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Chaos descended upon a bipartisan Alberta legislature meeting determining the fate of an anti-Alberta separatism question Wednesday afternoon.
A committee of MLAs established to review Thomas Lukaszuk’s Forever Canadian petition recommended the province include a question for Albertans to vote on the province remaining in Canada during the Oct. 19 provincial referendum, according to a news release issued by the United Conservative Party.
The problem is: that did not happen.
The UCP news release was issued shortly after 3 p.m., while the Select Special Citizen Initiative Proposal Review Committee meeting was still underway and before a vote had been held — leading to confusion and chaos both inside and outside the room.
The motion was expected to pass, given the UCP members on the committee outnumber the Opposition NDP members, but it was still being debated when the UCP caucus published the premature statement announcing the vote had taken place and the motion had passed.
“I understand the UCP has already issued a release about a referendum being called and that’s already been released to media,” said Edmonton-Whitemud NDP MLA Rakhi Pancholi in the meeting.
“So a little awkward since we’re still debating the motion but perhaps, that is because this committee has always been treated like a sham by the members opposite.”
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The news release had said with more than 400,000 Albertans signing Lukaszuk’s Forever Canada petition, combined with the reported 301,000 who signed the Alberta Independence petition, it meant over 700,000 Albertans deserved the opportunity to have their voices heard in a referendum.
The NDP members of the review committee called a point of privilege after realizing the news release had been sent out before a motion had been voted on.
“I have just had the opportunity to review an absolutely shocking news release,” said NDP MLA Christina Grey, who then read out a section of the news release containing quotes from committee chair Brandon Lunty, who is a UCP backbencher.
“Oftentimes, it feels like the politics of the UCP is a stage play to exercise their power to do what they want — but I very seriously raise this point of privilege now, because it has been nevermore apparent than the fact this committee is still meeting and still debating this motion and a press release from you as the chair has already gone out.”
The NDP members said the premature release called into question the process and Lunty’s impartiality and called for it to be brought to the legislature Speaker’s attention.
The United Conservatives voted against escalating the issue but time on the meeting ran out before the vote on the Oct. 19 referendum could occur.
Lunty asked for consent to extend the meeting, which was denied.
The meeting was then adjourned without a vote being held, meaning the committee did not recommend the question be added to the referendum ballot as the premature news release indicated.
The news release, which even had laudatory quotes from chair Lunty, was pulled back by the caucus about 20 minutes later.
“We would like to clarify that the previous statement was inadvertently distributed in error. Please disregard the earlier communication,” UCP caucus communications said.
This is a breaking news story. More to come…
–with files from The Canadian Press
© 2026 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.
