CALGARY, Alberta, Jan 15 (Reuters) - Alberta’s new energy minister will not use legislation or regulation to control the pace of development in the Canadian province’s oil sands, his spokesman said on Friday.

Earlier, in a newspaper interview, Energy Minister Ron Liepert mused about moving away from a policy that encouraged all oil sands projects to move forward. He clarified those remarks at a swearing-in ceremony, spokesman Jerry Bellikka said.

“We want to make sure we’ve got our ducks in a row, we’ve got our planning done, we’ve got our infrastructure in place, our labor force is there and we’re actually ready next time,” Bellikka said.

“He made it very clear we’re not talking about any interventionist policies to physically try and slow down industry’s growth.” (Reporting by Jeffrey Jones; editing by Rob Wilson)