A special court proceeding on a proposed Alberta separation referendum question is scheduled to get underway today in Edmonton.
A hearing at the Court of King’s Bench is expected to begin Thursday morning.
Gordon McClure, Alberta’s chief electoral officer, referred the proposed question to the court last week, asking a judge to determine whether it violates the Constitution, including treaty rights.
The question asks Albertans: “Do you agree that the province of Alberta shall become a sovereign country and cease to be a province in Canada?”
Premier Danielle Smith and Justice Minister Mickey Amery have criticized the referral to the courts, saying the question should be approved and only face judicial scrutiny if it receives a majority vote.
Multiple groups, including the Athabasca Chipewyan First Nation in northern Alberta, said they’re hoping to make submissions.
A letter sent this week to Court of King’s Bench Justice Colin Feasby by a government lawyer said Amery intends to make submissions as well.
The letter also said Mitch Sylvestre, an executive with the Alberta Prosperity Project who proposed the question, plans to apply to have the case struck and end the judicial review before it begins. A lawyer for the group did not respond to questions Wednesday.
If the question is approved, Sylvestre would need to collect 177,000 signatures in four months to get it put on a ballot.
The government’s letter reiterates that Amery believes the question should be approved.
“The minister’s position is that the proposal is not unconstitutional, and therefore should be approved and permitted to proceed,” the letter reads.
“It is settled law that the government of any province of Canada is entitled to consult its population by referendum on any issue, and that the result on a referendum on the secession of a province, if sufficiently clear, is to be taken as an expression of democratic will.”
McClure’s office said it can’t comment further because the matter is before the courts.
A competing referendum question was approved by McClure in June and asks if Alberta should declare an official policy that it will never separate from Canada.
Efforts to gather signatures for that proposal, put forward by former Progressive Conservative deputy premier Thomas Lukaszuk, started last week.
Lukaszuk needs to collect nearly 300,000 signatures in 90 days in order to get his question on a ballot, as his application was approved before new provincial rules with lower signature thresholds took effect.
