Alberta’s United Conservative government has bumped the application fee for its citizen-led referendums from $500 to $25,000.
The amendment to Section 2 of the Citizen Initiative Act was approved on Wednesday evening.
A statement from the Ministry of Justice says petitions that had already been submitted under the former rules can still be subject to the $500 fee if they reapply within 30 days of the bill coming into effect.
“Increasing the citizen initiative petition application fee set out in the Citizen Initiative Regulation will ensure that only applicants with serious interest in proposing a legislative initiative, policy initiative or constitutional referendum question apply,” said the ministry’s press secretary Heather Jenkins in an email to CTV News Edmonton.
“Citizen initiative petitions are costly and that is why a higher application fee was chosen to discourage frivolous applications and protect Alberta taxpayers.”
Jenkins added that the application fee will be refundable if the applicant meets the required threshold of signatures and completes reporting requirements.
Currently, there are four citizen-led initiatives in varying degrees of completion through Elections Alberta: the Alberta Forever Canada petition, Alberta Funds Public Schools petition, A Referendum Relating to Alberta Independence and No New Coal Mining in Alberta’s Rockies.
The application for a referendum on coal mining brought forth by Corb Lund was already sent back to the drawing board after amendments to the same legislation last week voided his recently approved application.
If Lund reapplies within 30 days from Dec. 11, when the bill was given Royal Assent, the petition will not be subject to the $25,000 fee.
An application by Mitch Sylvestre on Alberta independence also had to be resubmitted last week. Sylvestre had responded with a notice of intent on Monday that absolves him of paying a new application fee.
The province said citizens can still fundraise for the application fee.
The changes do not apply to recall petitions, which fall under the Recall Act.
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With files from CTV News Edmonton’s Angela Amato
Correction
A previous version of this story said citizens could not fundraise to cover application fee costs and that Corb Lund's petition would be exclusively subject to the $25,000 fine. The story has since been corrected.
