{"id":486889,"date":"2026-02-20T04:58:17","date_gmt":"2026-02-20T04:58:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/486889\/"},"modified":"2026-02-20T04:58:17","modified_gmt":"2026-02-20T04:58:17","slug":"danielle-smith-promises-alberta-referendum-over-immigration-constitution-changes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/486889\/","title":{"rendered":"Danielle Smith promises Alberta referendum over immigration, Constitution changes"},"content":{"rendered":"

Alberta Premier Danielle Smith<\/a> says out-of-control immigration<\/a> levels are overwhelming the province\u2019s core social services and has announced a referendum will take place nine months from now, asking residents to weigh in on nine questions addressing both that and possible changes to Canada\u2019s Constitution.<\/p>\n

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(Scroll down to see the questions)<\/p>\n

In a televised speech Thursday night, Smith said the Oct. 19, provincial referendum will be primarily focused on finding out how Albertans want the government to \u201cdeal with the issue of immigration, as well as steps we can take as a province to strengthen our constitutional and fiscal position within a united Canada.\u201d<\/p>\n

Smith said the changes her UCP government has determined the province needs to make to immigration are a significant departure from the status quo.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese were far and away the issues most strongly identified by Albertans during last year\u2019s Alberta Next panel town halls and online submissions, and in my view, it is time to act on them,\u201d Smith said in a 13-minute televised speech that the government paid to air during the 6 p.m. primetime news hour.<\/p>\n

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\u201cThe fact is, Alberta taxpayers can no longer be asked to continue to subsidize the entire country through equalization and federal transfers, permit the federal government to flood our borders with new arrivals, and then give free access to our most-generous-in-the-country social programs to anyone who moves here,\u201d Smith said.<\/p>\n

The premier noted the province will be unveiling a large deficit in next week\u2019s budget and lower oil prices have contributed to less revenue.<\/p>\n

According to the Alberta government, each $1 drop in the price of oil means roughly $750 million fewer royalties for the province.<\/p>\n

However, Smith said social services costs going to more new residents is making Alberta\u2019s budget woes even worse.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is not only grossly unfair to Alberta taxpayers, but also financially crippling and undercuts the quality of our health care, education and other social services.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mount Royal political scientist Lori Williams challenges that assertion.<\/p>\n

\u201cTo suggest that this budget deficit is primarily caused by immigration \u2014 that non-citizens who come to Alberta are filling emergency rooms and classrooms and that\u2019s where problems coming from \u2014 it creates, I think, a distorted picture of what\u2019s actually going on,\u201d Williams said after Smith\u2019s speech aired.<\/p>\n

Danielle Smith has been Alberta premier since 2022 and Williams believes Thursday\u2019s speech aimed to redirect public attention away from the province.<\/p>\n

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\u201cPeople are concerned very much about affordability, they\u2019re concerned about health care, and they are concerned about education. And the government has invested in some areas, has been addressing some of the problems that have been raised \u2014 but they persist.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople, when a government has been in power for years, start to notice if promises aren\u2019t fulfilled. They start ask questions and they start make more demands of a government.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tDanielle Smith launches Alberta Next panel to boost provincial autonomy\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

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Bradley Lafortune, executive director of Public Interest Alberta, said a bad news budget is not unheard of in a province that gleans so much of its income from oil and gas royalties.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s nothing new in Alberta. But what is new, I think \u2014 at least with this degree of focus and tone \u2014 is the shift in blame towards immigration and newcomers,\u201d he said after listening to the speech.<\/p>\n

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\u201cFundamentally, this is a Trump-style, MAGA government that is doing their best to imitate the current Republicans in the United States,\u201d Lafortune said.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd what that means is blaming newcomers, cutting services, reducing taxes, and then telling everyone that we need to do more with less, at the same time as friends and insiders are receiving massive amounts of grift on the public dollar.\u201d<\/p>\n

Lafortune thinks Albertans should prepare for a \u201cvery bad budget\u201d next Thursday that he predicts will contain more cuts to frontline services and the administration of them.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat I mean by bad is it\u2019s going to be bad for Albertans, working middle-class Albertans. I think its gonna be very bad.\u201d<\/p>\n

Smith said in the short-term, the government will not be implementing drastic cuts in the 2026 budget but will instead be cutting unnecessary bureaucracy, improving efficiencies in program delivery (such as more income testing for social programs) and prioritizing needs before wants as much as possible.<\/p>\n

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\u201cThe approved wage increases for our doctors, nurses, and teachers will remain in place so we can continue to attract the skilled professionals needed to catch up with our growth,\u201d Smith said.<\/p>\n

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According to Statistics Canada, Alberta\u2019s population surged by 202,324 residents in 2023<\/a>. That\u2019s the largest annual increase in the province\u2019s history, the equivalent of 550 people moving to Alberta every day.<\/p>\n

