The provincial government is proposing sweeping changes to citizen-led referendum questions that could put a stop to an active court case about whether it’s constitutional to ask Albertans if they agree with separating from Canada.
Bill 14, introduced Thursday by Justice Minister Mickey Amery, transfers powers from the chief electoral officer to the minister when deciding whether citizen petition initiatives should proceed.
It also includes an amendment to discontinue any court proceeding brought by the chief electoral officer.
The legislation comes just weeks after Court of King’s Bench Justice Colin Feasby heard arguments about a question that chief electoral officer Gordon McClure referred to the courts, seeking an opinion on its constitutionality. The judge’s decision is supposed to be issued in the coming weeks.
Amery said the changes are about creating a “permissive environment” for Albertans trying to bring referendum questions.
He said the court case currently underway “may or may not continue.”
“The reality is that the court’s entitled to make a decision on any question put to it, independent of what we’re doing here.”
If Bill 14 is passed, only the minister would be able to refer a citizen referendum question to the courts. That power currently rests with the chief electoral officer. The minister would also be allowed to recommend changes to a constitutional referendum question before it’s put to voters.
Additionally, the legislation proposes amendments to restrict the names political parties are allowed to use, limit some of the powers of the province’s legal regulator, and implement government oversight over a non-profit that distributes grants for legal education and justice work.
Alberta NDP deputy leader Rakhi Pancholi said Thursday that the Opposition will “fiercely object” to the legislation.
If passed, Bill 14 will result in political parties in Alberta not being allowed to register using “a word or phrase associated with” another party. Justice Minister Mickey Amery and NDP deputy leader Rakhi Pancholi speak about the legislation.
“There are so many pieces in here that are problematic and should be of deep concern to all Albertans,” she said.
“It sounds like the UCP Minister of Justice, Mickey Amery, is quickly becoming the most powerful person in Alberta. Because he’s given himself an incredible amount of authority.”
Future of court case on referendum question
Lawyer Jeffrey Rath is representing Alberta Prosperity Project executive Mitch Sylvestre, who’s behind the potential referendum question that would ask Albertans whether they agree the province “shall become a sovereign country and cease to be a province in Canada.”
Rath said in an interview that he believes the province is interfering in the current court case.
“I think they’re afraid we’re going to win and we’re going to get a court saying what we’re doing is perfectly fine and constitutional,” he said.
Lawyers involved in the case are due in court a final time on Friday, then they’ll wait for a decision.
“The bill isn’t passed until the bill is passed,” Rath said.
“Until the legislature says, ‘We don’t have a court case,’ we still have a court case.”
The Alberta Prosperity Project issued a statement Thursday evening, calling Bill 14 an “unintended gift to pro-independence Albertans” that will remove the “red tape” that has stalled progress on its referendum question.
The legislation also amends the Citizen Initiative Act to remove the provision that proposals can’t contravene the Constitution or exceed the jurisdiction of the legislature.
Any citizen initiative petition that hasn’t been issued by the time the amendments take effect will be quashed. But Bill 14 allows the applicants to resubmit within 30 days without paying another fee.
Two citizen petitions — one on whether Albertans agree the province should remain in Canada, and one asking if the province should stop allocating public funds to independent or private schools — have been issued by Elections Alberta.
Changes to election rules
Bill 14 also proposes to restrict the names of political parties, making it so they won’t be allowed to register using “a word or phrase associated with” another party.
There is still some discretion left to the chief electoral officer, but the bill contains a list of words and phrases that can’t be used. These include: conservative, advantage, communist, democratic, green, independence, liberal, pro-life, reform, Republican, solidarity and wild rose.
Amery said the changes are aimed at stopping efforts like the one that saw more than 200 candidates listed on the federal byelection ballot for Battle River-Crowfoot this year.
“Some folks out there want to confuse people into voting for them based on the name ‘conservative,’ but this is not a partisan issue,” he said.
“It would be no different than a party coming forward and seeking to register a name ‘The Alberta Democrats’ or “the New Liberals’ or ‘the Greenest Party.’ This is not what we want for the landscape here in Alberta.”
But the change will also affect two former United Conservative Party MLAs, who left the party to sit as independents and are now trying to re-register Alberta’s Progressive Conservative Party.
The amendments to naming rules, if passed, apply retroactively to July 2025.
One of the MLAs, Peter Guthrie, said it’s “wild” that the UCP government is preventing the word “conservative” from being used by any other party.
“[The premier] knows and she realizes how dangerous a moderate, fiscally conservative party is for them — and that’s what we are,” he said.
“You can call us what we will — I don’t know, the Progressive Redacted Party? I don’t know what it’s going to look like, but we’re going to be going back to the drawing board to figure something out.”
Changes affecting Alberta’s legal community
The legislation also includes specific changes that would curtail the type of training the province’s legal regulator can mandate for lawyers.
The Law Society of Alberta will be restricted to requiring a law degree or qualification certificate, bar admission course and training imposed as a result of disciplinary proceedings as mandatory education for practising lawyers.
Any mandatory training also has to comply with the requirements of the government’s Regulated Professions Neutrality Act, which, among other changes, says regulators can’t require “cultural competency, unconscious bias, or diversity, equity and inclusion training.”
In 2023, a group of Alberta lawyers petitioned the law society to remove a rule that lets the regulator mandate legal education over a required Indigenous cultural competency course.
That effort was defeated, and one of the lawyers involved, Roger Song, sought a judicial review of the decision. A judge dismissed the application in September.
Amendments to the province’s Legal Profession Act would also make it so the province’s attorney general — a role held by the justice minister — is immune from sanctions for actions they take that are “part of their official duties.”
Pancholi, with the NDP, questioned whether Amery is putting himself in a conflict of interest by introducing “a piece of legislation where he gives himself immunity.”
Two former United Conservative justice ministers have faced law society proceedings in recent years.
The complaint against lawyer Tyler Shandro stemmed from his time as health minister. He was found not guilty of unprofessional conduct.
Kaycee Madu was reprimanded by the law society this year over a phone call he made to former Edmonton police Chief Dale McFee shortly after receiving a traffic ticket in 2021.
Madu’s appeal of that decision is set for a hearing in February.
Bill 14 calls for appeals of law society disciplinary decisions to be heard in the Court of King’s Bench, rather than by a 24-member governance board made up of other lawyers known as Benchers.
The legislation would additionally give the justice minister direct oversight over parts of the Alberta Law Foundation.
The foundation, a non-profit that has historically operated independently from government, receives interest revenue from Alberta lawyers’ pooled trust accounts, where client funds are held. That money is then distributed through grants to other organizations to support legal aid, access-to-justice initiatives and legal education.
The changes in Bill 14 would give the justice minister authority to impose, approve or reject Alberta Law Foundation bylaws, and require them to make bylaws subject to the minister’s directives.
