Proposed referendum question on separation from Canada approved by Elections Alberta

Update: On January 2, Elections Alberta announced that the citizen petition had been issued and signatures could be collected beginning on January 3.

Elections Alberta announced Monday it has approved a citizen initiative petition aimed at putting a referendum question forward to Albertans about the idea of separating from Canada.

The approval means the separatist group behind it — the Alberta Prosperity Project — now has the green light to start collecting signatures. The group will need to appoint a financial officer for its petition campaign before early January. After that, signature collection can begin.

The question the group will ask is: "Do you agree that the province of Alberta should cease to be a part of Canada to become an independent state?"

Earlier this year, the group applied to have a similar referendum question heard: "Do you agree that the province of Alberta shall become a sovereign country and cease to be a province in Canada?"

The question was later declared to be unconstitutional by an Alberta judge.

Since then, Premier Danielle Smith's government reviewed its rules for citizen-initiated referendums.

Earlier this month, the provincial government passed Bill 14, which allows for citizen initiatives to go ahead even if their constitutionality has not been assessed. 

The legislation allows for only the provincial justice minister to be able to refer a citizen referendum question to the courts, a power previously held by the province's chief electoral office. It also allows for the minister to recommend changes to a constitutional referendum question before it's put to voters.

Those changes rendered the court review of the Alberta Prosperity Project's initial question moot, and allowed its CEO, Mitch Sylvestre, to reapply at no charge.

In an interview with CBC News on Monday, Sylvestre said he felt the group had done everything right during the process, and that he believes the court review was unnecessary. 

“The provincial government saw that this process was flawed," he said.

“A citizen’s question shouldn't have to go to court to be approved when the actual intent of asking the question was so that the government or people could actually ask a question, any question, and take it to the people.”

An opposing citizen initiative petition was declared successful by Elections Alberta earlier this month, after it collected the amount of signatures it needed before the deadline.

The Alberta Forever Canada petition asked the question: "Do you agree that Alberta should remain within Canada?"

Former deputy premier of Alberta Thomas Lukaszuk, the man behind the petition, has previously said his goal is to have the provincial government ask the petition's question in the legislature and then to have MLAs vote on it.

On Monday, CBC News asked him how he will feel if the Alberta Prosperity Project's petition is successful.

"Our team will be more than ready to take the separatists on and put together a strong case for why Alberta should stay in Canada," Lukaszuk said.

In a statement to CBC News, the Ministry of Justice said the provincial government intends to support the democratic right of every Albertan to participate in a citizen’s initiative process.

"If those seeking independence believe that they have the support for it, this is their chance to prove it," the statement read.

The Alberta Prosperity Project now has four months to collect nearly 178,000 signatures for its petition.