Premier Danielle Smith and Justice Minister Mickey Amery defended their acts to take control of citizen initiatives during Monday’s Question Period.“Citizen initiative is meant to be permissive,” said Smith. “It's meant to allow for citizens to identify an issue that they can get a collection of their fellow citizens to come together to put it on a ballot so that it can be voted on.”“It is not meant to have gatekeepers, and we don't want to see a gatekeeper in the Chief Electoral Officer. We don't want to see a gatekeeper in the court either.”“Mr. Speaker, we are the elected representatives. We make the decisions. We are a parliamentary democracy.”.Smith’s comments come in light of Justice Colin Feasby’s decision to declare the Alberta Prosperity Project referendum question unconstitutional, only for the government to say that his decision will not stand under Bill 14. “While the government does not agree with Justice Feasby’s interpretation of the current Citizen Initiative Act, the decision will have no practical impact if the Assembly ultimately passes Bill 14,” reads a statement from the Justice Ministry issued on Friday.“That bill will clarify and simplify the rules relating to citizen-initiated petitions, making the process more efficient, and encouraging citizen participation in our democracy.”.Feasby criticized Bill 14, stating that its attempt to control decisions about what is and is not constitutional, especially in an active court case, undermines the rule of law. “In this case, the citizen-initiated referenda law was meant to be permissive,” Smith said. “We had anticipated that the Chief Electoral Officer would take it in that spirit. It's turned out that there have been several things that have been referred to the court. There have been several things that have been delayed.”“We want to make sure that these kinds of initiatives can be put forward without the gatekeepers.”.The NDP has cited Bill 14 as another attempt to bypass the judicial system in a Fall sitting that has seen them invoke the notwithstanding clause twice.“Mr. Speaker, the UCP government has a terrible relationship with the rule of law,” said Official Opposition Deputy House Leader Irfan Sabir. “Bill 14 will end a court reference on the constitutionality of citizen initiative for Alberta's separation from Canada.”“However, the court already heard the case, and Justice Feasby has released the court decision, which noted, and I quote, ‘legislating an end to litigation is extraordinary.’”.But the UCP argues that Bill 14 aims to facilitate the functioning of democracy. “The separation of powers is an important constitutional principle,” said Amery. “The assembly has been elected by the people of Alberta to debate and pass legislation that's in the public interest.”“Mr. Speaker, that member doesn't like the citizen initiative process, fine, that's up to that's up to him, but the fact of the matter is, Mr. Speaker, Albertans deserve the opportunity to be able to put questions of importance before the people of Alberta.”The debate over Bill 14 will continue during the Monday evening session, when it is scheduled for its second reading.
