A judge is expected to decide today whether a special court review of a proposed Alberta referendum question on separation should go ahead.
Alberta’s chief electoral officer, Gordon McClure, referred the question to court last month for a judge to determine whether it violates the Constitution, including treaty rights.
The group that submitted the question applied to have the referral quashed, and Court of King’s Bench Justice Colin Feasby heard arguments last week.
The Alberta Prosperity Project wants to ask: “Do you agree that the Province of Alberta shall become a sovereign country and cease to be a province in Canada?”
A lawyer for the group says judicial scrutiny is premature, since there’s no guarantee enough signatures would be gathered to put the question on a ballot.
He also argues the act of asking a question doesn’t violate the Constitution.
Lawyers for Justice Minister Mickey Amery and the chief electoral officer have not taken a position on quashing the referral.
Amery and Premier Danielle Smith have criticized the electoral officer’s decision to refer the question to the court, saying it should be approved and only face judicial scrutiny if it garners a majority vote in a referendum.
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“Alberta’s government believes that the proposal is not unconstitutional and therefore should be approved and permitted to proceed,” Amery’s press secretary, Heather Jenkins, in a statement last week.
“It is settled law that any province is entitled to consult its population by referendum on any issue.”
A letter from Amery’s lawyer to the judge last week said the minister plans to make submissions if there is a review.
Other groups, including the Athabasca Chipewyan First Nation in northern Alberta, have said they also hope to make submissions.
If the proposed question is approved, the Alberta Prosperity Project and its chief executive officer, Mitch Sylvestre, would need to collect 177,000 signatures in four months to get it on a ballot.
A competing referendum question was approved by McClure in June and asks if Alberta should declare an official policy that it will never separate from Canada.
Efforts to gather signatures for that proposal, put forward by former Progressive Conservative deputy premier Thomas Lukaszuk, got underway earlier this month.
Lukaszuk needs to collect nearly 300,000 signatures in 90 days in order to get his question on a ballot, as his application was approved before new provincial rules with lower signature thresholds took effect.
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