The Alberta Referendum is set to happen Monday October 19th at polling stations across the province with ballots containing 10 critical questions outlining possibilities for Alberta's future.
Of the 10 questions on the ballot, the last question remains the most significant; proposing the choice for Albertans to remain in Canada or support processes for separation to begin.
Faculty of Law professor, Shaun Fluker at the University of Calgary carries expertise in law and democracy.
Fluker told the Gauntlet he believes the government is “failing” Albertans by not providing much information on the basis of the upcoming referendum questions.
“I think Albertans deserve a better explanation from their government as to what the intentions are behind these questions, or what the concern is that raised the government's or that has led the government to put these questions to Albertans,” Fluker stated.
He continued by stating that the questions are of large volume, range on various topics and in some cases are not very clear.
Of the proposed questions, number ten regarding potential separation is the only question to hold a choice answer while the remaining nine are to be answered “yes” or “no”.
All answers are to be marked by an X in the box on the ballot.
Question ten puts forward two options for Alberta Voters:
- Alberta should remain a province of Canada.
- The Government of Alberta should commence the legal process required under the Canadian Constitution to hold a binding provincial referendum on whether or not Alberta should separate from Canada.
If option one receives majority support from voters Alberta will remain a part of the Canadian Confederation.
Additionally, if the second option succeeds Alberta would not immediately separate from Canada but the province would commence the legal basis to begin separatory discussions.
Fluker told the Gauntlet that the key takeaway from question ten is that it is a referendum on top of a referendum.
“[Question 10 is] a referendum question on whether the province should hold a referendum. It's a referendum on a referendum. It's not even really a separation question.” said Fluker, “The separation question is the question that's emanating from the citizen-based petitions initiative proposals that garnered enough signatures from Albertans under the legislative process that the Citizens Initiative Act creates that requires the province then to put the question to the electorate,”.
The Alberta Prosperity Project (APP) is a group not associated with any political party and advocates for a sovereign Alberta. They argue for not leaving any Albertan behind, including veterans and First Nations, protecting workers rights and ensuring that healthcare and education are “world-class”.
“Alberta sovereignty is not a left or right issue. It is an Albertan issue. Regardless of how you vote, where you live, or what industry you work in, the structural imbalance between Alberta and Ottawa affects you. APP’s role is to educate Albertans on what that imbalance costs, what sovereignty would look like, and how we get there through a legal and democratic pathway,” states the APP “About Us” webpage.
According to Elections Alberta, question tens results will be counted first with the following questions one through nine counted in that order afterwards.
The result can be expected 48 hours after, likely meaning the complete results will be available Wednesday October 21.
“Ballots will be counted by hand and results reported in the order above. [Question 10 first, then questions 1 through 9] This means Question 10 will be counted first at each voting location and station. Results will be published on Elections Alberta’s results website as they are received from returning officers. Once a counting station has completed the count for a question, they will move on to count the next question in order,” states the Elections Alberta website.
Should option two of question 10 receive more votes, which would support the process of separation, Alberta could possibly see a second binding referendum occur sometime in the spring. As previously reported by the CBC, these comments were made by Premier Danielle Smith at a UCP Town Hall in Lethbridge this past August.
The CBC article states that Premier Smith said a spring vote, or the Binding Referendum would resolve the separation discussion before the next provincial election.
According to Elections Alberta, the next Provincial Election is scheduled for October 18th 2027, nearly one year after this upcoming Referendum.
CBC further reported that on September 1st Smith stated she could not give a clear answer as to a date or timeline on a second referendum.
At this time it is unclear when or if a second binding referendum would be held should there be unprecedented support for the separation process to begin in the October 19 referendum.
“She's (Premier Smith) sending signals that the province, the government would potentially proceed with a binding referendum on separation, no matter what the outcome of this vote is because that's something that cabinet can do. The referendum act gives provincial cabinet the power to put questions to the people in the referendum. They don't need any agreement to do that. They can just do it,” Fluker stated.
Questions one through five on the ballot are nonconstitutional meaning they do not refer to potential changes to the Canadian Constitution.
The nonconstitutional questions pertain to immigration levels, noncitizen and nonpermanent resident access to social programs in the province such as healthcare and education and voter identification in provincial elections.
“I find all of the questions, quite frankly, pretty offensive. The nonconstitutional questions are arguably racist and discriminatory, and I think the lasting damage of those questions is, in particular is just increasingly polarizing Albertans and creating a divisive culture in our society. Which is really unfortunate.” Fluker told the Gauntlet.
See ballot questions one to five from Elections Alberta below:
1. Do you support the Government of Alberta taking increased control over immigration for the purposes of decreasing immigration to more sustainable levels, prioritizing economic migration and giving Albertans first priority on new employment opportunities?
