Premier Danielle Smith is facing mixed reactions in the aftermath of her wide-ranging address to Albertans on Thursday night, notably around the topic of immigration and, more specifically, proposed cutbacks to some immigrants’ access to social services like health care and education. Alberta’s UCP government intends to hold a referendum which will pose nine immigration-related and constitutional questions on Oct. 19, 2026. On Thursday, Smith cited crashing oil prices and “out-of-control” federal immigration policies as detrimental factors to an upcoming 2026 budget, which is forecasted to be in a heavy deficit. In a Friday media availability, Smith told reporters she was looking to go back to a “normal level” of arrivals – around 50,000 a year, she said. She said in the last five years, Alberta has seen 600,000 newcomers. “I want us to return to something more like a 50,000 target, with two-thirds of them focused on economic migrants and those chosen by the Alberta government,” she said. “The federal government won’t let us. Instead, they’ve been prioritizing all of these temporary status newcomers, rather than the ones who they should be prioritizing.” Open data on the Alberta Government website shows a quarterly breakdown of international immigration and interprovincial migration, the latter of which rose with the former UCP government’s “Alberta is Calling” campaign. It does not differentiate between those seeking asylum, temporary workers or permanent residents. The breakdown shows net migration – both interprovincial and international – peaking around January 2023 at 58,650 total newcomers at that point in time. It then appears to trend downward. Between January and September 2025, Alberta welcomed 19,093 international immigrants. That is down, according to the government’s website, from 107,721 international immigrants from the same time span in 2024. In those same time frames, a net amount of 18,532 migrants came from other Canadian provinces, namely, Ontario. That number, too, was down from 32,769 interprovincial migrants in 2024. Smith said Friday that her government doesn’t keep track of the breakdown of types of immigrants coming to Alberta, nor how many international immigrants would be affected should a referendum vote be held as binding. Her focal point, she says, is ensuring Albertan taxpayers don’t “foot the bill for federal experiments in open borders,” referring to asylum seekers and low-skilled temporary workers. “If you’re coming here temporarily, you’re a tourist, so you’ve got to get your own insurance. That’s actually fairly standard around the world,” she said. Who are the temporary workers? In November of last year, Prime Minister Mark Carney unveiled his plan for Canada’s 2026-2028 immigration levels, which largely aims to increase the number of economic immigrants and cut temporary migration through a reduction in student visas. Immigration lawyer Raj Sharma explained that entitlements for types of immigrants vary. If someone is lawfully admitted to Canada, and becomes a resident of Alberta, they receive health-care coverage under the Alberta Health Act. That includes temporary foreign workers, he said. “They have a job, so they’re working and they’re paying taxes, just the same as a Canadian citizen or a Canadian permanent resident,” he told CTV News on Friday. He also noted the UCP government’s attempt to restrict health coverage for a “certain subset” of temporary workers last month, specifically those working in tourist locations like Banff, Canmore or Jasper. “That was quickly reversed because, again, they’re paying into the system. They’re entitled to use those services,” he explained. Asylum or refugee claimants have their health-care coverage fall on the federal dime, which means Alberta does not pay to support the brunt of their social services, he added. He did point to Manitoba as an example of requiring international students to enrol in mandatory private health insurance, which he said Alberta could likely have a discussion about – although he noted that, presumably, many international students are young and might not require significant health resources anyway. ‘You’ve rang the dinner bell’ “Temporary numbers in Alberta are already down, and they’re dropping,” Sharma concluded. “It’s the mixed messaging on immigration that I think people will cast an eye toward.” Mixed messaging has been a common callout directed toward Smith, who did get on a podcast only two years ago opining the need for Alberta’s population to double. Alberta NDP made as much clear in a Friday media availability, in which they called for the premier to “cut the bulls–t.” “Less than two years ago, Danielle Smith herself asked Justin Trudeau to increase immigration levels because Alberta wanted more than what Ottawa was already allocating … all while promoting the ‘Alberta’s Calling’ campaign,” said Official Opposition deputy leader Rakhi Pancholi. Smith said Friday that her earlier sentiments remain true, but around the topic of economic migrants, the incoming rates of which she had asked Trudeau to allow Alberta more control over. “The pace that we were growing was unsustainable. I thought we had the tolerance to be able to create jobs … but clearly it’s broken. There is a point where you have to look at reality,” she said. Sharma said between Smith’s previous comments, and her predecessor Jason Kenney’s strong campaign for interprovincial migrants, the present call for a referendum on immigration was a “distraction from mismanagement.” “You’ve rang the dinner bell, and now all of a sudden you’re concerned that people have shown up at the dining table,” he said. What happens after the referendum? Both Smith and Alberta justice minister Mickey Amery told reporters that, once the outcome of the referendum vote is known, the UCP government intends to follow through. “You don’t ask questions of the people unless you want to act on the results you get,” Smith said. Amery further said the government was looking for a mandate from Albertans. “The Referendum Act has a number of different options for a constitutional referendum … if the majority of ballots vote in one particular way, then the government needs to take steps to implement the results of that type of referendum,” he said. “For a non-constitutional referendum, it would be up to the Lieutenant Governor and council to make that decision.” The referendum announcement precedes the Alberta legislature’s spring sitting and the announcement of the provincial budget for 2026, which is set to be tabled next Thursday. With files from CTV News Calgary and The Canadian Press
