It’s now free to download Alberta’s statutes.
St. Albert MLA Ken Allred is happy with the change because he’s spent a year asking for it.
The province’s Queen’s Printer website allows free online viewing of Alberta laws but it charges the same fees for downloading them in Microsoft Word as it does for a printed copy. This didn’t sit well with Allred, who often accesses statutes online to keep abreast of Alberta legislation.
“It’s sort of been a personal pet peeve,” he said.
“It doesn’t cost them anything for you to download it. Any court documents you can download free, so it only makes sense.”
All laws and statutes are now available for free in PDF version.
Last year Allred approached then Service Alberta Minister Heather Klimchuk about the issue. He raised it again in the legislature on Nov. 23. He got an email memo in late January stating that PDF copies of laws and statutes were available for free download.
“I’m very pleased. It’s a move in the right direction,” he said. “It certainly shows that government does listen, sometimes anyway.”
Service Alberta spokesman Cam Traynor said the change had been in the works prior to Allred’s question period request. Word versions are still available for a fee because these document take the same amount of time to prepare as printed copies, he said. Preparing PDF versions is a simpler process that doesn’t use the same staff resources, he said.
In the last fiscal year the Queen’s Printer spent about $1.5 million and took in about $25,000 from downloaded items, Klimchuk told Allred in the house.
Alberta Liberal critic Darshan Kang said Alberta’s laws should have been free all along.
“This will encourage more Albertans to go to the website and find out more about the government and the laws,” he said.
“Lots of Albertans want to get something on a piece of paper. This will help them get it on a piece paper for their records.”
The Queen’s Printer website is located at www.qp.alberta.ca.
