An expert believes Alberta Premier Danielle Smith’s proposed immigration policies, which are going to a referendum this fall, could harm the province.

The CEO for the Institute for Canadian Citizenship, Daniel Bernhard, says Alberta would be shooting itself in the foot if it moves forward with the proposed policies.

The changes include requiring certain immigrants to pay fees to access health care and education, or making non-permanent residents ineligible for certain services until they’ve lived in the province for a year.

Bernhard insists it would only make life harder for newcomers, some of whom work in the sectors Smith says are being overwhelmed by population growth, including nurses, support workers for the elderly and early childhood teachers.

“Immigration is not a gift that we give to immigrants. It is (a) service that we do to ourselves to ensure that we have the talent to deliver the public services that we need and to fuel business growth,” said Bernhard.

“If (Smith) thinks that your grandma doesn’t deserve care, then she should just say so directly.”

Bernard expects other provinces will use the issue as an opportunity to attract immigrants away from Alberta.

“We bring them here legally, (and) they want to contribute, they want to give back to the country, to the community, but on the other hand we are kind of blaming them for a lot of issues that exist no matter with or without immigration,” said Sally Zhao, CEO of The Immigrant Education Society of Calgary, in an interview with Global News.

1:59
Premier Danielle Smith staffer under fire for immigration comments

While Smith couldn’t provide a specific dollar amount for how much people with non-permanent legal immigration status cost the public purse each year, Mount Royal University political scientist Lori Williams said her attempts to blame immigrants for much of the province’s financial troubles don’t necessarily hold water.

Williams said, when migration to the province peaked in 2023-2024, Smith’s government posted a multi-billion surplus at the end of the same fiscal year.

Get daily National news

Get the day’s top news, political, economic, and current affairs headlines, delivered to your inbox once a day.

“We know that the real problem is the drop in the price of oil,” said Williams.

“I doubt if you added up all of the costs of all of these concerns about immigration put together, (you would see) figures to show that there’s going to be some kind of net gain or a solution to the problem of the deficit.”

Data from Statistics Canada shows immigration and migration levels to Alberta have dropped considerably since 2023-2024, when the province gained 220,000 residents. Of that total, just over 100,000 were non-permanent residents, such as international students, temporary foreign workers and family members.

The following year, Alberta saw 120,000 net new residents through immigration and migration, with just under 22,000 being non-permanent residents.

In the first quarter of the current fiscal year, the province saw just under 12,000 new residents, despite a net loss of nearly 11,000 non-permanent residents.

Williams said it’s a time-honoured strategy for Alberta politicians to lay the blame for deficits on Ottawa, but that the referendum deflects attention from things Smith does have control over.

“Challenges in health care, with affordability, with education — those problems long predated the spikes in immigration that Danielle Smith is associating with the problems,” said Williams.

Asked if the referendum would be binding, Smith didn’t provide a yes or no answer and said: “I’m not asking these questions with the intention of ignoring what Albertans tell us.”

…with files from Global News.

2:10
Alberta immigration education groups react to Premier Smith’s referendum announcement

&copy 2026 The Canadian Press