Fix Recall And Referenda

Fix Recall And Referenda:

In 2021, the Alberta government passed Bill 51, the Citizen Initiative Act and Bill 52, the Recall Act.

At the time, we were pleased about the introduction of the Bills, as they were both a big step forward for democracy in Alberta.

However, we also noted that both Bills contained major flaws that needed correcting before being passed into law.

In particular, we expressed serious concern that the thresholds and other rules governing how Recall and Citizen Initiative efforts operate would make it impossible to successfully achieve any Recall or Referenda initiative.

We proposed a series of changes to both pieces of legislation to fix these issues but, unfortunately, the changes were rejected.

Now, three years later, it's clear that we were right and that both the Recall and Referenda laws need fixing.

We've included a short summary of our proposed changes to the Citizen Initiative Act and the Recall Act below.

Once you've signed the petition, please spread the word to your friends, family, co-workers, and every Albertan!

The Current Rules:

Recall:

• No Recall efforts in the 18 months after or 6 months before an election
• 40% of eligible voters (about 80% of those who actually voted last time) must sign a petition for a Recall for provincial representatives
• 40% of the population (more than 100% of those who actually voted last time) must sign a petition for a Recall for municipal representatives
• Signatures must be collected within a 60-day period
• A successful petition removes a municipal representative automatically, but for a provincial representative, it just sets up another public vote to Recall the representative or not

Referenda:

• 10% of eligible voters (about 20% of the number who actually voted last time) must sign a petition for Legislative or Policy Referenda
• 20% of eligible voters (about 40% of the number who actually voted last time) must sign a petition for Constitutional Referenda
• Signatures must be collected within a 90-day period

Our Proposed Changes:

Recall:

• Recall efforts permitted any time (they would take a minimum of 6 months anyway, while in the last 6 months there would just be no by-election)
• 20% of the number who actually voted last time must sign a petition for a Recall to be successful when there are more than 50,000 eligible voters
• 30% of the number who actually voted last time must sign a petition for a Recall to be successful when there are fewer than 50,000 eligible voters
• Signatures must be collected within a 180-day period
• A successful petition should remove municipal and provincial representatives automatically, triggering a by-election which the representative could run in, if they wish

Referenda:

• 10% of the number who actually voted last time must sign a petition for Legislative or Policy Referenda
• 20% of the number who actually voted last time must sign a petition for Constitutional Referenda
• Signatures must be collected within a 180-day period