Chiefs back NDP Bill 50 amendments to allow vote in municipal elections

By Alexandra Noad, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, Lethbridge Herald The Alberta NDP have amended Bill 50, Municipal Affairs Statutes Amendment Act, 2025, to allow Indigenous citizens living on reserve to vote in local elections. On-reserve Indigenous people are still unable to vote in municipal elections in Alberta. Meanwhile provinces such as British Columbia have extended the right to vote to people living on reserves adjacent or surrounded by a municipality. In a news conference prior to the tabling of the bill, Chief Allan Adam of the Athabasca Chipewyan First Nation (ACFN), said his reserve is in Fort Chipewyan and once it changed to reserve status, residents were unable to vote on municipal affairs, even though it directly impacted them. “And now, because we changed it into a reserve status, we’re…

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