2. Do you support the Government of Alberta introducing a law mandating that only Canadian citizens, permanent residents and individuals with an Alberta approved immigration status will be eligible for provincially-funded programs, such as health care, education and other social services?
3. Assuming that all Canadian citizens and permanent residents continue to qualify for social support programs as they do now, do you support the Government of Alberta introducing a law requiring all individuals with a non-permanent legal immigration status to reside in Alberta for at least 12 months before qualifying for any provincially-funded social support programs?
4. Assuming that all Canadian citizens and permanent residents continue to qualify for public health care and education as they do now, do you support the Government of Alberta charging a reasonable fee or premium to individuals with a non-permanent immigration status living in Alberta for their and their family’s use of the healthcare and education systems?
5. Do you support the Government of Alberta introducing a law requiring individuals to provide proof of citizenship, such as a passport, birth certificate or citizenship card, to vote in an Alberta provincial election?
Questions six to nine on the ballot this fall are constitutional, meaning they propose potential changes the provincial government could make regarding the Canadian Constitution.
These questions contain topics such as working with other provincial governments outside Alberta to modify the Canadian Constitution in many regards such as to prioritize provincial law as opposed to federal laws, allow provinces to opt out of federally conditioned programs while still receiving funding for said programs and abolishing the federal senate whose members are chosen by the Prime Minister rather than elected by voters.
Fluker argues that the constitutional questions are insignificant.
“And the so-called constitutional questions are a huge waste of time and money because they really can't amount to anything, and I think all of the questions are all sort of a continuation of the sort of grievance politics that this UCP government has been fixated on, certainly ever since the the last general election.” said Fluker.
The Constitution Act is Canada’s binding legal document outlining core rules for the country's governance including the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. The document also includes rules for possible amendments.
According to the Government of Canada website, in order to amend the constitution (as proposed by questions six to nine in the upcoming referendum) approval is needed from the Senate, House of Commons and the legislatures of seven provinces following the contain at least 50 per cent of the country's population following what is known as the 7/50 rule.
“I think these are all non-starters. The government of this province can pursue these initiatives if it feels that that's in the public interest, I would strongly disagree with that, and I think the majority of Albertans would as well,” stated Fluker.
“But ultimately, all these questions require an amendment of the Constitution Act, which is fully outside the control of the province and is, you know, in most cases, requires more than two thirds of the provinces constituting more than 50% of all Canadians voting in favor of the amendments. I mean, it's an astronomical threshold,” Fluked told the Gauntlet.
According to the official Alberta Referendum website they believe the federal Government has overstepped in many regards and promoted provincial power.
“The division of powers established in 1867 and 1982 has been blurred by federal overreach. Provinces have evolved significantly over the last 150 years and should have more autonomy from Ottawa, not less. Targeted constitutional changes would ensure Alberta is freer to navigate the issues faced today,” states the website under the constitutional questions section.
Conversely Fluker argues that a referendum may not be needed.
“The province doesn't need to put any of these questions to a referendum to proceed and do these sorts of things. I don't think the vast majority of Albertans share the view that. For example, the Premier seems to have that somehow the judiciary in Alberta is not independent, or that there's that there's a problem with the appointment process for members of the Superior Courts, which would be the Alberta Court of King's Bench and the Court of Appeal. I think the vast majority of Albertans have no issue with the appointment process,” Fluker stated.
See questions six to nine from Elections Alberta below:
6. Do you support the Government of Alberta working with the governments of other willing provinces to amend the Canadian Constitution to have provincial governments, and not the federal government, select the justices appointed to provincial King’s Bench and Appeal courts?
7. Do you support the Government of Alberta working with the governments of other willing provinces to amend the Canadian Constitution to abolish the unelected federal Senate?
8. Do you support the Government of Alberta working with the governments of other willing provinces to amend the Canadian Constitution to allow provinces to opt out of federal programs that intrude on provincial jurisdiction such as health care, education, and social services, without a province losing any of the associated federal funding for use in its social programs?
9. Do you support the Government of Alberta working with the governments of other willing provinces to amend the Canadian Constitution to better protect provincial rights from federal interference by giving a province’s laws dealing with provincial or shared areas of constitutional jurisdiction priority over federal laws when the province’s laws and federal laws conflict?
Fluker said he would contest the idea that most Albertans believe these questions to be of importance stating the questions may be important to a certain constituency of Albertans.
“All these questions are really just grievance politics, and I don't think the outcome of this referendum is going to change that dialog at all.” Fluker told the Gauntlet.
The October Referendum will see a historic response from voters in the province participating in the democratic process. The result of question ten on the ballot which will be available mere hours after voting ends will highlight a clear vision of Albertans interest in the province's future pertaining to remaining or pursuing sovereignty.
The results of the other nine questions will emphasize voter public interest in constitutional and non constitutional matters regarding provincial governance and pressing social issues.
