Alberta's Chief Electoral Officer, Gordon McClure, has approved a citizen's initiative petition that could stop Alberta's government from giving money to private schools.Alicia Taylor submitted a proposal under Section 2(3) of the Citizen Initiative Act, which allows Canadian citizens to submit proposals in the form of questions to change either legislation or the Constitution. Taylor proposed the following question: "Should the Government of Alberta end its current practice of allocating public funds to accredited independent (private) schools?"Since McClure has approved Taylor's proposal, she will have to appoint a chief financial officer within seven days, and afterwards Elections Alberta will release the citizen initiative petition..For the petition to be considered successful it must get at least 10% of the total number of votes cast in the previous provincial general election.Since the last provincial election was in 2023, that means 10% of the total number of votes needed is 177,732 for it to be considered by the government to bring forward "a motion to have the proposal referred to a committee of the Legislative Assembly."Next, it will either be made into a report recommending a bill be introduced or a report recommending the Chief Electoral Officer commence an initiative vote, where Albertans will decide whether public funds should be given to private schools.
