Alberta Increases Fee for Citizen-Initiated Referendums to $25,000 After Flood of Recall Petitions

Alberta Premier Danielle Smith speaks during an Alberta Next Panel town hall in Edmonton on July 16, 2025. Office of the Premier

The Alberta government is hiking the cost to apply for a citizen-initiated referendum to $25,000 in an effort to discourage “frivolous” applicants and ensure only those who are “serious” apply.

The fee increase comes amid a recent wave of recall petitions in Alberta targeting Premier Danielle Smith, several cabinet ministers, and United Conservative Party (UCP) MLAs.

“Increasing the citizen initiative petition application fee set out in the Citizen Initiative Regulation will ensure that only applicants with a serious interest in proposing a legislative initiative, policy initiative, or constitutional referendum question apply,” Heather Jenkins, press secretary for Alberta Justice Minister Mickey Amery, told The Epoch Times in a Dec. 19 email statement.

Citizen initiative petitions are “costly” and the higher fee aims to “discourage frivolous applications and protect Alberta taxpayers,” Jenkins said, adding that the application fee will be refunded to the applicant if they meet the required number of signatures and complete the reporting requirements.

The application fee was increased from $500 to $25,000 on Dec. 17 through an order in council.

Applicants have 30 days to raise funds to cover the cost of the application fee under the Citizen Initiative Act, beginning immediately after the chief electoral officer files notice of the applicant’s intent to apply.

Elections Alberta most recently announced two new recall petitions approved against Alberta Justice Minister Mickey Amery and UCP MLA Jackie Armstrong-Homeniuk, bringing the total number of approved petitions against UCP members to 22. This represents nearly half of the UCP’s 47-member caucus.

Smith told the legislature during question period on Nov. 5 she was concerned that active campaigns are misusing the law in an attempt to destabilize her UCP government, rather than using it for its intended purposes.

“It’s not meant to overthrow and topple governments mid-term,” Smith said. “I don’t believe that the recall petitions have been entered into in good faith. That being said, there is no legislation on the table at the moment to make any changes.”

She said her province would “wait and see” while those behind the petitions attempt to collect enough signatures in their ridings to make the petitions valid.

The province’s Standing Committee on Legislative Offices unanimously voted at a Dec. 12 meeting to grant Elections Alberta an additional $6.7 million in funding to manage the wave of recall petitions.

Four citizen initiative petitions have also been approved in the province this year, one of which has received the required number of signatures—a proposal asking whether Alberta should remain in Canada.

The three other petitions involve Alberta separation, private school funding, and coal mining in Alberta’s Rockies.

The increased application fee will not apply for the potential referendum question on coal mining in the Rockies, submitted by country singer Corby Lund on Dec. 17, Elections Alberta said in a Dec. 19 news release.

The organizers proposing the petitions for an independence referendum in Alberta and for ending private school funding will also avoid the $25,000 fee as they applied before the new fee came into effect.

Alberta NDP justice critic Irfan Sabir criticized the fee hike, saying the UCP government “keeps changing the rules of the game as they go.”

“This change is clearly meant to stifle democratic action by citizens who are simply exercising their rights under legislation created by the UCP themselves,” Sabir said in a statement posted on X. “This is a concerning trend from this government where they change the rules and processes when they no longer work in their favour.”