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Albertans will vote Oct 19 on five immigration referendum questions and one on Confederation, but Premier Danielle Smith says details depend on a mandate.
Albertans will head to the polls on Oct. 19 to vote on five immigration referendum questions and one on Confederation. Premier Danielle Smith says her government welcomes newcomers, but must balance that with the prohibitively high cost of social services.
The immigration questions ask whether Alberta should take more control over who is allowed to arrive and whether some newcomers should pay or wait a period to access core services. Smith and Finance Minister Jason Nixon told reporters this week that whether rule changes apply to immigrants already in Alberta has yet to be determined. Smith said it depends on voters giving the government a mandate on Oct. 19. We have to talk about that as a cabinet.
Referendum Questions Spark Debate
I want to see if we even have a mandate to do it, Smith said. The five immigration questions have spawned more questions about how the province plans to take more control, what new limits will be, what fees some newcomers might pay and whether rules apply to those already here. The questions came from town halls Smith held around the province last summer to workshop ways to shield Alberta from federal overreach.
Those meetings sparked fiery exchanges on immigration, including loud cheers for mass deportations at one town hall in Lloydminster. Smith has faced criticism that charging some newcomers premiums for education and health care amounts to a discriminatory head tax. She has pushed back, saying many other jurisdictions charge temporary residents premiums for public health care. Opposition NDP Leader Naheed Nenshi said the immigration questions are not about money or the economy but about blaming newcomers.
He noted Smith in 2024 urged the federal government to fast track more newcomers to Alberta, only now to warn that too many newcomers is unsustainable. Nenshi told reporters Friday that Smith suddenly realized immigrants were a helpful scapegoat for her government's failures, so now she has become anti-immigrant. Immigration Minister Joseph Schow disagreed in an interview Friday, saying it is about putting Alberta's economic needs first.
Schow Defends Economic Strategy
He called the discrimination argument a very narrow-minded view of what the province is trying to do. Schow said the prime minister knows he has bills to pay and knows Alberta pays those bills and wants to continue being the economic driver of the country. But he warned that poor management of immigration within the country means that may not always be the case.
The province says temporary workers cost Alberta $1 billion a year in health care and education but contribute only $150 million in taxes. Schow said these are important services but also expensive, and taxpayers should have access to them. Schow said a twelve-month requirement is at least a reasonable starting block to ask people to live in Alberta. Asked to define Alberta-approved immigration status, Schow said the finer parameters are still being worked out.
Fee Details Remain Undecided
Asked what fee the province might charge newcomers for health care or education, Schow said they are looking to get a mandate first. Asked why the government was not defining an immigration target before the vote, Schow said that number will change from year to year. Schow said the province wants to set priorities for workers in high-demand industries, and that labour mobility is important.
He said this comes down to industries in need and Alberta submitting allocation requests, particularly in the provincial nominee program.
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CTVToronto:Albertans set to vote on immigration questions that have only spawned more questionsThis story was compiled and edited by the HeadTopics newsroom and HT AI from the reports above.
Danielle Smith Immigration Questions Albertans Health-Care Immigration Joseph Schow Alberta Immigration Referendum October 19 Vote Confederation Referendum
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