Rallies held to protest Alberta’s controversial Bill 6

About 1,000 people gathered on the steps of the Alberta Legislature on Monday to protest the controversial Bill 6. Other rallies are scheduled for Red Deer on Tuesday and Medicine Hat and Calgary later this week.

Farm families gathered across Alberta on Tuesday to protest the implementation of Bill 6 and after days of demonstrations the NDP government has announced it will amend the legislation.

On Monday, more than 1,000 people were on the steps of the legislature to protest the bill. There were also gatherings in Nanton, Welling, and near Fort Macleod.

Many opponents to the bill agree with the financial protection offered for workers injured or killed on the job, but their main concern is that it doesn’t allow for neighbours, friends, or family members to help out without making them employees.

The government has denied that that is the intent behind the bill, but has not said there would be different rules for commercial and family farms.

Protesters feel the bill lacks detail and they’re suspicious because there wasn’t much consultation offered either.

“When the government says ‘we’ll get it right in the regulations’, that’s like saying ‘trust me with this law and we’ll get it right later’ and I don’t have that kind of trust for an organization like the government that has so much control over my life. I think it’s the wrong way to go. Let’s get the bill right and then we’ll go to regulations,” says Shawna Dennis, who opposes Bill 6.

On Tuesday afternoon, the province said that the enhanced Safety for Farm and Ranch Workers Act was never intended to restrict family, friends and neighbours from helping out and announced that it would amend the bill to spell out exactly who would be affected by the legislation.

“We have listened to farmers and ranchers about the need for greater clarity. It has never been our government’s intention to interfere with what family members, friends and neighbours have always done on the family farm. That’s why we will amend Bill 6 to make clear what was our intention all along– that farm families would be exempt from those laws, which were designed to protect paid employees,” said Lori Sigurdson, Minister of Jobs, Skills, Training and Labou.

More rallies are planned for later this week in Medicine Hat and Calgary on Friday.

There have been town hall meetings on the Bill, with a meeting scheduled on Tuesday night in Red Deer, Okotoks on Wednesday, Lethbridge on Thursday, and Medicine Hat on Friday.

An online survey has also been launched on the new Bill, which can be accessed here.