Duelling Alberta separation referendum questions up for discussion
As Alberta moves toward holding a referendum on separation from Canada, a hitch has emerged in the planning: the constitutionality of a potential referendum question.
In early July, Mitch Sylvestre of the Alberta Prosperity Project submitted his question on secession to Elections Alberta, the independent agency that administers elections, byelections and referendums in the province. It seeks to ask the question: Do you agree that the Province of Alberta shall become a sovereign country and cease to be a province in Canada?
But on Monday, Elections Alberta announced that it was going to ask a Court of King’s Bench judge of whether the question itself infringed upon the Constitution.
“Given the potential implications of the constitutional referendum proposal and given the Legislature has expressly authorized the Chief Electoral Officer to state a question seeking the opinion of the Court, the Chief Electoral Officer has referred a question to the Court for its opinion,” Elections Alberta said Monday.
What allows for citizens to push for a referendum?
In Alberta, any citizen can push to hold a province-wide referendum, so long as they gather the signatures of 10 per cent of those who voted in the last provincial election. Since more than 1.7 million Albertans cast a ballot in 2023, roughly 177,000 signatures are needed to push for a provincial referendum under the Citizen Initiative Act.
But that same act, amended by the provincial United Conservative government in the spring, requires any constitutional referendum question to not violate the Constitution. As such, Elections Alberta referred the question to a judge. It also sets out that any policy or legislative action referendum proposal must not exceed the power of the provincial legislature.
What are people saying about the decision of Elections Alberta?
The Alberta Prosperity Project posted on X that the reference “acts as a delay tactic that will be responded to in Court as required,” and said that its question complied with the federal Clarity Act, which was crafted following the 1995 Quebec secession referendum setting out
However, Alberta Justice Minister Mickey Amery and Alberta Premier Danielle Smith have both criticized the decision, saying it amounts to unfair red tape standing in the way of Albertans having their say on major policy questions.
“As it is the Government of Alberta that ultimately decides how or if to implement any referendum result, those government decisions will ultimately be subject to constitutional scrutiny,” Amery wrote on X. “We encourage Elections Alberta to withdraw its court reference and permit Albertans their democratic right to participate in the citizen initiative process.”
In a statement posted to X, the premier said “Albertans have a democratic right to participate in the citizen initiative process.
“They shouldn’t be slowed down by bureaucratic red tape or court applications,” she wrote.
What has Elections Alberta said?
The independent agency declined to withdraw its court reference.
“In seeking the opinion of the Court, the Chief Electoral Officer is fulfilling his duty under the Citizen Initiative Act in an independent, neutral and non-partisan manner,” the agency said on Tuesday.
So if the courts don’t make the determination on the constitutionality of the question, as required by the Citizen Initiative Act, who does?
That’s not altogether clear.
On Tuesday, National Post sought clarity from Amery’s office on the question of if the court application were to be rescinded, who — whether Elections Alberta or the provincial government — should make the call on whether the question itself is within constitutional bounds.
Heather Jenkins, Amery’s press secretary, declined to clarify.
Elections Alberta, however, has approved a separation referendum question that does not engage constitutional questions.
Crafted by Alberta Forever Canada, a federalist group headed by Thomas Lukaszuk, who served as deputy premier in Alison Redford’s Progressive Conservative government, that question asks: Do you agree that Alberta should remain in Canada?
The application here is for a “legislative or policy proposal,” not a constitutional proposal.
That group will now have until late October to gather the necessary signatures to get the question on the ballot before voters.
What happens once the question is approved?
In the wake of the federal election, which saw the Liberals returned to power under Prime Minister Mark Carney, and with separatist sentiment on the rise, the Alberta government moved to make it easier for Albertans to get referendum questions on the ballot.
Originally, the act, passed by Jason Kenney’s government in 2021, required the signatures of 20 per cent of registered electors, but the current government felt that to be an impossibly high threshold.
Once the question is approved and paperwork filed with Elections Alberta, then the proponents can set out to gather the signatures. The Sylvestre petition cannot seek signatures yet because it has not been approved but the Lukaszuk one can.
Does that mean there could be two secession questions at once?
No. If Alberta Forever Canada finishes gathering its signatures before the court discussion over the pro-separatist question is settled, it could kibosh the separatists’ attempts to get their referendum held. There cannot be two referendums on the same subject happening simultaneously in Alberta: Elections Alberta says there can only be proposals for a referendum so long as it “is not the same or substantially similar to a proposal that is currently underway or would result in a conflict with the outcome of a petition currently underway.”
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