By Paul Vieira and James T. Areddy
OTTAWA -- A Canadian judge on Wednesday dealt a potentially significant blow to efforts to hold a referendum in the oil-rich province of Alberta about becoming a sovereign country within North America.
Justice Shaina Leonard of Alberta's Court of the King's Bench said the Alberta government failed to consult indigenous groups about the potential fallout from holding a vote on the province's future within Canada. Under Canadian law, governments have a duty to consult indigenous groups on conduct that might adversely impact their treaty rights.
Indigenous leaders say the referendum can't proceed. Backers for an independent Alberta called on the province's Premier, Danielle Smith, to press ahead with a vote on sovereignty. Smith said the province intends to appeal the ruling. "We think this decision is incorrect in law and anti-democratic," she told reporters.
Lawyers for several indigenous groups in Alberta argued the province contravened the duty to consult when its chief electoral officer allowed pro-secession backers to begin collecting a minimum 177,732 signatures on a petition that would trigger a referendum. The pro-indepdence movement this month said they had gathered over 300,000 signatures.
Per a previous court ruling and "as a matter of logic and common sense, there can be no doubt that Alberta's secession from Canada will have an impact" on the livelihood of indigenous communities, wrote Justice Leonard. As a result, the judge quashed the chief electoral officer's decision to start the sovereignty-referendum process.
"This decision should close the chapter on the suggestion of an independence referendum," said Allan Adam, the Chief of the Athabasca Chipewyan First Nation, one of the main plaintiffs.
Mitch Sylvestre, who launched the referendum effort, said the decision "won't change anything we are doing." He said the court was never going to rule in the independence movement's favor and Wednesday's outcome was 100% predictable. He added Smith has a clear mandate to call a referendum.
The push for Alberta independence stems from decades of frustration with federal-government policy set in Ottawa. Tensions escalated over the past decade due to environmental measures from former Prime Minister Justin Trudeau that business and political leaders in the province argued threatened their livelihood and thwarted efforts to develop their oil and gas reserves. Backers of an independent Alberta say their residents are fed up that their demands take a backseat to the bigger population centers around Toronto and Montreal, which ideologically are more akin to America's bluest cities.
Prime Minister Mark Carney is in talks with Smith about finalizing a deal that would have Ottawa back Alberta's efforts to build a new pipeline linking the energy patch to a Pacific-coast port in order to sell more crude oil to Asia. In return, Alberta would agree to a more stringent industrial-carbon tax.
A tougher tax is not sitting well with oil-sector executives. Canada has "created a set of national policies and regulations that make resource development and investment in Canada uncompetitive with the rest of the world," Jon McKenzie, chief executive of Cenovus Energy, said this month.
Smith has said a new pipeline is crucial in her attempt to persuade Albertans that remaining in Canada is the best option. "We have to demonstrate the cooperative federalism works," she said last week at a conference in Ottawa.
Trump administration officials have welcomed Alberta's independence leaders to visit Washington for discussions on energy and trade. Allies of Trump, including Steve Bannon, have fanned Alberta's independence talk.
Write to Paul Vieira at paul.vieira@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
05-13-26 1936ET
