLAs.
However, in an appearance on CBC’s Power and Politics Friday afternoon, Kenney said the earplugs were offered to a backbench UCP MLA with tinnitus (Lac Ste. Anne-Parkland MLA Shane Getson) so he could block out the volume of a nearby NDP member.
Kenney added that he has seen NDP MLAs wearing earbuds in the legislature “presumably listening to music.”
Some MLAs use earpieces to hear the debate. Edmonton-Glenora MLA Sarah Hoffman, the NDP education critic, said she had used a single earbud recently to listen to a Calgary Board of Education meeting. The other ear was on the debate in the legislature.