Premier Danielle Smith said she’s concerned about Ottawa’s immigration update, despite the federal government giving provinces some more say. Canada’s updated immigration plans were unveiled on Thursday and include tweaks to the temporary foreign worker (TFW) program and a one-time addition of 200,000 permanent residents who are currently living in Canada under temporary status. Those changes are in addition to maintaining immigration targets for 2027 to 2029 at 370,000 new temporary resident arrivals and 380,000 new permanent residents (including workers already here temporarily). Smith said on her Saturday call-in show that Albertans have handed her government a mandate to take more control over immigration and that she wanted to see greater collaboration with Ottawa on those targets. “We just had a major referendum where five questions were asked, saying that we want to have a Quebec-style agreement, and we’ve got brand new targets that are announced,” Smith said. “I always worry that the federal government is not going to match the newcomers into Canada with the needs of our economy,” the premier added. “That’s what leaves me a little bit concerned.” Daniel Bernhard, the chief executive officer of the Institute for Canadian Citizenship, said the one-time influx of new permanent residents is not as large as it appears since they are all already in Canada. “They’re already housed. They’re already working. There’s no new infrastructure or capacity required to accommodate them. And in many cases, this transition to permanent status will allow them to make greater contributions,” he explained. Of those 200,000 people, half will be temporary workers eligible for Express Entry or the Provincial Nominee Program and the rest will come from humanitarian programs. The federal government says 64 per cent of new permanent resident applications will go to economic immigrants, and TFW program reform will give provinces more control over the future workers can fill and how many of them can make up the workforce. Those plans, said one migration specialist, should appease some of Smith’s concerns. “In this levels plan, and in particular in changes to the TFW program specifically, is the federal government extending more control to provinces vis-a-vis their own regional labour needs,” said Bronwyn Bragg at the University of Lethbridge. “Now the province has to either limit the number of temporary foreign workers, which they’re able to do, or be transparent about the fact … that they are strong proponents of the temporary foreign worker program,” she added. Smith has repeatedly said her government wants a Quebec-style deal granting it complete control over permanent residents arriving in Alberta. A similar deal makes less sense in Alberta, Bragg said. “Part of the reason Quebec has its own immigration system is because it has very specific language requirements,” she explained. “We have specific labour market needs, but I think that those can be addressed through the federal immigration system. “We need a coordinated system because people are not immigrating to Alberta; they are immigrating to the country of Canada, and then they choose where they live after that,” Bragg said. Even if Alberta were granted the power to choose every permanent resident landing there, Bernhard said, it wouldn’t – and shouldn’t – prevent inter-provincial migration. “Unless we are going to be imprisoning people within a certain province, then we cannot control where they move, nor should we,” Bernhard said. “We don’t want people to stay in a part of the country where there is no work for them, where they are going to have to be on welfare,” he added. “If there is another part of the country where they can work … we should all want them to go there.” Government of Alberta data shows international migration has been declining in Alberta since hitting an all-time peak of more than 35,000 people in October 2023. The Government of Canada recently recorded its largest annual decrease in the number of non-permanent residents since the 1970s, counting 154,614 fewer people from July 2025 to July 2026. The updated immigration levels will continue to reduce the temporary population while filling “critical labour gaps,” the federal government says. Edmonton MP Eleanor Olszewski told CTV News Edmonton on Tuesday that the federal immigration minister has been, and will continue to, work with provinces and territories. “That there are parts of the country, including parts of Alberta, that rely on immigration, that rely on temporary foreign workers, and we need to make sure the policies we put in place respect those regional differences,” Olszewski said. New Alberta legislation on immigration is expected to be tabled in the spring. With files from CTV News Edmonton’s Chelan Skulski and David Baxter of The Canadian Press
