LAKELAND - The referendum question that was part of recent municipal election ballots relating to the feelings of Albertans on equalization payments paid to the federal government, was answered with the expected majority of opposition.
"Should section 36(2) of the Constitution Act, 1982 – Parliament and the government of Canada’s commitment to the principle of making equalization payments – be removed from the constitution?"
Elections Canada released the results of the equalization question on Tuesday, showing that 61.7 per cent of roughly one million voting Albertans were opposed to having the equalization requirement included in the Constitution.
Across the Lakeland area, the vote margins were wider than the provincial averages
Lac La Biche County — Yes: 2,283 No: 713
St. Paul County — Yes: 1,890 No: 503
MD of Bonnyville — Yes: 4,272 No: 3,427
Cold Lake — Yes:1,909 No:713
Town of St. Paul — Yes: 1,367 No: 892
Town of Bonnyville — Yes: 946 No: 264
Elk Point — Yes: 310 No:126
Glendon — Yes:121 No: 31
Buffalo Lake Métis Settlement — Yes: 33 No:11
While the vote was decisive, the results are not binding, as the equalization question and its response cannot result in an amendment to Canada's Constitution.
The equalization question was added to the municipal ballot by a provincial Order in Council created by the provinces UCP government.
Year-round time voted down by larger cities
A second question on the ballot about whether the province should revert to year-round daylight savings time — removing the need to change clocks twice a year — was narrowly rejected, with 50.2 of the million votes cast opting to remain the same. The total difference in 'yes' and 'no' votes for the daylight savings question was less than 3,000 people.
While the majority of polling stations across the province's rural areas recorded higher percentages of people looking to remove the time changes, the majority of voters in the communities of Edmonton, Calgary, St. Albert and Strathcona voted the other way, helping to narrowly swing the overall provincial response.
Across the Lakeland, 823 voters on the daylight savings time question in Bonnyville voted to scrap the time changes, while 435 voted to remain. In Cold Lake, 1802 voters wanted to do away with the time change, while 893 voted to keep it. In Lac La Biche County, it was 1917 votes to scrap the time change and 1186 to keep it.
The County of St. Paul voters kept in line with the rural choice to end the practice of changing clocks twice a year as well, with 1484 voting to remove the practice and 943 agreeing to keep it. The spit was common across communities in the Lakeland and rural Alberta, but larger numbers in the larger centres negated the rural response.
