Legislative Assembly of Alberta The 30th Legislature Second Session Standing Committee on Private Bills and Private Members’ Public Bills Bill 213, Traffic Safety (Maximum Speed Limit for Provincial Freeways) Amendment Act, 2021 Wednesday, March 17, 2021 7 p.m. Transcript No. 30-2-15 Legislative Assembly of Alberta The 30th Legislature Second Session Standing Committee on Private Bills and Private Members’ Public Bills Ellis, Mike, Calgary-West (UC), Chair Schow, Joseph R., Cardston-Siksika (UC), Deputy Chair Amery, Mickey K., Calgary-Cross (UC) Dang, Thomas, Edmonton-South (NDP) Getson, Shane C., Lac Ste. Anne-Parkland (UC) Glasgo, Michaela L., Brooks-Medicine Hat (UC) Irwin, Janis, Edmonton-Highlands-Norwood (NDP) Nielsen, Christian E., Edmonton-Decore (NDP) Orr, Ronald, Lacombe-Ponoka (UC)* Rutherford, Brad, Leduc-Beaumont (UC) Sigurdson, Lori, Edmonton-Riverview (NDP) Sigurdson, R.J., Highwood (UC) * substitution for R.J. Sigurdson Also in Attendance Turton, Searle, Spruce Grove-Stony Plain (UC) Bill 213 Sponsor Turton, Searle, Spruce Grove-Stony Plain (UC) Support Staff Trafton Koenig Senior Parliamentary Counsel Philip Massolin Clerk Assistant and Director of House Services Warren Huffman Committee Clerk Janet Schwegel Director of Parliamentary Programs Amanda LeBlanc Deputy Editor of Alberta Hansard Transcript produced by Alberta Hansard Standing Committee on Private Bills and Private Members’ Public Bills Participants Ministry of Transportation Ranjit Tharmalingam, Assistant Deputy Minister, Planning, Finance and Technical Standards Des Williamson, Executive Director, Technical Services, Technical Standards March 17, 2021 Private Bills and Private Members’ Public Bills PB-325 7 p.m. Wednesday, March 17, 2021 the hon. Speaker Cooper I’d like to remind everyone of the updated Title: Wednesday, March 17, 2021 pb committee room protocols, which encourage members to wear [Mr. Ellis in the chair] masks in committee rooms and while seated, except when speaking, at which time they may choose to not wear a face covering. Based The Chair: Good evening, everyone. I’d like to call this meeting of on the recommendations from the chief medical officer of health the Standing Committee on Private Bills and Private Members’ regarding physical distancing, attendees at today’s meeting are Public Bills to order and welcome everyone in attendance. reminded to leave the appropriate distance between themselves and My name is Mike Ellis, MLA for Calgary-West and chair of the other meeting participants. committee. I would ask that members and those joining the Please note that the microphones are operated by Hansard staff. committee at the table introduce themselves for the record, and then Committee proceedings are live streamed on the Internet and I will call on those joining by videoconference. We’ll begin to my broadcast on Alberta Assembly TV. The audio- and videostream right. and transcripts of meetings can be accessed via the Legislative Mr. Schow: Joseph Schow, MLA for Cardston-Siksika. Assembly website. Those participating via videoconference are asked to please turn Mr. Orr: Ron Orr, Lacombe-Ponoka. on your camera while speaking and to mute your microphone when not speaking. To request to be put on a speakers list, members Searle Turton, MLA for Spruce Grove-Stony Plain. Mr. Turton: participating virtually are asked to e-mail or send a message to the Mr. Nielsen: Good evening, everyone. Chris Nielsen, MLA for group chat and to the committee clerk, and members in the room Edmonton-Decore. are asked to please wave or otherwise signal the chair. Please set your cellphones and other devices to silent for the duration of the Mr. Massolin: Good evening. Philip Massolin, Clerk Assistant and meeting. director of House services. Next we’ll go to the approval of the agenda. Are there any changes or additions to the draft agenda? Mr. Huffman: Warren Huffman, committee clerk. Seeing and hearing none, could I get somebody to move the The Chair: Thank you. agenda, please? The members joining us via videoconference. Maybe I’ll ask Mr. Nielsen: So moved, Chair. Member Irwin to go first, please. The Chair: Thank you, Mr. Nielsen. Mr. Nielsen will move that Member Irwin: Janis Irwin, Edmonton-Highlands-Norwood. the agenda for the March 17, 2021, meeting of the Standing The Chair: Okay. Thank you. Committee on Private Bills and Private Members’ Public Bills be Member Lori Sigurdson. adopted as distributed. All those in favour, say aye. On the phone or on videoconference? Thank you. Any opposed? Hearing and Ms Sigurdson: Good evening. Lori Sigurdson, Edmonton-Riverview. seeing none, that motion has been carried. Approval of minutes. Due to the tight turnaround time of this The Chair: Thank you. meeting in addition to the budget estimates meetings that have been I see Member Dang. occurring, the draft minutes from the Monday, March 15, 2021, Mr. Dang: Good evening. Thomas