Recall Petitions

The representative recall petitioner must submit a notice of recall petition. The representative recall petitioner is the person who represents those who have signed the petition.

The notice of recall petition must include:

• The name of the member of Council subject to the recall petition
• The name of the representative recall petitioner
• Contact information for the representative recall petitioner that the City may use to direct any inquiries about the petition to the representative recall petitioner

The notice of recall petition must be accompanied by:

• A signed statement by the representative recall petitioner that provides their street address, mailing address and telephone number and/or email address, if any, confirms that the representative recall petitioner is an individual eligible to sign the recall petition and consents to the responsibility of leading the recall petition.
  • This statement is not published/disclosed
• $500 application fee: The fee can be paid by cash, a certified cheque and/or a bank or postal money order made payable to “City of Edmonton”

The representative recall petitioner should contact Edmonton Elections at elections@edmonton.ca or 780-496-8008 to arrange a time to submit the original notice of recall petition.

The City Clerk will verify the notice of recall petition within seven days of its submission. If the notice meets all the requirements outlined in the Municipal Government Act, Edmonton Elections will:

• Provide the notice of recall petition to the representative recall petitioner, the Minister of Municipal Affairs and the Councillor named in the notice of recall petition
• Publish the notice of recall petition online

Only one notice of recall petition may be published for any member of Council during a term of office.

Once the notice of recall petition has been published on the Edmonton Elections website, the representative recall petitioner has 60 days to gather the required signatures.

Each page of the recall petition must contain:

• The notice of recall petition
• A statement that the personal information contained in the petition will not be disclosed to anyone other than the Chief Administrative Officer and their delegates, and will not be used for any purpose other than validating the petition.

Only eligible electors may sign a recall petition. An eligible elector is an individual who is eligible to vote and must be at least 18 years old, a Canadian citizen, and resident in the city of Edmonton when signing the petition. If the individual named in the notice of recall petition is a Councillor, the elector must also live in the ward represented by that Councillor.

An individual shall only sign a recall petition once.

Information Petitioners Must Provide on a Petition

Every petitioner signing the petition must provide the following information in legible print:

• Printed surname and given name(s) or initials
• Original, inked signature
• Street address or the legal description of the land on which they live
• Telephone number or email address (if any)
• The date on which they signed the petition

Witness Obligations

Every signature on the petition must be witnessed by an adult person. The witness must sign the document next to the name of the petitioner whose signature is being witnessed. The witness must also swear an affidavit that, to the best of the person’s knowledge, the signatures witnessed are those of persons entitled to sign the petition.

Number of Signatures Required

To be sufficient, the representative recall petitioner must obtain valid signatures equal to:

• For petitions to recall the Mayor: 40% of Edmonton’s population, as determined by Alberta Municipal Affairs
• For petitions to recall a Councillor: 40% of the population of the ward the Councillor represents

The representative recall petitioner must file a copy of the recall petition and witness affidavits before the end of the 60-day recall petition signature period with both the Minister of Municipal Affairs and Edmonton Elections.

Names cannot be added to or removed from a petition after it has been filed.

The Minister of Municipal Affairs is responsible for determining if the recall petition is sufficient within 45 days after the date on which the recall petition is filed.

This means counting the number of valid signatures on the recall petition and confirming that the recall petition meets all other legislated requirements.

After validating the recall petition, the Minister must declare whether the recall petition is insufficient or sufficient, and provide this declaration to the Chief Administrative Officer of the municipality, the representative recall petitioner and the Councillor named in the notice of recall petition.

Edmonton Elections will publish the Minister’s declaration on this website within seven days after it is received from the Minister.

If a recall petition is declared sufficient, the individual councillor named in the notice of recall is recalled and is no longer a member of the council or any council committee, and the position to which they were elected is vacant.

If not already done, the representative recall petitioner must submit the original recall petition to Edmonton Elections and destroy all copies of the recall petition no later than two days after the declaration is published on the Edmonton Elections website.

The original recall petition is retained by the City of Edmonton for a minimum of 6 weeks and no longer than 12 weeks, and then securely destroyed.