Premier Smith’s Alberta Next panel met with praise, pushed to act in Grande Prairie

Alberta Premier Danielle Smith answers questions at a news conference in Calgary on Thursday, February 1, 2024. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Todd Korol

EDMONTON — Premier Danielle Smith’s Alberta Next panel, aimed at wrenching more political control from Ottawa, was spurred to take action in Grande Prairie Wednesday.

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The panel is pitching six ideas that could become potential referendum questions, and the naysayers were again outnumbered in a packed house of more than 500 attendees.

Many who spoke at the mic pushed Smith to take the panel’s proposals further.

Those ideas include withdrawing from the Canada Pension Plan, withholding social services from some immigrants, taking more control over tax collection and replacing the RCMP.

Smith, in her closing remarks, said she might take action on some of the files without any public referendum as early as the spring, after the panel submits a report before the end of the year.

“There will be some items that we decide we’re not going to move on. There will be items that we decide: we heard enough, we are going to move them, and we don’t need a referendum. And, there’s some that might be needed to be put to the people for a decision.”

“It’s go time,” she said, without offering specifics.

Earlier Wednesday, Smith directed her jobs minister to use “all legal means” possible to give Alberta more control over immigration.

In a new mandate letter given to Minister Joseph Schow, Smith said Alberta needs to ensure the province sees sustainable levels of newcomers.

That came after Smith announced earlier this week that her government plans to introduce legislation requiring driver’s licenses and other forms of identification to include citizenship markers, in an effort to streamline access to services and prevent election fraud.

The announcement prompted the province’s information and privacy commissioner to express concern.

Diane McLeod said that citizenship can be sensitive information, so the government would need to demonstrate how any benefit of including it on a driver’s license would outweigh the associated privacy risks.

“It is unclear from the government announcement as to what purpose the inclusion of this information on Albertans’ driver’s licenses will serve. It’s also unclear what the benefit for Albertans would be,” McLeod said Tuesday.

Meanwhile, Smith and her government are touting efforts to combat youth unemployment, including an annual $8 million program helping employers hire.

The crowd in Grande Prairie overwhelmingly approved of the province moving to batten down the hatches on immigration. Housing, education, and employment opportunities are being squeezed by out-of-control immigration numbers, the premier and many in the crowd argued.

One man, who said he came to Canada from Germany, spoke out, saying he was appalled by the government’s scapegoating and targeting of immigrants and the immigrant process.

“Why are immigrants and immigration constantly in provincial crosshairs?”

Throughout its summer town hall tour around the province, the panel has often been cheered on for its proposals, while drawing criticism; the initiative is seen as cynical wedge politics.

On Wednesday, moderator Bruce McAllister anticipated, at the outset, that the panel would have to dodge rhetorical “eggs and tomatoes” yet again.

Instead, he found himself encouraging some speakers to go well beyond the 45-second limit at the mic. One man in the crowd addressed the premier directly.

“You have bigger balls than most men,” he said, to raucous applause.

“You can keep going, sir,” said McAllister as the clock timed out and the crowd chuckled.

Less than a dozen attendees pushed back against Alberta creating its own pension plan in a straw poll. The Canada Pension Plan withdrawal has long been pushed as a power move by some in the province, but it hasn’t been supported by a majority of Albertans in public opinion polls.

One woman who identified herself as Margaret expressed fear of political interests trumping good pension management.

“I don’t want you touching my CPP,” she told the panel.

One man questioned why Alberta should send tax revenue to the federal government at all.

“If you want a pipeline to the east, tell the federal government to pick up their bitumen at the Alberta-Saskatchewan border, and they can sell it at whatever price they want,” he said.

The panel has at times given fodder to separatists who argue that its policy ideas only bolster their case for abandoning Confederation, and Grande Prairie’s event was no exception.

Several said they supported the proposals, but Alberta won’t get a fair deal as long as it remains only a province.

“We need Alberta independence. It’s the only way,” said one man from Peace River, more than two hours north of Grande Prairie. He noted that the same issues have been discussed with no action for more than 20 years.

Others demanded Smith draw a firm line in the sand with Prime Minister Mark Carney’s Liberal government.

They said they were skeptical the province’s rocky relationship with the federal government might actually turn a page, despite the premier’s recent comments that she’s encouraged by her conversations with Carney.

The panel will host a final in-person town hall in Calgary at the end of the month.

--By Lisa Johnson with files from Jack Farrell in Edmonton

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 17, 2025.