Alberta Independence Petition Question Approved to Move Forward by Provincial Election Body

Elections Alberta said Dec. 22 that it has approved a petition question regarding Alberta seceding from Canada and becoming an independent nation.

The petition question was submitted by the Alberta Prosperity Project (APP) group, which has until early January to put in place a financial officer and then begin collecting enough signatures in order for its proposed question to become a provincial referendum.

The proposed petition asks a yes or no question on the issue, namely: “Do you agree that the province of Alberta should cease to be a part of Canada to become an independent state?”

APP CEO Mitch Sylvestre, who is a constituency association president for the province’s ruling United Conservative Party (UCP), will have four months after appointing a financial officer to gather just shy of 178,000 signatures in order for the petition to be put forward to Albertans in a referendum.

“This is a huge day for every Albertan who believes in Faith, Family, Freedom and in Alberta’s right to chart its own course. We have cleared the first major legal hurdle,” Sylvestre wrote in a Dec. 22 statement.

The Dec. 22 notification of approval of the petition question from Elections Alberta notes that the next step in “formally issuing the citizen initiative petition will take place on Friday, January 2.”

The approved petition question is slightly rephrased from a previous petition question submitted to Elections Alberta on July 4 of this year asking: “Do you agree that the Province of Alberta shall become a sovereign country and cease to be a province in Canada?”

The previous petition question was sent by the province’s chief electoral officer to the Court of the King’s Bench for judicial review, saying the proposed question brought up constitutional issues. Various intervenors were heard in the case, including five First Nations, Elections Alberta, and two lawyers in a capacity as amicus curiae, or friends of the court.

While the court proceedings were in progress, the UCP government introduced Bill 14, which shifts decision-making power over citizen-initiatives and referendum rules from the chief electoral officer to the justice minister. The legislation also says that if a referendum is approved and passes, it does not need to be implemented by the province, thus bypassing questions of constitutionality in proposed petition questions. The judge presiding over the case nevertheless went ahead and issued a ruling, saying the proposed question can’t be approved.

The UCP government subsequently went ahead with approving Bill 14 by the legislature, and the APP proposed its question under the new law—which has now been approved to qualify as a referendum if it meets the requirements.

Although the UCP government has enacted the legislation to remove further barriers to citizen petitions, it opposes separation, with Alberta Premier Danielle Smith saying she hopes Ottawa will work with the province to meet its demands and make the federation work.

The Canadian Press contributed to this report.