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CALGARY — A lawyer for the British Columbia government has argued Alberta’s turn-off-the-taps law is a weapon that should be defused until a court decides whether it’s constitutional.

“There’s a loaded gun,” B.C senior counsel Gareth Morley told a Calgary courtroom Friday.

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“We need to make sure that it doesn’t accidentally go off.”

The legislation was passed — but never used — by Alberta’s former NDP government as a way to put pressure on B.C. to drop its fight against the Trans Mountain oil pipeline expansion to the West Coast. The law gives Alberta the power to crimp energy exports.

The new United Conservative government proclaimed it into force shortly after Premier Jason Kenney was sworn into office in April, but he has said it won’t be used unless B.C. throws up further roadblocks to the pipeline.

B.C. filed a statement of claim in Alberta Court of Queen’s Bench last month calling the law unconstitutional and has made a similar filing in Federal Court.