Why this article is proposed
Provincial constitutions can include their own amendment procedures. Without one, any rule in the provincial constitution could be changed by simple majority of the Assembly. This article would make ordinary amendment require a two-thirds Assembly vote plus a province-wide referendum, and would make a smaller list of entrenched provisions require a constitutional convention plus district-wide unanimity.
What it would change
The standard amendment route is a two-step process: Assembly supermajority followed by referendum. The article also creates a citizen-initiated amendment process, an emergency amendment process limited to declared war or insurrection with a one-year sunset, and an interpretive direction favouring deliberative democracy. The most demanding rule, applicable only to the entrenched provisions listed in Article XV, is unanimity of all electoral districts at a constitutional convention.
The legal basis
Constitution Act, 1982 s.45 lets the legislature of each province amend the constitution of the province exclusively. That includes the power to prescribe how the provincial constitution itself is amended. The article does not touch any subject within ss.41, 42, or 43, so it is reachable by Alberta acting alone.
Open questions
Three questions for Albertans: whether the thresholds (two-thirds Assembly plus majority referendum) are the right balance between stability and democratic responsiveness; whether the entrenched list (six articles, all involving rights or fiscal restraint) is the right scope of entrenchment; and whether district-wide unanimity at a constitutional convention is a workable threshold or a permanent freeze on entrenched provisions.