Alberta Prosperity Project's Okotoks town hall set for Nov. 10 amid CEO removal dispute

Alberta Prosperity Project leader Mitch Sylvestre is headlining a town hall at the Viking Rentals Centre in Okotoks at 7 p.m. On Nov. 10, part of an organizing tour the group is holding across the province.

The board says it terminated Sylvestre as CEO in September and removed him as a director later that month. The board's notice gives no cause. Sylvestre and fellow member Jeffrey Rath say those board meetings were not lawful and that they still have authority to speak for the group.

The dispute spilled onto social media in late October. A post on Oct. 22 by Tanya Clemens, who said she is a member of the board, repeated the claim that Sylvestre had been stripped of his title. A post the next day said "former directors" had refused to return control of branded social media accounts to the board. The group denied that its accounts were being run by people not authorized to do so and said it is focused on "reaching a resolution."

In a statement last month, the group's leader said the Alberta Prosperity Project "remains committed to Alberta's separatist movement" and wrote: "Let me be clear. APP is the movement for an independent Alberta. Full stop." The group describes itself as a non-partisan educational society that explains the reasons for and benefits of Alberta sovereignty.

About 25 per cent of voters backed a second binding referendum on separation in last month's vote. Premier Danielle Smith said in a provincewide address that she will not hold another separation referendum while she is premier.

The removal claims have not been independently confirmed. Sylvestre and Rath have not directly addressed the board's stated grounds beyond disputing its validity.