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The Alberta NDP caucus chairwoman wants a ruling from the ethics commissioner on whether Progressive Conservative interim leader Ric McIver should recuse himself from debate on power companies.

In a letter sent to the ethics commissioner Wednesday, NDP caucus chairwoman Heather Sweet wrote that McIver’s wife operates Brighter Futures Energy Inc., which appears to create a conflict of interest when debating electricity in the province.

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That’s been a hot topic in the legislature this fall, with the government moving Tuesday to cap electricity rates, announcing vast changes to the market on Wednesday and dealing with ongoing political fallout from a lawsuit against power companies over power purchase agreements.

McIver said that if he thought he was doing anything wrong, he wouldn’t have asked the question, but that he was leaving it up to the ethics commissioner to make a ruling. He said he would have more to say once a ruling was made.

McIver said the first time he spoke to the ethics commissioner about the issue was Wednesday morning, after the NDP news release was issued.

In an interview Wednesday, Sweet rejected the idea that the government was trying to stifle debate on the government’s electricity initiatives, saying it was about MLAs being “open and transparent.”