00:00:00.000Will you put the referendum question to the ballot as a government question after the ruling today by Justice Leonel?
00:00:07.600Well, although our government does support Alberta remaining in Canada,
00:00:11.820we think that today's decision by the court will deny opportunity to well over 300,000 Albertans to have their petition verified by Elections Alberta.
00:00:21.240We think that this decision is incorrect in law and anti-democratic, and we will be appealing it as a result.
00:00:29.200Our cabinet and caucus will, of course, be meeting in the next couple of days to discuss the full context and make some decisions after we've had a chance to talk it through.
00:00:38.700The fact that there are hundreds of thousands probably of Albertans who believe that should have been put to a question as well,
00:00:46.400and the fact that the justice decided that there needed to be consultation, it's unclear what that means exactly in the future.
00:00:54.380What does it say about the fact that independence movements or just the question of independence movements in Canada moving ahead?
00:01:04.080Is Canada, I don't know, a prison that you can't get out of with any other means?
00:01:10.120Well, you know, I guess we will have to talk with our Quebec counterparts to see what they think about this kind of ruling.
00:01:15.860I would say that it is a single judge who's made a decision, and we have now 700,000 Albertans, whether they're on the Remain side or the Leave side, who've said that they want to have this public debate.
00:01:30.600So our citizen initiative petition was always meant to be very permissive, and we kept on having to modify it to ensure that that permissive quality was in there.
00:01:42.320we want to hear from Albertans. That's what we think democracy is. And we'll be meeting with our
00:01:46.660caucus and cabinet to further review the decision and decide next steps. But as I say, since we
00:01:53.400believe that this one is incorrect in law and anti-democratic, we will be appealing it.
00:01:57.920I just spoke with Mitch Sylvester, the CEO of the Alberta Prosperity Project, and he told me that
00:02:02.680he expected this court decision to come down the way that it did. And he also expects you
00:02:07.500to call a referendum in response to it uh so you know i'm wondering what your message is
00:02:12.880for the people who do expect you to call a referendum well as you as you know uh we make
00:02:18.760our decisions in government through a process that includes committees uh through cabinet as
00:02:23.860well as through caucus and so my caucus has just learned of this decision it just came down while
00:02:28.660we were in the legislature and haven't had a time to get together and discuss what we what our next
00:02:33.740steps will be. The committee has been meeting to look at the Forever Canada petition and to offer
00:02:39.640some suggestions about what should be done with that one as well. But we haven't made a decision
00:02:44.060yet. But I can tell you on this case in particular, this judgment, we think that there has been
00:02:49.320an error in law, which is why we're going to be appealing it. And we think it's anti-democratic.
00:02:55.980We want to make sure that the citizens who participate in good faith in this process
00:03:00.780have an expectation that the elections Alberta is going to validate their signatures. That's
00:03:05.540been stopped in this case, and that's part of the reason why we're going to appeal. But we'll have
00:03:09.080more to say once I have had a chance to talk with cabinet and caucus. Is Mr. Sylvester mistaken in
00:03:14.980his assumption that you will call the referendum? He's certainly one voice of many that I will no
00:03:20.200doubt hear from over the next short while. But the decision makers on these kinds of issues are