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EDMONTON — Alberta Premier Danielle Smith is set to address the province in a TV broadcast Thursday evening and is expected to discuss immigration.
Smith said Wednesday that rapid population growth coupled with slagging oil prices have put an unsustainable strain on the province’s finances.
“You have to be a taxpayer before you start using our services,” she told reporters at an unrelated announcement in Calgary.
“And we’ve had the reverse — we’ve had people who have been heavy, heavy users of our services and might not even be a taxpayer, might not even have the prospect of having a job.”
She noted that historically, many immigrants, including the Chinese community, arrived before Alberta became a province.
“We have always been successful when we have a number of migrants that matches our capacity to give jobs and also support them with social services. And we just simply are out of balance right now,” she said.
“It creates a lot of tension in society when things are out of balance, and we don’t want that to happen.”
Smith said her address will touch on a number of issues. The provincial budget is to be tabled next Thursday.
Smith’s United Conservative Party government pushed, through its Alberta Next panel tour of the province last year, for public support to cut off some immigrants from social services.
The panel was propped up by calls from in-person attendees who at times called for mass deportations.
In January, Smith’s government walked back what it called a “premature” decision to cut off temporary foreign workers from provincial health-care coverage, including those who had already obtained work permits.
The ministry said at the time the move was on pause pending review.
On Wednesday, Smith’s chief of staff, Rob Anderson, reposted a social media infographic about immigration numbers and invited readers to watch the premier’s address Thursday.
“This absolute insanity needs to stop. It will,” he wrote.
The executive director of the premier’s office, Bruce McAllister, also pointed to the same social media post to sound off on population growth.
“Why import from nations with failed systems when our Judeo-Christian heritage and principles have worked so well here? It almost feels like these elites are ashamed of what built this great country,” wrote McAllister.
Smith was asked Wednesday if her government shared McAllister’s values. She didn’t directly answer but said western society is based on “the Socratic Judeo-Christian tradition.”
