In cultural community groups across the province, efforts are underway to ensure that members are primed to make an informed vote on the 10 questions on the Alberta referendum ballot.

“Over the past few months, we've made a real effort to engage multicultural communities — including the Sikh community, the Hindu community, the Muslim community — about the vote,” Avnish Nanda, spokesperson for registered third-party advertiser Our Alberta Advantage, told CBC News.

“Not just on the separation question, but on the other nine questions and what's at stake for them and this province and this country more broadly,” Nanda said.

Leaders of community groups across the province told CBC News that the 10 ballot questions are leading to major confusion and frustration. The questions deal with constitutional issues, immigration and Alberta’s future within Confederation. Advance voting for the Alberta referendum started on Tuesday and continues until Saturday.

Nanda said a canvassing drive has been taking place at Gurdwara Millwoods in south Edmonton as Monday’s referendum draws near.

Two Gurdwara Millwoods attendees told CBC News that the wording of the questions has proven to be problematic for them.

“[People are] finding them very complex. So the meanings behind it, it's hard to understand,” said Parminder Gill.

“They have to read it three times. It's not in layman's language.”Parneet Kaur Brar, a 22-year-old university student who is also a Gurdwara Millwoods attendee, saw the need to help her community understand the voting options.

“I'll be honest. Like, I speak fluent English. I'm educated. I go to university, and even for me, I couldn't understand the questions at first glance,” Brar said.

In an effort to make her family and friends feel empowered and informed enough to vote, Brar took it upon herself to take all 10 questions and try to simplify them by creating a guide sheet. “I think concern definitely is [with] the last question,” Brar said.

The 10th question on the ballot asks whether the voter supports Alberta remaining in Canada or if they support the government beginning the process to hold a binding referendum on separation.

“Would you like Alberta to separate? … A lot of people don't understand how, there's a lot of steps that go through that becoming the finalized decision. But I think people think that if they vote yes or no, it's going to be a final decision. So I think there's a lot of, maybe, anxiety around that question.”Community leaders like Surinder Singh Hoojan, who also attends Gurdwara Millwoods, said there are strong emotions about the referendum among those in his community.

“[People] are feeling that the government is scapegoating immigrants. It's all government's failures … it's not the minorities.”A statement from Hunter Baril, press secretary for the Ministry of Jobs, Economy, Trade and Immigration, said that any claim of scapegoating is false and inflammatory.

“These questions simply address the unsustainable immigration levels in Canada that are putting real pressures on critical public services,” Baril said in the statement provided to CBC News.

“These questions also reflect the feedback we heard from Albertans during the Alberta Next town halls.”The importance of accessibility Baril said that work has been ongoing to improve accessibility and Albertans can find information about the referendum questions in 14 different languages on“Albertans are encouraged to familiarize themselves with the questions being asked prior to arriving to vote,” Baril said. However, some people said the outreach needs to go further.

Stephen Tsang and other people in his circle have been handing out flyers and speaking with members from East Asian communities about what is at stake.

Tsang is a volunteer with Public Interest Alberta (PIA) and also belongs to the group Asian Canadians for a United Canada, which describes itself as a non-partisan, community-led initiative helping Asian Canadian communities access reliable civic information and participate in conversations about Alberta's future.

“We really want to use this opportunity to actually [do] outreach, to talk to a lot of people, getting them to go out to vote,” Tsang said in an interview with CBC News.

“Because we do feel that [the] Asian community should have a voice.”Tsang and other volunteers have been trying to help people in their communities understand the voting options.

Wai-Ling Lennon, a retired teacher and volunteer with PIA, said she is passionate about trying to break people out of the cycle of apathy that she says exists within her community.

The first five questions on the ballot ask whether the Alberta government should take more control over immigration from the federal government, such as limiting non-permanent residents’ eligibility to public and social services. It also asks whether people should be required to show proof of citizenship in order to vote in a provincial election.

A former teacher, Lennon said she is particularly passionate about ensuring children have access to education regardless of immigration status.

“[It] makes me really, really, really mad because I came from a very poor family and without education, I would not be where I am,” Lennon said.

“Education is the key to give all children equal opportunity to show you what they have, and adults in the community should nurture them to support them. It's not like, ‘Oh, you are not us. OK, you stay home,’ and to me that is criminal.”Noor Al Hendy, spokesperson for Al Rashid Mosque in north Edmonton, spoke to CBC News about the importance of accessibility during an information session at the mosque on Wednesday.

“Communities are different; they have different needs, right? And not everybody has access to information online,” Al Hendy said.

“When the community reached out to us, we figured it is our responsibility to make sure that they understand what they're voting for, and also we've always tried throughout all of the election cycles to encourage people to vote, to go out and participate — it's a part of our democracy.”