Forever Canadian group calls on government to fund Elections Alberta amid ongoing citizen petitions

The Alberta finance minister is defending a decision to limit funds for recall petitions and citizen initiatives.

With two recall petitions and two citizen initiatives all underway, an Alberta legislature committee agreed on Tuesday to provide around $1.5 million to Elections Alberta’s verification process – although they were asked for $13.5 million.

A legislature committee with a UCP majority defended the decision to limit funding after a legislature assembly Tuesday. Justice Minister Mickey Amery said not each petition was set in stone yet.

• The information you need to know, sent directly to you: Download the CTV News App

“I think they’re speculating on the number of petitions coming forward. Since they haven’t come yet, I don’t see a need for funding, until those applications come in and the costs of dealing with them are incurred,” he said.

The Forever Canadian petition is currently seeking verification. At the end of October, the group submitted more than 456,000 signatures in support of a referendum question that would keep Alberta part of Canada.

Their petition was filed through the Citizens Initiative Act, which was created in 2021 to allow eligible voters to submit potential legislative and policy changes in the form of referendum questions to the provincial government.

Those signatures now each need to be verified by Alberta’s Chief Electoral Officer, who asked the legislature committee for $13.5 million on Monday to cover the costs of resources and time needed.

In a statement released Tuesday, Forever Canadian leader Thomas Lukaszuk said the limited funding rendered the petition legislation virtually moot.

“The UCP government created and championed the Citizens Initiative Act as a fundamental part of our democracy … Unless the Chief Electoral Officer is able to do his job – to approve requests for petitions or recalls and certify the results – the legislation is meaningless,” he said.

Alberta NDP leader Naheed Nenshi spoke at the legislature as well on Tuesday, calling on the UCP government to allow Elections Alberta to do their work.

“This was the government’s own legislation, and they’ve got a duty to actually fund the officers of the legislature to fulfill their own legislation,” he said, adding that Elections Alberta made it clear they would be “hard-pressed” to process all potential recall or referendum petitions.

Amery told media that Elections Alberta could come back and ask for additional funds when more petitions were ready for submission.

“For right now, it’s difficult for me to support a process when we can only speculate on what applications will be coming for,” he said.

Two petitions are currently in action to recall sitting members of the UCP caucus. Another active petition through the Citizens Initiative Act is aimed at prohibiting public funds for charter schools.