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VICTORIA — The B.C. New Democrats have lost an embarrassing legal round in the fight with their Alberta counterparts over petroleum and pipelines.

B.C. filed a constitutional challenge to an Alberta law allowing that province to restrict fuel supplies to this province in retaliation for opposition to twinning the Trans Mountain pipeline.

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But the challenge was tossed out in a Calgary courtroom because the legislation, though passed by the Alberta legislature, had never been proclaimed into force by their provincial cabinet.

“I am of the view that a claim seeking a declaration as to the constitutionality of an act that has not yet been proclaimed is premature,” wrote Justice R. J. Hall in a decision released Friday. “The claim of the Attorney-General of B.C. is premature, because the act is not in force in Alberta. The statement of claim is hereby struck.”

His five-page written judgment cited ample precedents for the courts not involving themselves in hypotheticals, like ruling on the constitutionality of legislation not in force.