Amanda Stephenson
CALGARY, Feb 19 (Reuters) – Alberta will hold a referendum this fall asking residents whether the government should limit the number of new international students, temporary foreign workers and asylum seekers arriving in the oil-rich Canadian province.
Premier Danielle Smith announced the move in a televised address Thursday night, representing Alberta’s attempt to wrest control of a key issue from the federal government. Canada’s immigration policy is primarily the responsibility of Ottawa, not the provinces.
It could be a blow to Canada’s unity as Prime Minister Mark Carney works to improve relations with the resource-rich western province and head off a long-simmering separatist movement in Alberta.
Smith said her government faces a large deficit in next week’s provincial budget, in part due to lower provincial resource royalties due to lower global oil prices.
But she also blamed Alberta’s fiscal challenges on the province’s unusually fast population growth, the fastest in Canada. According to Statistics Canada, Alberta’s population will cross the five million mark in 2025, after growing by more than 600,000 in the past five years – which Smith said is putting a strain on the province’s resources.
“Opening our doors to anyone and everyone from around the world has resulted in our classrooms, emergency rooms and social support systems being filled with too many people, too fast,” she said in her speech.
Alberta is not the only province experiencing population growth due to immigration. After several years of welcoming immigration policies under former Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, Canada has recently begun reducing immigration targets and imposing caps on temporary residents, citing pressures on housing, infrastructure and social services.
According to ATB Financial analysis, the main difference between Alberta and other provinces is that Alberta has a very high number of interprovincial migration of Canadians seeking better opportunities and more affordable housing.
But Smith said that in a series of recent town hall panels, Albertans cited international immigration as one of their top concerns, so she will seek a referendum mandate to seek change.
She said the changes could include passing a law that would make only Canadian citizens, permanent residents and individuals with “Alberta-approved immigration status” eligible for provincially funded programs such as health, education and other social services.
(Reporting by Amanda Stephenson in Calgary; Editing by Nia Williams)
