May be too late to put coal question on October vote: Danielle Smith

Alberta Premier Danielle Smith is suggesting it’s too late to put an anti-coal mining petition question to a provincewide referendum this fall.

Earlier this month, Alberta musician Corb Lund delivered what he said were more than 200,000 signatures in support of his petition.

If the required 178,000 signatures are verified, Smith’s government would be forced to consider passing a law banning new coal mining or sending it to a provincewide referendum.

The United Conservative government is already putting 10 questions on the ballot Oct. 19.

Those include one asking Albertans whether they want the province to remain in Canada or hold a second referendum on secession.

Smith has previously said it was her government’s intention to put Lund’s question on the Oct. 19 ballot should it get the required signatures.

Speaking at an unrelated announcement Wednesday, Smith was asked whether she will.

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She said Elections Alberta, the body in charge of administering votes, has now said they needed to receive all final questions by June 1 to prepare for the referendum.

Smith said the government is still waiting on the signature validation process, but the petition could go to a legislature committee. The legislature is not scheduled to reconvene until Oct. 27.

“They’ll decide what direction to take with it,” she said of the committee that will be made up of a majority of her caucus members.

“It could result in a recommendation for a provincewide vote which would take place in October of 2027.”

Smith suggested that the other option — a bill to be voted on in the house — might get complicated.

“There’s some implications on private property rights that we would have to consider because we have legislation that requires compensation in the event that private property rights are taken away,” she said.

She also pointed to a local referendum supportive of a proposed mining project in the Crowsnest Pass, saying that, too, will have an impact on how the government proceeds.

Lund has said he expects Smith’s government to abide by what Albertans demanded when they signed the petition, but he doesn’t trust them either.

Lund, in a statement late Wednesday, said he was shocked by Smith’s remarks.

He said he met with the premier in mid-May and no June deadline was mentioned.

“To be told that the petition won’t make the ballot because it allegedly missed a June 1 deadline is unacceptable,” he said.

“My team, all the canvassers and Albertans in general deserve consistency, honesty and fair treatment around these petition and direct democracy issues that the Premier has professed to believe in so strongly, so many times.”

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