Elections Alberta is incompetent, arrogant, and lawless, and here is the proof . . .
Agency is simply unfit to police upcoming separatist referendum
If it had not been for our own fully documented experience with lawless behaviour by Elections Alberta, we might well have been inclined to believe Elections Alberta’s claim that only 172,000 of the 196,000 Water Not Coal signatories were legitimate. However, with direct, written evidence of the agency’s brazen defiance of law, we have no choice but to be suspicious of the integrity and basic competence of Elections Alberta.
Here are the facts:
1. At the end of November 2024, Elections Alberta instigated an investigation of funding and spending of Crowsnest Headwaters under the amended Local Authorities Elections which came into effect October 31, more than halfway through the Crowsnest Pass referendum on support for Northback’s Grassy Mountain coal project.
2. The investigation concluded in August 2025 with no finding of financial impropriety but a demand that we refile funding and spending reports with the municipality. This forced us to disclose our donors and the amount of their donations.
3. When I delivered the final reports to the municipality on November 19, 2025, I was told by the Assistant Chief Administrator that the municipality had received a ministerial order during the 2024 referendum stating that the new legislation would not apply to referendum campaigns that were already underway before October 31.
4. Sean Fluker of the University of Calgary public law clinic represented us in this matter. When Sean wrote Elections Commissioner Paula Hale asking why they had pursued the investigation despite the ministerial order, she responded that she did not know about the ministerial order, and if she had, she would have proceeded nonetheless.
No apology. No return of illegally seized documents. Just an arrogant assertion that Election Alberta makes its own law.
The investigation and threat of seizing our assets caused us to suspend fundraising for a year in fear that donations would be confiscated. There were very real personal and financial costs to us.
It is disturbing to know that the institution charged by the legislature with administering Alberta election law is grossly negligent, massively incompetent and believes itself to be above the law. But that is where we are.
How can we trust Elections Alberta in its vetting of the Water Not Coal petition? Answer: We cannot.