Alberta’s election agency has fired the starter’s pistol on the race to collect enough names for a referendum on the province quitting Canada.

Elections Alberta announced Friday that Mitch Sylvestre and the Alberta Prosperity Project have from Saturday until May 2 to collect just under 178,000 signatures to qualify.

“Citizen initiative petition signature sheets have been issued,” Elections Alberta said in a statement.

Elections Alberta had already announced before Christmas that it had approved the referendum question.

But it said the group could not collect signatures until it had finalized details, including hiring a chief financial officer.

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The question seeks a yes or no answer to: “Do you agree that the province of Alberta should cease to be a part of Canada to become an independent state?”

Sylvestre could not be immediately reached for comment.

He has previously said a referendum is needed because of federal government restrictions on oil development alongside dim hopes for electoral change in Ottawa.

— More to come…