Alberta’s Opposition NDP says the provincial panel seeking citizen input on concerns with the federal government is not getting a representative sample of sentiment.
NDP Leader Naheed Nenshi said what the panel is hearing is opposite from the sentiment he is hearing from Albertans.
“What a debacle. This thing is such a sham,” Nenshi told reporters Wednesday.
His comments came as Premier Danielle Smith and her Alberta Next panel were set later Wednesday to hold the second round of town hall consultations, at a hotel in east Edmonton.
At the first town hall Tuesday night in Red Deer, attendees urged Smith and the panel to wrest powers from Ottawa by setting up a provincial pension plan and a police force.
Several took to the microphone to say the only way to get the province a fair deal from Ottawa is to leave Confederation, while other attendees dismissed the panel’s proposals as half-baked and its public survey efforts on the topic as biased.
More than 450 people showed up to speak.
Smith has said she believes in a sovereign Alberta within a united Canada, and that her panel is meant to address the concerns inspiring more vocal separatist sentiment in the province.
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Nenshi said Smith is playing both sides of the debate, trying to distance herself from separatists while giving them a huge platform at the town halls using taxpayer money.
The town halls are part of a two-pronged strategy to gauge sentiment in the province as Smith negotiates with Prime Minister Mark Carney on possible changes to policies and rules she says are undercutting her province’s energy sector.
Smith’s government has also changed the rules to make it easier for Albertans to gain enough signatures to trigger a referendum on topics such as seceding from Canada.
Cameron Davies, who leads the separatist Republican Party of Alberta, said the province deserves a binding referendum on separation immediately.
He said the panel is merely delay and distraction.
“Last night’s UCP event in Red Deer offered more political theatre than meaningful action. We believe it’s time to move beyond symbolic panels and open letters,” Davies said in a statement.
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