Citizen Initiative Act
Summary
Pursuant to the Citizen Initiative Act, electors may now submit legislative, policy and or constitutional referendum proposals to the Chief Electoral Officer within certain parameters.
If the Chief Electoral Officer confirms that the elector satisfies the parameters, then the proposal must be published on the website Chief Electoral Officer who will subsequently issue an initiative petition. The Chief Electoral Officer may also publish the total number of electors in the province on the post-polling-day list of electors for the previous general elections and the total number of signatures required for an initiative petition to succeed.
If the Chief Electoral Officer approves the proposal, the petitioner would proceed to gather signatures of eligible voters, i.e.,10% of voters province-wide for legislative and policy initiatives and 20% per cent of voters province-wide, in two-thirds of Alberta’s constituencies for constitutional initiatives.
The Chief Electoral Officer would review the signatures and determine if the petition has been successful. Successful legislative and policy initiatives would then be referred to a committee of the Legislative Assembly of Alberta for consideration. If the committee does not support a legislative initiative, a public vote would be held. Successful constitutional initiatives will proceed through the process established in the Referendum Act.
In Force: On proclamation