The Alberta government has amended its proposed referendum legislation to make it clear that citizen-initiated petitions cannot infringe on the treaty rights of indigenous peoples.
The amendments respond to feedback from First Nations and indigenous partners and are intended to “reassert” the province’s commitment to protecting treaty rights in the event of a citizen-initiated referendum, Justice Minister Mickey Amery said in a May 14 statement. “Since introducing the legislation, we have been clear that any citizen-initiated referendum question must not violate the constitutional rights of First Nations, Inuit and Métis Peoples, and must uphold and honour Treaties 6, 7 and 8,” Amery said.
Alberta Premier Danielle Smith sent a letter to First Nations chiefs a day earlier, affirming her government’s commitment to upholding treaty rights and describing the proposed amendment as a reflection of that commitment.
First Nations representatives voiced concerns after the province
introduced Bill 54, the Election Statutes Amendment Act, on April 29. The legislation would lower the bar for citizen-initiated referendums, reducing the number of signatures required, and extending the time to collect them. They argue the changes and a potential separation referendum would infringe treaty rights.
The new amendment
adds a subsection to Bill 54, stating that, “Nothing in a referendum held under this Act is to be construed as abrogating or derogating from any existing Aboriginal and treaty rights of the Aboriginal peoples of Canada that are recognized and affirmed by section 35 of the Constitution Act, 1982.”
The premier has
said that while she does not support secession, she would uphold the democratic process if a separation question meets the requirements to trigger a referendum.
The referendum reforms are meant to give Albertans a way to express their views, she previously said, noting that many were “deeply frustrated” after the federal Liberals, whose policies the province says have harmed Alberta’s economy over the past decade, won a fourth term.
Indigenous representatives have argued the premier is “attempting to manufacture a national unity crisis” by making it easier to hold a referendum.
“Please be advised that your irresponsible statements and actions are in breach of Treaties No. 6, 7 and 8,” Sturgeon Lake Cree Nation Chief Sheldon Sunshine and Mikisew Cree First Nation Chief Billy-Joe Tuccaro wrote in an April 30
letter to the premier.
“Our Treaties are sacred covenants and are to last forever. Alberta did not exist when our ancestors agreed to share the land with the Crown,” they added. “The province has no authority to supersede or interfere with our Treaties, even indirectly by passing the buck to a ‘citizen’ referendum.”
Protecting treaty rights in any citizen-initiated referendum is “non-negotiable,” Smith said on May 5 when announcing the province’s response to the federal election, which included allowing a question on separation to appear on a 2026 referendum ballot if the requirements were met. She reiterated that stance in her May 13 letter to First Nations chiefs.
“I want to restate that as Premier, I will continue to fight with all that I have to protect both the constitutional sovereignty of the Province of Alberta, as well as the rights of First Nations living in Alberta,” the premier wrote in a May 13 letter obtained by The Epoch Times.
“As Premier, I am entirely committed to protecting, upholding and honouring the constitutional rights of First Nations, Métis and Inuit peoples,” she added. “This includes ensuring that any citizen-initiated referendum, if passed, must uphold and honour Treaties 6, 7 and 8.”
Reactions
Indigenous representatives Sunshine and Tuccaro reacted to the amendment, saying the new clause “means nothing,” and that it only recognizes existing rights and not their treaty jurisdiction.“Bill 54 is harmful to our Treaty relationship by giving individuals the ability to direct what happens on Treaty land, a Treaty that the Alberta government is not party to,” they wrote in a May 14
statement.
“This act alone is a breach of Treaty and is not the government of Alberta’s jurisdiction,” they added, arguing the legislation will make the petition threshold “dangerously low” and guarantee a secession petition’s success.
Bill 54, which
passed third reading on the evening of May 14, would lower the number of signatures required for a citizen-led petition from more than 600,000 to 177,000, and extend the collection period from 90 to 120 days.
The premier asked First Nations chiefs in her May 13 letter to work with the provincial government to support Alberta’s economic growth. She said Ottawa’s “anti-resource and anti-development policies” had reduced the standards of living for Albertans, including indigenous people.
She invited them to join an Alberta delegation on a future trip to Ottawa, at a date yet to be announced, to “advocate that Alberta, including the First Nations in Alberta, receive our fair share of federal funding.”
The May 14
amendments to Bill 54 also revise the timelines for investigating election misconduct and include a clause to preserve the guidelines disallowing mail-in ballots for constitutional referendums.
