EDMONTON — Alberta politicians returned to the legislature Tuesday for the spring sitting, with proposed legislation on the agenda ranging from immigration to medical assistance in dying.

Government house leader Joseph Schow said he expects up to 18 government bills, including one that would create a provincial Project Delivery Office akin to the federal government’s Major Projects Office.

The office would be tasked with attracting investment and streamlining approval for major industrial projects in Alberta.

Another bill is to prohibit MAID in Alberta for select groups, including people with a mental illness as their sole underlying condition.

MAID is the short form for medical assistance in dying.

Under current federal law, people suffering solely from a mental illness would have been eligible for MAID in 2024 depending on certain criteria and safeguards, but that change has been delayed until at least 2027 as debate continues.

Schow said Premier Danielle Smith’s governing United Conservatives will also introduce a bill that aims to give the province greater control over immigration by regulating international recruiters and increasing oversight of those who recruit and hire foreign workers.

The sitting comes just days after Smith announced a fall referendum on new immigration policies and as a petition seeking to force a vote on the province quitting Canada circulates.

Schow said Albertans are looking for a government that offers solutions to the challenges the province is facing. “They’re looking for a government that leads and still exercises responsibility and delivers even in the hard times,” he said.

Also Tuesday, Public Safety Minister Mike Ellis introduced the government’s first bill of the sitting.

The legislation, if passed, would transfer all 1,200 Alberta Sheriffs employees, including administrative staff and officers, to the new Alberta Sheriffs Police Service.

Ellis said it was the next step in the development of the new service, which could one day take over local policing duties from the RCMP if municipalities request it. He said the bill also creates a “pathway” for existing sheriffs to undertake training to become full-fledged police officers.

The centrepiece of the sitting will be the 2026 budget, which Smith has already signalled will include a multibillion-dollar deficit.

Smith has said Thursday’s budget will see a 22 per cent boost in spending on doctors. But it comes amid delays over a promised government plan to put triage physicians in emergency rooms to alleviate long waits and prevent deaths.

Hospitals Minister Matt Jones had promised the new triage doctors would be in place on Feb. 1 following the death of a 44-year-old man waiting for care in an Edmonton hospital emergency room.

Jones told reporters Tuesday the government approved $20 million over two years for the triage spots, but said the Alberta Medical Association’s emergency medicine department sent a “counter proposal” with seven requests related to compensation and liability issues.

“But I remain optimistic that we will get these (positions) filled once we resolve these differences on compensation,” Jones said.

Opposition NDP Leader Naheed Nenshi said Jones was deflecting accountability.

“Now they’re blaming doctors for not wanting to do the jobs because they invented the jobs on the back of a napkin,” Nenshi told reporters.

The sitting is set to end in May, just after the deadline for a petition that aims to force a vote on Alberta separating from Canada. Schow said he did not sign the petition, but defended the importance of citizens getting a say through direct democracy.

Schow declined to offer a timeline of how the house will deal with another previously successful petition that aims to put forward a referendum question on making it Alberta’s official policy to remain in Canada. He noted a committee of legislators is to be appointed to decide whether to send the question to the floor of the house for debate.

In question period Tuesday, the Opposition hit the government with questions about health care and affordability while heckling government members on separatism.

Smith reiterated that her government supports a sovereign Alberta within a united Canada. Nenshi called that statement “word salad” and urged her to clearly denounce separatism.

Smith responded: “I am proud to be Canadian and I want every Albertan to feel exactly the same way.”

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Feb. 24, 2026.

Lisa Johnson and Jack Farrell, The Canadian Press