Dang, Edmonton-South. meeting have not yet been prepared, and approval of them will be deferred to our next meeting. The Chair: Thank you very much. Next we’ll move on to item 4 on our list, the review of Bill 213. Member Getson. That’s the Traffic Safety (Maximum Speed Limit for Provincial Freeways) Amendment Act, 2021. We have a presentation by MLA Mr. Getson: Shane Getson, MLA, Lac Ste. Anne-Parkland. Searle Turton. He is the MLA for Spruce Grove-Stony Plain. Hon. members, Bill 213, Traffic Safety (Maximum Speed Limit The Chair: Thank you. Member Amery. for Provincial Freeways) Amendment Act, 2021, was referred to the committee on Wednesday, March 10, 2021. In accordance with Mr. Amery: Good evening, committee members. Mickey Amery, Standing Order 74.11 the timeline means that the committee’s MLA, Calgary-Cross. report to the Assembly is due on March 25. At this time I’d like to invite Mr. Searle Turton, the MLA for The Chair: Thank you. Spruce Grove-Stony Plain, to provide a five-minute presentation, Member Glasgo. and then I will open the floor to questions from committee members. Ms Glasgo: Michaela Glasgo, MLA, Brooks-Medicine Hat. At this time, Mr. Turton, the floor is yours. You have five The Chair: And Member Rutherford. minutes. Thank you sir. Mr. Rutherford: Good evening. Brad Rutherford, MLA, Leduc- Mr. Turton: Excellent. Well, thank you very much, Mr. Chair, and Beaumont. thank you very much to the committee members for being here tonight. First of all, I want to say that it’s an absolute privilege to The Chair: All right. Thank you very much. be here to talk about Bill 213, Traffic Safety (Maximum Speed Official substitutions for the committee: Mr. Ron Orr for Mr. R.J. Limit for Provincial Freeways) Amendment Act, 2021. Although Sigurdson. I’ve only represented the constituents of Spruce Grove and Stony A few housekeeping items to address before we turn to the Plain as an MLA since 2019, I represented the citizens of Spruce business at hand. Pursuant to the February 22, 2021, memo from Grove as a city councillor since 2010. PB-326 Private Bills and Private Members’ Public Bills March 17, 2021 As a constituency on the edge of the Edmonton capital region I In conclusion, I want to stress that Bill 213 will give flexibility can attest that we are people always on the move. Many of my to our Transportation department and the minister to set appropriate constituents work in Edmonton or other places across the province, speed limits which will balance the need for goods and residents to and they travel to and fro. I know that many people, including my travel around the province while ensuring that our motorists are safe constituents, would like to get to their destination in a quicker and as they do so. It will allow Alberta to have the same flexibility with more efficient manner while ensuring that they remain safe in doing speed limits that other provinces like B.C. have and that many U.S. so. This is just not a desire but a possibility, a possibility that states currently have, with added safeguards of ensuring that the engineers thought of and prepared for when designing some of our Minister of Transportation has the final say in setting speed limits. safest highways. With an ample two-year window before full implementation, Bill Now, first of all, I want to explain very clearly what this bill is 213 has struck a good balance between providing quicker not. Contrary to some members of the public, this bill is not an commutes for Albertans while ensuring their safety on our road arbitrary speed limit increase of 10 kilometres an hour for network. provincial divided highways across the province. That irresponsible Thank you, Mr. Chair. approach and blanket legislative change on a provincial-wide highway network would be impossible for anyone to support, The Chair: Well, thank you very much, Mr. Turton. Thank you for including myself. those remarks. I think that it is vitally important for this committee to understand We will now open the floor for up to 20 minutes of questions that under the current legislation there is no mechanism to increase from our committee members, as is convention with this committee. the speed limit past 110 kilometres an hour on provincial freeways This is a government member’s bill, so we will now go to the regardless of how safe the actual highway is. The substantial change Official Opposition. I have Member Irwin first on the list for a in Bill 213, as shown in section 3 of the bill, will revise the question, followed by a short supplemental. Member Irwin, go maximum speed limit on provincial freeways located outside of ahead, please. urban areas from 110 kilometres an hour to 120 kilometres. 7:10 The 2018 the Alberta Transportation highway geometric design Member Irwin: Thank you, Chair, and thank you, MLA Turton, grid shows that there are two categories of highways in the province for being here today.