With referendum campaign signs appearing across Alberta, questions are being raised about whether municipalities can use their own bylaws to prohibit or remove them from municipal property.

The short answer: provincial legislation has stripped municipalities of the power to make bylaws or resolutions specifically regulating election signs and election advertising.

In 2025, Alberta passed the Election Statutes Amendment Act, adding Section 206.5 to the Election Act. It states:

A municipal council must not pass a bylaw or resolution respecting election signs or election advertisements.

Elections Alberta describes the change the same way, stating that municipal councils are prohibited from passing bylaws or resolutions about election signs or election advertisements.

This matters for the October 19 referendum because Section 6 of Alberta's Referendum Act says the Election Act applies, with necessary modifications, to a stand-alone referendum.

The province's own explanation of the 2025 amendments is equally clear: municipalities previously had the ability to enact bylaws governing election signs and advertisements, while the amendments prohibit municipalities from making those regulations and give the province authority to establish rules instead.

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That is the basis of a letter sent on behalf of Let Alberta Decide to Strathcona County after referendum signs were reportedly deemed ineligible for placement on county property.

The campaign argues existing municipal rules purporting to regulate referendum campaign signs are superseded where they conflict with Section 206.5.

However, that does not mean campaigners have an unlimited right to stick a sign anywhere they please.

Provincial rules can still govern placement, and public-safety restrictions remain relevant. Alberta's provincial highway guidelines, for example, prohibit signs that obstruct sightlines, sit on medians, interfere with traffic signs or create other hazards. 

Let Alberta Decide is allowed to place election signs on municipal property.

In 2025, Alberta enacted s. 206.5 of the Election Act, which expressly prohibits municipalities from passing bylaws or resolutions respecting election signs or election advertising. That provision… pic.twitter.com/TIbjAt3J5d

— Let Alberta Decide (@LetABDecide) August 21, 2026

Let Alberta Decide says it has instructed volunteers to follow similar safety practices, including keeping signs away from intersections and crosswalks, medians, sidewalks and traffic-control devices.

Municipalities can't simply create their own rules targeting referendum election signs.

Section 206.5 expressly removes municipal councils' authority to pass bylaws or resolutions respecting election signs and advertisements, and the Referendum Act applies the Election Act to Alberta's referendum.

Legitimate provincial and public-safety restrictions can still apply, but a municipality cannot simply rely on a conflicting local election-sign bylaw as though the 2025 change never happened.