Timeline for review of ‘Forever Canadian’ policy proposal unknown as committee starts work

Forever Canadian petition organizer Thomas Lukaszuk says the Alberta government is prioritizing a petition on separatism over his successful initiative.

The Alberta NDP is skeptical that the successful Forever Canadian petition will be dealt with before a referendum in the fall.

“I think (the government) is closing the door on the legislature and UCP (United Conservative Party) MLAs having to stand in the legislature and say whether or not they support separatism,” said NDP deputy leader Rakhi Pancholi on Tuesday.

She is one of the Official Opposition’s two members on a special committee struck to review the Forever Canadian petition’s policy proposal.

Nearly 439,000 Albertans signed the petition demanding Alberta make it an official policy to stay in Canada.

The province’s new Citizen Initiative Act gives a committee 90 days to either recommend the proposal be implemented, or referred to the chief electoral officer for a referendum.

The committee consisting also of four UCP members, including its chair, met for the first time Tuesday since being appointed March 10.

If the legislative assembly is not sitting when the committee’s 90 days are up, its report will be held for 15 days into the next sitting.

The current session ends May 14. Ninety days would carry the committee to June 8. The next session is scheduled to start Oct. 27, making the alternate deadline Nov. 11. Alberta’s referendum with nine questions about immigration and the Canadian constitution is set for Oct. 19. Meanwhile, another petition about Alberta separating from Canada has until May 2 to collect signatures.

To ensure the committee finishes in time to deliver its report to the legislative assembly by May 14, the NDP’s Calgary-Foothills MLA Court Ellingson proposed the committee set a meeting calendar. When that motion was defeated, Pancholi asked for a commitment that the committee finishes its work on or before May 7. That was defeated as well, with the UCP members arguing they did not want to rush the process.

“Obviously, there’s an urgency,” committee chair and UCP Leduc-Beaumont MLA Brandon Lunty told reporters after the meeting.

“We’re going to work extremely hard as a committee. We’re going to make sure we’re going through the proper process. Again, we want to make sure that the 400,000 Albertans who are interested in this have their voices heard.”

He said as a next step he would be inviting officials from the justice ministry and office of the chief electoral officer to present information to the committee. A date for the next meeting was not set.

The committee’s UCP members also outvoted the NDP on having Forever Canadian petition organizer Thomas Lukaszuk speak to the committee.

He said the committee’s progress, or lack thereof, demonstrates “that the process of gathering signatures and then having referenda in this province is simply not a legitimate democratic process.”