Calgary (Rajeev Sharma): The process of verifying signatures collected for Alberta’s proposed independence referendum officially began on July 6, following a direction from the Court of Appeal that allowed Elections Alberta to move ahead with the review while legal proceedings continue.
The petition, titled “A Referendum Relating to Alberta Independence,” seeks public support for a constitutional referendum asking whether Alberta should separate from Canada and become an independent state. Although the proposal remains the subject of an ongoing legal challenge, the court has instructed the province’s election authority to complete the signature verification process and report its findings.
The petition was submitted to Elections Alberta on May 4 after the conclusion of a 120-day signature collection campaign led by proponent Mitch Sylvestre. However, the verification process was paused after the Court of King’s Bench issued a stay and later quashed the petition. That decision has since been appealed.
In a June 29 ruling, the Alberta Court of Appeal ordered a partial stay, allowing verification to proceed without affecting the broader appeal over the petition’s legality.
Under Alberta’s Citizen Initiative Act, the petition must contain at least 177,732 valid signatures, equivalent to 10 per cent of ballots cast in the previous provincial election, to qualify for further consideration.
Election officials have been given 21 days to examine the petition. The verification will include checking whether signatures were collected on approved forms, confirming that individuals signed only once during the campaign period, validating required personal information, reviewing canvasser documentation and conducting statistical sampling to confirm the authenticity of signatures and voter eligibility.
As part of the process, a randomly selected group of signatories may receive phone calls, text messages or emails from Elections Alberta requesting confirmation of the information they provided. Officials have advised participants to respond if contacted, as these checks form part of the legal verification requirements.
The agency has also introduced an additional safeguard requiring officials to screen petition records for specially seeded names from the provincial voters list. If those names appear in the submission, further examination will be triggered to detect any irregularities.
Once verification is complete, Elections Alberta will publish the results no later than July 27. If the petition is found to have met the legal threshold, the proposal will be forwarded to Alberta’s Justice Minister, who will then refer the question to the Lieutenant Governor in Council for consideration under the province’s referendum legislation.
While the signature review is moving forward, the court appeal challenging the validity of the independence petition itself remains unresolved, meaning any future referendum will still depend on the outcome of the legal process.
