The United Conservative Party’s (UCP) second bill of the fall sitting includes a new “lemon law,” and changes for Albertans buying tickets – including lottery tickets. Bill 34, the Service Alberta and Red Tape Reduction Statutes Amendment Act, was tabled Wednesday and looks to beef up consumer protections for Albertans buying cars, equipment and concert tickets. “Whether you’re buying a vehicle, fixing something you own, protecting your credit or buying tickets to your favourite events, you deserve to know you’re protected if something goes wrong,” said Dale Nally, minister of Service Alberta and red tape reduction. Multiple amendments to the Consumer Protection Act include the new lemon law, which would allow Albertans to pursue remedies should their vehicle experience “significant, persistent” problems within three years, or 60,000 kilometres, of being purchased. Eligibility would be based on multiple failed attempts to repair defects under vehicle warranty, and remedies could include refund, replacement, or other compensation from the manufacturer or dealership. The UCP are also proposing consumer act amendments to allow Albertans to freeze access to their credit reports, as well as demand more transparency around ticket resales. While the bill does not include a cap on ticket resale prices, Nally said it would open the door for one in the future – pending industry consultation. “We’re bringing forward enabling legislation because we want to be able to bring in some form of a cap, but we want to hear from industry more,” he added. “There’s some more work to be done.” Similar legislation introduced in Ontario recently led to tens of thousands of dollars in fines against SeatGeek Canada and StubHub Canada. Economist Moshe Lander said price controls like resale caps tend to do well with voters, but they don’t really work in practice; any future resale price cap, he added, could backfire for the province and buyers. “There’s still going to be people that want to buy tickets in excess of the number of tickets available, and if the government is blocking the legal channels for that to happen, then it becomes an exercise in ‘meet me behind the dumpster.’ And now you’ve removed the consumer protection,” he told CTV News Edmonton on Wednesday. Changes to the Gaming, Liquor and Cannabis Act would test out selling lottery tickets in liquor stores, similar to Ontario and Saskatchewan. The pilot would run in up to 30 liquor stores for one year, with the results used to inform possible permanent changes. The omnibus bill also includes the re-establishment of the Surface Rights Board through amendments to more than 10 pieces of legislation; the province said the board would work to resolve surface rights matters and disputes, including the recovery of unpaid compensation owed to landowners. The Surface Rights Board was enveloped into the Land and Property Rights Tribunal in 2021 through the Red Tape Reduction Implementation Act in 2020. Nally said that decision has left landowners waiting too long for resolutions. “We’ve got a target date of 120 days to be able to get back to Albertans. We think that’s too long. We’ve also got 4,000 applications in the chute right now. Again, that’s too many,” he said. “That’s why we’re bringing this forward.” Lastly, the bill proposes to establish a framework to force manufacturers, where possible, to provide manuals and parts to consumers or third-party repair services. Nally said the details have yet to be established through regulation, but that the change would eventually give Albertans more options for repairs. For farmers, this is an absolute game changer. When your equipment goes down during harvest, every hour counts. You can’t afford to wait for a repair or be forced to rely on a single manufacturer," he said. Gurinder Brar, Alberta NDP MLA and Service Alberta shadow minister, said the UCP’s bill was too little, too late. “These are nice ideas that we have been advocating for a long time on behalf of our constituents,” said Brar. Brar said the NDP have been advocating for better credit protection and the right to repair for some time, saying he even shared his own experience with credit fraud for a private member bill that was ultimately voted down by the UCP. “We are talking about all those things again and voting on those things again, which we could have voted on a long time ago, and that would have helped Albertans save money, time, and pain,” he added. “But at that point, this UCP government was focused on a divisive referendum, and with that we wasted lots of time.” With files from CTV News Edmonton’s Chelan Skulski
