Alberta's separatists are running into an administrative snag as they look to collect 177,000 signatures

Alberta’s separatists are facing an unexpected administrative barrier as they push for the 177,732 signatures they need to force a referendum.

While the Alberta independence petition has continued to attract support, says Mitch Sylvestre, the head of the organization leading the effort, they have also been forced to turn away many would-be signatories who live in rural areas. 

That’s because — as in other parts of Canada — Alberta’s country dwellers often don’t have physical addresses on their photo IDs, with many instead using P.O. box numbers. Under current Alberta law, that means those supporters’ driver’s licences are inadequate proof that they reside in the province, rendering them ineligible to sign the petition without additional documentation. 

“It’s been a hindrance, I’m not going to lie to you,” Sylvestre said. 

The administrative hangup could influence how many signatures his organization, Stay Free Alberta, can collect ahead of a May 2 deadline. 

If it meets the 177,732-signature threshold, Stay Free will add its proposed question — “Do you agree that the province of Alberta should cease to be part of Canada to become an independent state?” — to a referendum in October. Should a majority vote “yes,” it would trigger a series of legal and political negotiations that could eventually lead to Alberta’s secession from the Canadian federation.

The province’s separatist movement has gained popularity in recent years, prompting Alberta Premier Danielle Smith to open the door to a referendum. Even so, supporters of separation remain the minority. Only about one-fifth of Albertans want to see the province form an independent nation, according to recent polling data, compared with roughly 70 per cent favouring staying in the federation.

Sylvestre said he wasn’t sure precisely how many signatures Stay Free Alberta might have lost due to the proof-of-address issue, but said it was the single-biggest concern raised by the group’s volunteer canvassers. Stay Free regularly asks supporters to return home and fetch additional documents, Sylvestre said, which is easy enough for city dwellers but much more difficult for rural homeowners who have driven long distances to reach signing booths.

Support for Alberta independence is highest among people living in rural areas and smaller towns, according to Abacus Data, and make up a sizeable portion of Stay Free’s backers. 

Of the supporters who are asked to return with additional documentation, many have eventually signed the petition, Sylvestre said, but it nonetheless causes friction in the process. Still , Sylvestre said he is supportive of the necessary requirements for proof of residency, saying it will ensure the petition cannot be successfully contested. 

“At the end of this, that’s going to make it more legit,” he said. “I don’t have a problem with that.”

“We will have the 177,000 signatures at some point, and we’re going to have the correct information itemized beautifully so that they can verify who these people are, which I think is absolutely critical to the whole process.”

In many parts of rural Canada, legal land descriptions are tied to 160-acre “quarter sections” of land that were divided up around the early 1900s. 

Because those chunks of land are so big — sometimes equal to more than 50 city blocks — mail couriers often refuse to deliver to those properties because the location of the home itself is unclear or hard to reach. Many such quarter sections have since been subdivided, making mail deliveries even more complicated and leading homeowners to rely on PO box addresses, including on their driver’s licences. Proving residency often requires showing additional documents like land title transfers or property tax assessments. 

Sylvestre declined to confirm how many signatures Stay Free Alberta has collected, but said they are on track to meet their goal if they can maintain momentum. 

“If we continue down this path, we’ll have a referendum,” he said. 

A separate petition led by Alberta country music artist Corb Lund, which is seeking to outlaw new coal mining activities on the eastern slopes of the Rocky Mountains due to water contamination concerns, has also raised the issue of PO box numbers. In a Facebook note to supporters earlier this month, the group reminded people who use PO box numbers on their ID to bring additional documents proving legal land descriptions or addresses.

Late last year, the United Conservative Party outlined the terms for citizen-led petitions in Bill 14. As part of the legislation, the government requires signatories to provide identification that both contains a photograph and displays their current residential address. If they don’t have that, they must provide two pieces of ID, each containing a name and proof of residence.

Thomas Lukaszuk, a former Progressive Conservative MLA in Alberta, has presented his own “Forever Canadian” petition in response to Stay Free Alberta’s independence push. The petition has so far collected 438,568 signatures, according to the Elections Alberta website.

Unlike the Stay Free initiative, however, Forever Canadian will not force a referendum question and is instead requesting a vote on the principles of separation in the Alberta legislature.

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