diff --git a/src/backend/distributed/commands/citus_add_local_table_to_metadata.c b/src/backend/distributed/commands/citus_add_local_table_to_metadata.c
index 785c24aab..c9838aaf1 100644
--- a/src/backend/distributed/commands/citus_add_local_table_to_metadata.c
+++ b/src/backend/distributed/commands/citus_add_local_table_to_metadata.c
@@ -1010,9 +1010,9 @@ InsertMetadataForCitusLocalTable(Oid citusLocalTableId, uint64 shardId)
 	char replicationModel = REPLICATION_MODEL_STREAMING;
 
 	uint32 colocationId = INVALID_COLOCATION_ID;
-	Var *distributionColumn = NULL;
+	List *distributionColumnList = NIL;
 	InsertIntoPgDistPartition(citusLocalTableId, distributionMethod,
-							  list_make1(distributionColumn), colocationId,
+							  distributionColumnList, colocationId,
 							  replicationModel);
 
 	/* set shard storage type according to relation type */
diff --git a/src/backend/distributed/commands/create_distributed_table.c b/src/backend/distributed/commands/create_distributed_table.c
index 5cb059fab..1d94d93b4 100644
--- a/src/backend/distributed/commands/create_distributed_table.c
+++ b/src/backend/distributed/commands/create_distributed_table.c
@@ -348,7 +348,6 @@ create_reference_table(PG_FUNCTION_ARGS)
 	Oid relationId = PG_GETARG_OID(0);
 
 	char *colocateWithTableName = NULL;
-	Var *distributionColumn = NULL;
 
 	bool viaDeprecatedAPI = false;
 
@@ -384,7 +383,8 @@ create_reference_table(PG_FUNCTION_ARGS)
 						errdetail("There are no active worker nodes.")));
 	}
 
-	CreateDistributedTable(relationId, list_make1(distributionColumn), DISTRIBUTE_BY_NONE,
+	List *distributionColumnList = NIL;
+	CreateDistributedTable(relationId, distributionColumnList, DISTRIBUTE_BY_NONE,
 						   ShardCount, false, colocateWithTableName, viaDeprecatedAPI);
 	PG_RETURN_VOID();
 }