Editor’s note: A previous version did not mention a vote would need to be held in a riding if a recall petition is successful.
A second member of the Alberta legislature is facing a citizen petition to recall her from her job.
Alberta’s chief electoral officer Gordon McClure, speaking Monday to a legislature committee, said a recall campaign has been approved for United Conservative member Angela Pitt.
McClure didn’t say what reasoning was given by the applicant, but the person can start collecting signatures Wednesday. He said the applicant has until early February to gather just under 15,000 signatures from residents in the riding.
If the petition drive is successful and the signatures are validated, a vote would be held within four months in the Calgary-area riding and, if more than half the voters cast a ballot to remove Pitt, she would be unseated as a member of the legislature.
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Pitt, who represents Airdrie-East, also serves as deputy Speaker of the legislature.
Pitt said in a statement she takes her role seriously and recalls shouldn’t be approved just because people disagree with government policy.
“Recalls are meant to address breaches of trust, serious misconduct or a sustained failure to represent constituents, not political disagreements,” she said.
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It comes weeks after another recall petition was approved for Education Minister Demetrios Nicolaides, with the applicant alleging the minister is failing in his duties by undermining the public education system.
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Nicolaides has also said recalls shouldn’t be used for political disagreements.
There have been rumblings that other members of the United Conservative Party caucus are targets for recall petitions. Service Alberta Minister Dale Nally told reporters last week he was aware of more than a dozen campaigns.
Another potential target is Indigenous Relations Minister Rajan Sawhney, who faced an angry crowd that broke out into chants of “Recall! Recall!” at a recent constituency event.
Videos circulating online show Sawhney addressing the crowd and pointing out that several people are wearing red, a colour of support for Alberta teachers. The government invoked the notwithstanding clause in back-to-work legislation last week to end a provincewide teachers strike.
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“I would ask for respect for me and my staff,” Sawhney said, inciting a chorus of boos and shouts from the audience.
“Respect the teachers!” yelled one person in response.
McClure didn’t mention other recall applications to the committee on Monday. But he did ask for an additional $13.5 million in budget funding, as he said verifying these petitions and other potential referendum initiatives requires additional staff and resources.
“It is worth mentioning the recall process and verification activity coincides with the two citizen initiative verification processes,” McClure said.
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Former deputy premier Thomas Lukaszuk has filed a petition and wants a policy stating Alberta will never separate from Canada. A second policy initiative wants the province to cease funding private schools.
“To say this is straining our organization from both a staffing and space perspective is an understatement,” said McClure.
McClure’s request was ultimately shut down by the UCP majority-held committee, which approved additional support of $1.45 million. McClure said the $13.5 million requested was “crucial for my office to maintain a state of functionality and readiness.”
He told the committee his current budget hadn’t accounted for recall petitions being approved and that seeing each application from start to finish would cost roughly $1 million.
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Nolan Dyck, the United Conservative legislature member who put forward the reduced funding request, said he didn’t think the government should provide more money to help McClure’s office handle the recalls, as there are no guarantees that either will get enough signatures.
Another UCP committee member, Scott Cyr, said the government is ultimately accountable to taxpayers.
Opposition NDP members said the government was dodging responsibility, as McClure is required to spend resources on each application under the law.
“They claim that they want these processes to be available there for Albertans. But when it comes down to the actual practice, the actual rub, they don’t want to cut the cheque,” said NDP legislature member David Shepherd.
McClure’s office wasn’t immediately able to comment on the reduced funding.
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