LAKELAND - The Bonnyville-Cold Lake-St. Paul area is the centre of the populist movement in Alberta, according to Alberta Prosperity Project (APP) CEO Mitch Sylvestre.
Sylvestre spoke to Lakeland This Week in a wide-ranging interview ahead of planned sovereignty townhalls in Bonnyville on June 23 and Calgary on June 25.
“Bonnyville is by far the most active populist area in Alberta. We have the largest attendance at AGMs three years in a row. We have the most participation of any CA [constituency association] in the UCP [United Conservative Party],” said Sylvestre, who is also the Chair of the UCP’s Bonnyville-Cold Lake-St. Paul Constituency Association.
Sylvestre is touring Alberta ahead of a citizen’s initiative petition for a referendum with a question that asks: “Do you agree the Province of Alberta shall become a Sovereign Country and cease to be a province of Canada? Yes or No.”
The application for the petition was filed with Elections Alberta on May 23, but had not been approved as of Lakeland This Week’s press deadline.
“We submitted our original question with the cover letter saying that we wanted to have this petition put in on the day that the new ratification process, the new Citizen’s Initiative Act comes in,” said Sylvestre.
Once Bill 54 is proclaimed and becomes the law, proponents of the sovereignty movement will need to collect 177,000 signatures in support of the petition within 120 days – an easier bar to clear than the previous 20 per cent of voters from two-thirds of constituencies within 90 days.
Sylvestre said the APP is still waiting for Elections Alberta and the provincial government to answer questions about who would be able to vote in a referendum and what would be considered a clear majority.
“It's going to change the way we campaign and change the way we do everything,” said Sylvestre. “We have to understand the rules of the game before we go into the game, so that they can't be changed midstream.”
“We don't want a whole bunch of people that have never been here for any amount of time, even if they’re now a resident, pushing to control the result of this election, because there's a lot at stake here,” said Sylvestre.
Surprised by lack of opposition
One thing that has surprised Sylvestre over the course of his Alberta tour has been the lack of opposition to the plan to separate.
“And I thought there was going to be tons, because I just did the pension tour too,” said Sylvestre.
A 2023 engagement survey by the province showed 63 per cent of respondents were opposed, 10 per cent were in favour, and 12 per cent were undecided or unsure about leaving the Canada Pension Plan in favour of a provincial pension plan. Fifteen per cent of responses were incomplete, made alternate suggestions, or had questions about the implementation.
Asked if the lack of opposition to an independent Alberta was real, or if most people are simply choosing to ignore the separatist talk, Sylvestre said most of the people who have come out to the events around the province have never been to a political meeting before.
A May Angus Reid poll showed “a smaller group say they would vote to leave than say they would like to hold a referendum.” If a referendum were held, 52 per cent would definitely vote to stay versus 19 per cent who would definitely vote to leave.
“It's very clear to me, Alberta will never be in as bad a position as they are now based on the work that we're doing. No matter what happens to this referendum, this is going to be a net gain for the people in the province of Alberta, no matter what happens,” said Sylvestre.
Called “The Courage to Listen: Building a Framework for a Sovereign Alberta,” the Calgary townhall is being sponsored by eight UCP constituency associations, including Calgary-Acadia, Calgary-South East, Bonnyville-Cold Lake-St. Paul, Grande Prairie-Wapiti, Highwood, Maskwacis-Wetaskiwin, Airdrie East, and Calgary-Lougheed.
Confirmed speakers at the Calgary event include authors Matthew Ehret and Dr. Michael Wagner, Alberta Institute libertarian Peter McCaffrey, Kris Sims of the Canadian Taxpayers Federation, democratic reform advocate Ben Trudeau, and legal scholar Bruce Pardy. Provincial Minster of Energy and Minerals and MLA for Fort McMurray-Lac La Biche Brian Jean was initially advertised as a speaker at the event but issued a statement saying he had no plans to attend.
“They [Federalists] won't come to the hall and talk about it with us. And that was the same thing with our pension. There's no other side to these conversations, and that's why they're not coming out. Their only thing that they've got is the emotional part of leaving Canada, and that's all that they're banking on to win this fight, because there's no facts to support it,” said Sylvestre.
According to Sylvestre, everything they share at their events has been vetted for accuracy “so that we cannot get called out and say that we're sensationalizing. Because that's absolutely not the point of it.”
He added, “The point of it is this: we're in a situation right now where I believe this is the most important political decision any of us will ever, ever make.”
APP
According to the Alberta Prosperity Project’s website, the APP is a non-profit group working towards “Alberta’s independence, whether within or outside Canada.”
Their “road map to sovereignty” includes an Alberta pension plan, financial autonomy, replacing the RCMP with a provincial police force, control over natural resources, and control over immigration.
The current division of powers between federal and provincial governments already gives Alberta control over natural resources within its borders and shared control over immigration.
According to Sylvestre, “We're landlocked right now as a province . . . We're also policy locked, which as an independent nation, we would not be policy locked. Then we could negotiate with BC, and we can send a pipeline south.”
According to figures from the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers, 98 per cent of all Canadian crude produced is exported to the United States. According to figures from the Government of Alberta, petroleum products make up approximately 82 per cent of Alberta’s $162.1 billion in total annual exports to the United States.
If Alberta became an independent nation, Sylvestre believes a pipeline from Grande Prairie to Prince Rupert is “not only a very real possibility, I think it’s actually a slam dunk.” He cited the support of 80 per cent of the First Nations along the proposed route for Northern Gateway between Bruderheim and Kitimat before it was cancelled in 2016.
Asked about the Treaties and formal statements by numerous band councils opposing separation, including Cold Lake First Nation and Otipemisiwak Métis Government, Sylvestre said once Indigenous people see the plan, he believes they will be "100 per cent on board."
“They’re not getting a very good deal right now,” said Sylvestre. “Would we be better off to give our Aboriginal people three and a half billion dollars as compared to what they’re getting now and have them spend it all here rather than send it to Québec? I’m talking about giving the bands more disposable income,” said Sylvestre.
