Same-sex marriage in Prince Edward Island has been legal since July 20, 2005. The Canadian province began the process of updating its laws to recognize same-sex marriage after the passage of the Civil Marriage Act in the House of Commons of Canada. Prince Edward Island had been one of only four provinces and territories, with Alberta, the Northwest Territories and Nunavut, where same-sex marriage had not already been legalized by court challenges prior to the passage of the law. Background On December 10, 2004, Premier Pat Binns said that his government would wait for federal legislation to resolve the issue. It is unclear how Binns would have reacted if a provincial court had found the heterosexual definition of marriage in violation of the Charter rights of gays and lesbians. A spokeswoman for a local LGBT group said in June 2005 that the province should legalize same-sex marriage "right away", noting that the island often lacked behind the rest of Canada on the issue of LGBT rights, "It's also sad to think in a province that could actually lead, on this particular issue, that they choose to stand by and wait for the federal government to make the decision. Thereby not having anyone in government make the commitment to these human rights issues." Civil Marriage Act After the House of Commons of Canada passed the Civil Marriage Act in June 2005, provincial Attorney General Mildred Dover announced that the province would bring provincial legislation in line with the law, "We have said all along that we would comply if the federal government passed same-sex legislation. They have the power to define marriage. We're looking at the possibility of bringing in an omnibus bill that would say something to the effect of wherever the word spouse appears in our legislation, it includes same-sex and heterosexual marriages." The Act passed through the Canadian Senate on July 19 and received royal assent the next day on July 20, 2005, extending same-sex marriage rights across all of Canada. However, Ms. Dover announced that marriage licences would not be issued to same-sex couples until the province's laws were updated. This was different from how the process had worked in other provinces; in those where courts called for same-sex marriage, and in Alberta after the Civil Marriage Act was passed. On July 22, Prince Edward Island was the only remaining province in the country where same-sex couples