Alberta’s government has introduced sweeping legislative changes aimed at tightening election integrity rules, expanding transparency, and reshaping citizen-driven democratic tools.

The proposed Bill 23 - Justice Statutes Amendment Act, 2026 - would make changes across four major laws, including introducing a ban on misleading election deepfakes and lowering the threshold for public sector salary disclosures.

Justice Minister Mickey Amery said the legislation is designed to bolster public confidence in Alberta’s democratic institutions while improving accountability.

At the centre of the bill is a new prohibition on the creation and distribution of deepfakes that could mislead voters about political candidates or election officials. Violators could face fines of up to $10,000.

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The legislation would also expand public sector transparency by lowering the salary disclosure threshold to $130,000, down from more than $133,000 for government employees and nearly $160,000 for broader public sector workers.

Changes to Alberta’s citizen initiative and recall laws would increase oversight of petition verification by allowing both government-appointed and applicant-appointed scrutineers to monitor the process. Petition records would also be retained longer—two years for citizen initiatives and until the completion of a recall vote in recall cases.

However, the bill would also restrict when citizen initiatives can take place, banning them from starting or continuing within a 12-month window before and after a general election.

In addition, the legislation would remove fixed deadlines for holding referendums triggered by successful citizen initiatives, giving the government more flexibility in scheduling votes.

The government says the combined changes are meant to modernize Alberta’s democratic processes and guard against emerging threats like AI-generated political misinformation.

If passed, the bill would amend the Public Sector Compensation Transparency Act, Citizen Initiative Act, Recall Act, and Election Finances and Contributions Disclosure Act.