EDMONTON — The Alberta NDP caucus has criticized the UCP for a lack of action on the Alberta Forever Canadian petition, as they await the convening of the special committee tasked with reviewing the petition's policy proposal. "Nearly half a million Albertans signed the Forever Canadian petition, calling for Alberta to remain in Canada," reads a joint statement signed by Rakhi Pancholi, Alberta NDP Deputy Leader, and Court Ellingson, Alberta NDP Shadow Minister of Finance, issued on Monday. "Under Alberta’s citizen initiative process, this should have triggered a legislative committee review back in December. Instead, the UCP waited three months to strike a committee to review the Forever Canadian proposal, and still hasn’t scheduled its first meeting.".The Forever Canadian group, led by former Deputy Premier Thomas Lukaszuk, was initiated in July 2025 and submitted to Elections Alberta with 438,568 signatures in December. The Citizen Initiative Act then required the Legislature to refer the proposal to a committee of the Assembly within 10 sitting days, and that committee gets 90 days to table a report recommending the next steps to address the petition. A committee of six MLAs, including Pancholi and Ellingson, was formed on March 10 and has until June 8 to table a report; however, the spring legislature session will likely have ended by then. "The Alberta NDP MLAs on the committee tasked with reviewing the Forever Canadian petition wrote to the UCP Chair of the committee, MLA Brandon Lunty, urging them to convene before March 24 so it could report back to the Legislature before the session ends in May," the joint statement reads. "Ten days later, we still have no response." .The NDP claim the UCP is dragging their feet on the issue, though, and accused them of changing the law twice to facilitate an Alberta independence referendum petition, but said they are unwilling to bring a pro-Canada petition forward for discussion. "Albertans are proud Canadians and ready to stand up for Alberta’s place in Canada," the joint statement reads. "But if the UCP continues to delay and refuses to convene this committee, the next opportunity may not come until after a pro-separation petition advances to a province-wide referendum. “Half a million Albertans have spoken. They deserve action from their government.” If the committee does not finish its report before the spring session ends, scheduled for May 14, it will have until 15 days before the assembly reconvenes in October to table it, which could bring it in line with the Stay Free Alberta petition. "They cannot continue to delay the process even further, just because they're waiting to see if their separatist friends get the numbers they need for their petition," said Pancholi to reporters on Monday. Pancholi asked Lunty when he plans to call a committee meeting during question period on Monday; however, Government House Leader Joseph Schow answered. "What I can say, Mr. Speaker, is that on this side of the house, the Committee will be called at the behest of the chair, and that is the process we're going to follow, and the member has already heard the answer," said Schow. "But if the member doesn't like it, I'm happy to repeat it again.".Premier Danielle Smith said in February that she intends to call the committee that will decide how to proceed with the petition, because there is confusion about what the petition is requesting. Though Lukasuk filed a legislative or policy proposal, the application and petition asked the Government of Alberta to call a referendum on the question, "Do you agree that Alberta should remain in Canada?"Lukaszuk has since stated that he would like the government to hold a policy vote in the Legislative Assembly to reaffirm Alberta's commitment to remaining in Canada, rather than a referendum."So we have to question the legality of that, because the question he put forward very clearly said that it would be a vote of the people of Alberta, and I think a lot of people signed on that basis," said Smith during her Feb. 21 episode of Your Province. Your Premier.
