Elections Alberta Gets $6.7 Million Funding to Deal With Wave of Recall Petitions

Voters leave a polling station after casting ballots in an Alberta byelection for the Olds-Didsbury-Three Hills riding, in Cremona, Alta., on June 23, 2025. The Canadian Press/Jeff McIntosh

Elections Alberta is receiving an additional $6.7 million to manage the recent wave of recall petitions issued against elected officials in the province.

The province’s Standing Committee on Legislative Offices unanimously voted to grant the funding at a Dec. 12 meeting.

Chief Electoral Officer Gordon McClure had told the committee on Dec. 5 that his office required the funds to “manage an unprecedented spike in recall petition activity.”

“I am simply requesting the funds that my office requires to address a significant increase in activity and changes that have recently taken place, most of which are beyond our control and ability to defer until the 2026-27 fiscal period,” McClure told the committee.

Elections Alberta has issued 21 recall petitions against Alberta MLAs since the end of October, with United Conservative Party (UCP) MLAs as the main targets, including Alberta Premier Danielle Smith, in addition to one NDP MLA, Amanda Chapman, who serves as her party’s education critic.

McClure told the committee on Dec. 5 that his office requires approximately $318,000 to verify each recall petition, with a total estimated cost to complete the delivery and verification process of roughly $6.7 million. Additionally, the staffing to deliver and verify the 21 petitions will amount to an estimated $2.4 million, McClure noted.

Elections Alberta initially predicted it would cost approximately $1.1 million to complete each petition verification.

“What we found, using a process that we have implemented, is that it could be completed in a shorter amount of time and at a reduced cost without compromising the accuracy and signature authenticity requirements,” McClure told the committee.

Several MLAs at the Dec. 12 committee meeting said they were glad to see Elections Alberta had crunched its numbers.

“I’m glad to see that the election commissioner brought back a budget that looks like it’s going to go unanimously through this committee,” UCP MLA Scott Cyr said.

“We needed him to go back and look at what he was presenting. He did, and we accept that in its entirety.”

Meanwhile, NDP MLA Lorne Dach, also speaking at the Dec. 12 committee meeting, called the UCP’s support of Elections Alberta a “stunning reversal” compared to what the government had proposed earlier in the legislative session, which was to cut funding requested by Elections Alberta by a third.

Cyr assured the committee that his party supports the election commissioner and Elections Alberta “on the good work that they’re doing.”

The election commissioner is an independent role within Elections Alberta, responsible for ensuring compliance with and enforcement of provincial election laws.

“There was never a chance of not funding him; it was just that, at that moment in time, the numbers needed to be looked at and obviously for good reason,” UCP MLA Chelsae Petrovic said at the meeting.

“It wasn’t about not funding this individual. It was about making sure that the dollars were being spent appropriately, and looking at how this has played out.”

Allegations

Recall petitions have included numerous allegations against various UCP MLAs, such as that MLAs are overlooking their constituents; trying to privatize education, health care, and other services; voting for budget cuts; and voting against organized labour.

Recall legislation was introduced by former Alberta Premier Jason Kenney in 2021 and came into force in 2022. The act was amended earlier this year to give petitioners more time to collect signatures and to lower the number of signatures required. The province said the move would “make it easier for Albertans to hold elected officials accountable.”

However, the legislation wasn’t used until October this year, when the wave of recall petitions began to be issued.

To apply for a recall petition, the petitioner must live in the electoral division of the MLA they want recalled and provide a statement of 100 words or less on why they want the MLA recalled. They must also pay a $500 filling fee and collect signatures within 90 days totalling at least 60 percent of the votes recorded in the electoral division the last provincial election.

Both Smith and Kenney have said the recall system was only meant for serious breaches of public trust and misconduct, not as a process for airing out policy grievances.

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.

Jennifer Cowan, Paul Rowan Brian, and The Canadian Press contributed to this report.