Justice Minister Kaycee Madu (Photo: Government of Alberta)

By Liam Verster

Citizen Initiative Act

Bill tabled to possibly allow citizens to bring forward matters to the Legislature

Mar 16, 2021 | 3:20 PM

The UCP Government has tabled the Citizen Initiative Act, which could allow Albertans to bring forward important matters to the Legislature for consideration.

If passed, the act would allow the general public to submit proposed legislative and policy changes to the legislative assembly, as well as propose constitutional referendum questions to the provincial government.

“Albertans deserve to have a greater say in the issues that affect them,” Justice Minister Kaycee Madu. “Through this legislation, Albertans have the opportunity to directly set the priorities for government between elections.”

Any eligible Alberta voter could bring forward proposals under this act. However, there will need to be a petition that meets the required amount of signatures.

The petitioner would need to apply to the Chief Electoral Officer to start the petition, which needs a certain amount of signatures in order to be brought forward.

For a legislative and/or policy initiative the signature threshold is 10 per cent of all eligible voters province-wide, while the threshold for constitutional initiatives is signatures amounting to 20 per cent of all Alberta voters.

The signatures must be collected in person within 90 days of being approved by the Chief Electoral Officer, and online petitions will not be accepted.

There will be a fee associated with applying to start a petition, which will be specified under the regulations.

The petitioner is responsible for the costs associated with gathering the signatures. There will be an option included in the act that allows the petitioner to be able to accept contributions toward their initiative, subject to financial rules set out in the Election Act and the Election Finances and Contribution Act.

If the required signature threshold is met for either the legislative or policy initiative, then the petitions will be submitted to the Chief Electoral Officer, who will verify the signatures. From there, successful legislative or policy petitions will be forwarded to the Speaker of the Legislative Assembly, who will put it before the legislative assembly, who will refer the proposal to a committee.

The committee will have 90 days to review the proposals and, if accepted, a report will be written up and tabled at the Legislative Assembly for debate and follow up.

Legislative petitions not supported by the committee will be returned to the Chief Electoral Officer, who will hold an initiative vote. Policy initiatives not supported by the committee can be put into a referendum.

Constitutional initiative petitions will also go through the Chief Electoral Officer, who will forward the proposal to the minister responsible for the Citizen Initiative Act. The minister will then begin the process of setting the referendum.

If passed, the Citizen Initiative Act will come into force upon proclamation .