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The NDP began a comprehensive review of the WCB 20 months ago, saying the study was needed because nothing had been done to update the board since 2001.

That’s true. It’s also true the NDP has been itching to get its hands on the WCB for years after accusing it of treating injured workers callously, rejecting claims unfairly, and bungling payments when claims were approved.

The WCB changes will be coupled with updates to the province’s occupational health and safety system.

The new law is expected to enshrine three “rights” for workers — the right to know about safety issues in the workplace, the right to have a say via mandatory employer/employee safety committees, and the right to refuse unsafe work.

Employees will probably like this, but employers might not be so keen.

We’ll have to wait to see details of the extensive new bill that promises to be large and heavy enough to use as a doorstop.

We’ll also have to wait to see if Notley’s ongoing “cross-country tour” to promote energy pipelines will help get a pipeline built, specifically the expansion of Kinder Morgan’s Trans Mountain project to the West Coast.

If nothing else, Notley’s speeches have prompted applause, both figurative and literal, from business leaders.

On Friday, members of Calgary’s Chamber of Commerce gave her a standing ovation after an address that sounded like something you’d hear from a Conservative premier of old.

“To the federal NDP I said, “You can’t write working people and their jobs out of climate action. You need to start writing them in. So please, smarten up,’ ” said Notley to an audience of nodding heads. “To the federal Liberals I said, and say again today, ‘You have got to step up. First the NEB’s (National Energy Board’s) decision to include downstream emissions in evaluating pipeline proposals, like Energy East, is a historic overreach, something no other industry is subject to. It should not, it cannot, be a precedent that applies to future projects.’ ”