With the Alberta Referendum looming, Albertans may wonder what happens next for the province, and what ultimately happens with the results of the vote.
The referendum includes 10 questions. Albertans will vote on Monday. Questions one to five cover immigration, while questions six through nine address proposed constitutional changes.
Question 10 asks Albertans about the potential to separate, and is the most prevalent on people’s minds.
Alexa Briggs is the executive vice president of the Nonprofit Chamber, a Calgary-based organization that represents the interests of Alberta’s nonprofit sector, whose work could be affected by the referendum questions.
“The first five related to immigration are not binding results. The government can choose to act or not act on them as they wish, regardless,” said Briggs. “And the constitutional questions, the four questions after that, are binding, which means that the government has to try.”
“There’s processes that have to be followed, but they have to try, and the separation question is not binding,” Briggs continued.
A vote in favour of separatism would not necessarily be a vote to leave Canada, but would instead indicate interest in and support for the Government of Alberta to start legal proceedings to hold a binding referendum on separation in the future.
Because questions one through five are non-binding, the results will inform the Government of Alberta about the views of its people, without creating any legal requirement to act on or implement the results.
But the governing UCP, seeking more control over federal jurisdictions like immigration, will use a yes vote to support its attempts to take more power from Ottawa.
“On the immigration questions, the province would largely make those decisions as a cabinet and so would have the ability to choose what path they want to go down and how they want to respond to the results of the immigration question directly as a government,” said Ruhee Ismail-Teja, the vice president of policy and external affairs at the Calgary Chamber.
Regarding the constitutional questions and their impact on the province’s next steps, work will still be needed after the referendum, regardless of how the province votes.
“Alberta can’t change the constitution on its own,” said Briggs. “We do have to work with other provinces to get their agreement.”
Generally, constitutional changes require a motion in both the House of Commons and the Senate, as well as resolutions from seven provincial legislatures representing 50 percent of Canada’s population, according to the Government of Canada Department of Justice.
If a majority of Albertans voted in favour of the constitutional questions, the Alberta government would need to work with other provincial governments to implement these changes.
“There’d be quite a bit of negotiation with other levels of government, and so that’s other provinces and the federal government as well, about moving some of those policy changes forward,” said Ismail-Teja.
Ultimately, the referendum will not decide Alberta’s future in Canada, but instead point to next steps.
The issue of the province’s future in Canada likely won’t end if the separatism vote fails on Monday. Alberta separatists have vowed to continue fighting for an independent Alberta.