The Alberta government rejected a bid by opposition parties Wednesday to delay a controversial farm-safety bill following another round of heated debate.The NDP caucus voted to defeat a motion to move Bill 6, the Enhanced Protection for Farm and Ranch Workers Act, to a legislature committee for further discussion.

The government passed the bill at second reading after passing a motion to limit the debate.

Opposition parties have been talking at length in the house on the bill for a week, and government house leader Brian Mason has said the business of the legislature can't remain at a standstill.

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Mason has already served notice the government could limit further debate on the bill.

"I hope that it wraps up (third and final reading) tomorrow," he said.

The proposed legislation gives occupational health and safety protections and worker compensation benefits to paid farm workers effective Jan. 1.

Finance Minister Joe Ceci, speaking to the bill on Wednesday morning, told the house he worked on farms and in factories as a youth.

He said while work conditions were fairly good, he was at times put into dicey situations.

Having safety rules in place will help young farm and ranch workers, who may feel they can't refuse unsafe work for fear of losing their jobs or out of concern for letting down their employer, Ceci said.

"We've heard many stories here about employment on farms and ranches that are not ideal," he said. "We want to put some basic protections in place."

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Those comments brought an enraged response from Wildrose member Jason Nixon.

"We've seen this minister now just do exactly what the premier has done in this assembly over and over and over again, and that is to blame farmers and ranchers, saying for a hundred years they've been trying to hurt their employees, trying to kill their employees," said Nixon.

"This is why they're mad in rural Alberta."

Passing second reading cleared the way for the house to debate government amendments to the bill.

Premier Rachel Notley's team has announced it will alter the bill to make it clear that the new rules will only apply to paid farm workers. The government says farms that employ strictly family members will not be subject to the rules and children will not be restriced from helping out or learning the business.

Farmers have organized convoys and protest rallies since the bill was introduced three weeks ago and have shown up by the hundreds at public consultation sessions to berate cabinet ministers.

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They say they're worried the new rules will tie up family farms in costly red tape and threaten the viability of their way of life.

Notley has admitted her government shares much of the blame for the confusion. When the bill was introduced, the government said it would bring farm children under occupational health and safety rules.

But as opposition mounted, the government introduced the amendments and said the original information was an unintentional error.

Notley has said details on the bill — including specifics on occupational health and safety rules, employment standards and labour rights — are to be crafted over the coming year and that farmers are to be involved every step of the way.