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VICTORIA — With all eyes on the Trans Mountain pipeline expansion, the B.C. NDP government has filed a second constitutional challenge against Alberta’s punitive turn-off-the-taps legislation.

The action was filed in Federal Court in Vancouver on Friday as a backup, should B.C.’s initial challenge be thrown out when it is heard in Alberta court later this month.

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B.C. filed the first action on May 1, the day after new Alberta Premier Jason Kenney brought into force a licensing law allowing him to cut off shipments of gasoline and other petroleum products to B.C.

Alberta fought back against the B.C. application, arguing that there was no basis for one province to seek to overturn another province’s legislation.

“It is unprecedented in over 150 years of Confederation for one province to apply to have another province’s statute declared unconstitutional, but that’s exactly what B.C. seeks to do here,” declared the Alberta government in a statement filed June 7 in that province’s superior court.