EDMONTON—Premier Jason Kenney’s United Conservative government had already been accused of tuning out debate over a controversial wage arbitration bill — then it brought out actual earplugs.

A marathon debate in the Alberta legislature went through the night Wednesday until Thursday morning, when the bill at the centre of it was finally passed — angering the Alberta Union of Provincial Employees (AUPE), which said it will begin legal action.

Bill 9 — the Public Sector Arbitration Deferral Act — once it goes through royal assent, will delay wage arbitration talks for public sector contracts until the fall.

All week, the Opposition NDP had been criticizing the government for limiting debate on the controversial bill, which unions across the province have been sounding the alarm on for what they say is an infringement on collective bargaining rights in the public sector.

The bill affects about 180,000 public sector workers, including nurses, social workers, hospital support staff, prison guards, conservation officers, toxicologists, restaurant inspectors, therapists and sheriffs.

But the government faced criticism Thursday for an incident where Kenney marched through the legislature Wednesday night handing out earplugs to United Conservative MLAs.

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At 11:27 p.m., NDP MLA David Eggen rose to speak on the bill and had some questions for the government MLAs in the house.

“I would beg an answer from the members opposite, although I can see that many of them are wearing bright pink earplugs that their premier is handing out to all of them right now,” he said.

While there were earplugs passed around, government house leader Jason Nixon called the theatrics “a light moment between our caucus.”

Nixon said none of them were wearing the earplugs while the actual debate was taking place, but the NDP refuted that.

The NDP says its MLAs were trying to amend or kill the bill and that the UCP forced closure on third reading of it. They characterized the move as the government trying to ram through the bill while the province was asleep.

In response to the passing of the bill, AUPE will begin a submission to file in court, president Guy Smith told Star Edmonton.

“Bill 9 denies workers their constitutional rights to free and open collective bargaining,” he said.

Smith also said it was “shocking” that the government would use earplugs during a debate on a bill that hits about 60,000 of his 95,000-member union.

“This was a harmless and lighthearted attempt to boost government caucus morale after being forced to listen to the NDP’s insults, lies and over-the-top rhetoric for hours on end,” Christine Myatt, press secretary to the premier, said in a statement Thursday morning.

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In a statement sent out by the NDP, Opposition house leader Deron Bilous said, “I have never seen such disrespect.”

“First, the UCP cut off debate of this terrible bad-faith bargaining bill and then they literally drown out what little debate we have left with earplugs.”

At about 6:45 a.m. on Thursday, Kenney rose to speak in the house and said that for about 18 hours, he’d “listened respectfully to all of the Opposition’s speeches.”

Kenney also said that he received advice from officials in the treasury board and finance department regarding the fiscal situation in the province and acted on that advice to introduce Bill 9.

“The advice we received was that we needed to, to use an idiomatic phrase, hit the pause button on this arbitration until we could come to the table with good faith,” Kenney said.

The premier said he was too busy “creating a new political party and running a very big-risk campaign” to know the current state around collective bargaining agreements until his government took office.

Finance Minister Travis Toews has called the NDP’s allegation that the bill could be wielded as a tool to cut public sector wages “absolutely false.”

“The intent of Bill 9 is really very clear. The intent is simply to delay arbitration for a few months so that we can, again, ensure that we’re taking a responsible tact forward,” he said.

The government’s argument that it needs to understand the fiscal situation of the province before doing wage arbitration “does not hold water at all” with Smith. The agreements were already in place after good faith bargaining previously, and binding arbitration was part of their contracts, he said.

“I haven’t seen this level of anger for years,” Smith said when asked if there would be labour action.

Arbitration was scheduled for this month and the legislation breaks binding arbitration, Smith said. Union workers who had agreed to wage freezes in the first years of their contracts have the right to a wage reopener in the third year.

“Our members are organizing legal information pickets in their communities, and I guess it’s just an indication of how far the government can use the power of the state to take away workers’ rights, and potentially take away rights later on,” Smith said.

Smith wouldn’t rule out labour action in the future when asked what would happen if arbitration didn’t take place in the fall.

“I think it’s going to build over time.”

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