Premier Danielle Smith scheduled to shuffle her cabinet

Alberta Premier Danielle Smith is set to shuffle her cabinet days after the spring sitting of the legislature broke for the summer.

New ministers are scheduled to be sworn in by Lt.-Gov. Salma Lakhani this afternoon in Calgary.

Smith is to make an earlier unrelated announcement but is not taking questions from reporters following the swearing-in.

A bill that passed debate in the final hours of the legislature sitting lowers the bar for citizens to initiate a referendum question, including whether Alberta should secede from Canada.

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Justice Minister Mickey Amery also offered an amendment to address concerns from First Nations over the bill, declaring no referendum would interfere with treaty rights.

Those changes didn’t satisfy some First Nations chiefs in the province, who say separating from Canada threatens their treaty relationship with the Crown.

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Alberta referendum amendments unlikely to stop separation vote