Amery takes greater control of citizen initiative petitions

Justice Minister Mickey Amery introduced legislation on Thursday, including measures that give the Minister of Justice greater control over Citizen Initiatives.Amery introduced Bill 14, The Justice Statutes Amendment Act, during Thursday’s assembly. “The purpose of what we're doing here is intended to create a permissive environment, a simpler environment, a more streamlined one for individual Albertans who have important matters that they want to put forward to other Albertans to be able to do so,” said Amery.One amendment to the Citizens Initiative Act will eliminate the initial rule that a proposal cannot conflict with sections 1 to 35.1 of the Canadian Constitution. Conversely, an amendment to the Referendum Act grants Alberta’s government the authority to decline implementing the results of a referendum if it believes doing so would breach Canada’s Constitution. The chief electoral officer will no longer be charged with making sure that a petition question does not overlap with previous referendums. That obligation would be shifted to the Minister of Justice. “We've heard from Elections Alberta and the CEO, and we know that the intention was always meant to be that the CEO would manage the voting processes,” Amery said. “It's not to tell people necessarily what they can and cannot ask.”The justice minister will also have the authority to modify referendum questions to ensure clarity for voters. .Additionally, the Minister of Justice will decide whether a policy should continue, and he will have the authority to refer matters to the court if he considers it necessary.The bill ends all current court cases related to topics of proposals under section 2.1 of the Citizen Initiative Act. “Certainly, the minister will retain the ability to refer questions to the court for additional clarification as well, but the process or the amendments that are being put forward here will clarify that a process will not be held up by the courts if it is referred for a question on constitutionality,” Amery said. All applications submitted before Bill 14 is enacted, which have not yet been issued a citizen-initiated petition, will be dismissed. Those applicants will have 30 days to resubmit the petition without paying any additional application fee. Penalties for unauthorized collection, use, disclosure, or retention of personal information during the petition signature process would also be increased. The fine for individuals would range from $50,000 to $500,000, and for corporations, from $500,000 to $1 million. .Party names have taken a spotlight in 2025, after the Alberta Party attempted to change their name to the “Progressive Conservative” party.Amendments to the Election Finances and Contributions Disclosure Act would require the chief electoral officer to reject a party’s request to change or modify its name if the new name contains a distinctive word or phrase that could potentially cause confusion with another party’s name. The legislation will include a list of designated words that will not be allowed, and the chief elections officer will be able to add more words. Additionally, a party will be unable to use a word in their new name that is clearly associated with another registered party or predecessor. However, parties will be permitted to use the name of one of their predecessor parties. “Some folks out there want to confuse people into voting for them based on the name conservative,” Amery said. “But this is not a partisan issue. Let me be clear about that.”The two changes mentioned above will be retroactive to July 4. .Looking at events from the federal election, Bill 14 aims to take steps to prevent long balloting that interferes with voting. “We've seen the presentations of these ballots, which are sometimes a meter or two long as well,” Amery said. “And we think that this is a proactive step here in Alberta to preventing that type of protest from interfering with and creating administrative burdens here in Alberta.”Proposed revisions to the Election Act would mandate MLA candidates to collect 100 signatures, up from the current 25, before appearing on a ballot. “We are keeping space for people who are serious about being elected, while deterring those who are not,” Amery said.Other amendments made under Bill 14 include the Legal Profession Act, Justice of the Peace Act, and Conflict of Interest Act. A full detail of the proposed actions in the bill can be found on the Government of Alberta website.