Recall organizers say UCP MLAs limiting Elections Alberta funding thwarts their efforts

The organizers of some grassroots campaigns to recall United Conservative Party MLAs say a refusal to properly fund Elections Alberta is interfering with democratic rights.

On Monday, Alberta’s chief electoral officer Gordon McClure told an all-party legislative committee that Elections Alberta needed another $13.5 million in funding for the remainder of the fiscal year to handle recall petitions and citizen initiative petitions that had already been submitted, and to prepare for a 2026 provincial referendum the premier has alluded to.

The UCP-dominated committee approved slightly less than $1.5 million in funding for the remainder of the year.

After the meeting, McClure wrote to the committee chair, saying the MLAs must have misunderstood.

“There is nothing in the legislation allowing