While the bulk of the growth came from international migration, Alberta also shattered a national record for interprovincial migration, most of whom came from Ontario and B.C.<\/p>\n

The province\u2019s population growth peaked in the third quarter of 2023, with it dropping off significantly in 2024 and 2025, according to the most recent Statistics Canada data.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think the federal government started realizing that they\u2019ve been pushing too strongly on the population growth through different types of migration, international migration,\u201d Carleton University economics professor Christopher Worswick said of the decline that began in 2024.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo we saw caps on the number of international students coming in. I think that needed to be done because the program was growing just way too fast.\u201d<\/p>\n

Premier Smith blames the former Justin Trudeau Liberal government for Alberta\u2019s population woes, saying over five years almost 600,000 people moved to Alberta, pushing the population over five million people.<\/p>\n

\u201cOttawa throttled our most important job creating industries and prioritized immigration away from economic migrants and instead focused on international students, temporary workers and asylum seekers,\u201d Smith said.<\/p>\n

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In 2022-23, the province ran a $4.95 million \u201cAlberta is Calling\u201d campaign<\/a> aimed at attracting skilled workers to the province from other parts of the country.<\/p>\n

\u201cAlthough sustainable immigration has always been an important part of our provincial growth model, throwing the doors wide open to anyone and everyone across the globe has flooded our classrooms, emergency rooms and social support systems with far too many people, far too quickly,\u201d Smith said.<\/p>\n

Overcrowded classrooms and a strained health-care system has been a documented issue in Alberta for well over a decade and Williams said blaming it on newer residents is a deflexion of responsibility.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s no question that we have seen very large numbers of newcomers to Alberta. Part of that is because the Alberta government has invited people, citizens of Canada to come here and to work in Alberta.<\/p>\n

\u201cTo somehow suggest that the problem has been created by immigration \u2014 as if these problems didn\u2019t exist before those immigration numbers ticked up \u2014 I think is inaccurate.\u201d<\/p>\n

She fears it will create strife and inflame racial tensions.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think that impression is potentially quite problematic, particularly for those who are already struggling with people\u2019s hostility toward them.\u201d<\/p>\n

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The October referendum, a year before the province\u2019s scheduled general election, could be even longer.<\/p>\n

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Last year, Smith promised a referendum on separation in 2026 if citizens gathered the required number of signatures on a petition.<\/p>\n

One citizen-led petition to be put to lawmakers this spring could lead to a referendum vote on making it a provincial policy that Alberta stay in Canada.<\/p>\n

Another petition effort, with a deadline for signatures in early May, seeks a referendum question about pulling the province out of Confederation.<\/p>\n

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Smith said Thursday that strengthening Alberta\u2019s \u201cconstitutional and fiscal position within a united Canada\u201d and immigration were the biggest issues her Alberta Next panel heard as it toured the province last year.<\/p>\n

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One of the issues tabled for debate was whether Alberta should withhold social services from some immigrants. The panel was propped up by calls from in-person attendees who at times called for mass deportations.<\/p>\n

In January, Smith\u2019s United Conservative Party government walked back what it called a \u201cpremature\u201d decision to cut off temporary foreign workers from provincial health-care coverage<\/a>, including those who had already obtained work permits.<\/p>\n

The ministry in charge said, at the time, the move was on pause pending review.<\/p>\n

On Wednesday, Smith\u2019s chief of staff, Rob Anderson, reposted a social media infographic about immigration numbers and invited readers to watch the premier\u2019s televised address.<\/p>\n

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\u201cThis absolute insanity needs to stop. It will,\u201d he wrote.<\/p>\n

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The executive director of the premier\u2019s office, Bruce McAllister, also pointed to the same social media post to sound off on population growth.<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cDoes their contempt for Canada\u2019s core values and traditions drive them to flood our borders with millions from societies not built on the same foundations that have made us thrive?\u201d McAllister said on X.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhy 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.\u201d<\/p>\n

The people orchestrating this reckless, unsustainable mass immigration into Canada fill me with profound disgust. To deliberately engineer and champion such explosive, unmanageable population growth in your own nation? That\u2019s the height of civic irresponsibility. Was it fueled by\u2026 https:\/\/t.co\/2GBxx9s0Ne<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2014 Bruce McAllister (@McAllisterBruce) February 18, 2026<\/a><\/p>\n

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Smith was asked Wednesday if her government shared McAllister\u2019s values<\/a>. She didn\u2019t directly answer but said western society is based on \u201cthe Socratic Judeo-Christian tradition.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cHowever, Alberta was also created since 1905 based on the immense diaspora communities that come here,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

She said the federal government has made changes to refocus on economic migrants and that the previous system \u201cbroke.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was the No. 1 issue that we heard,\u201d she said, referring to the Alberta Next panel.<\/p>\n

As it stands right now, the referendum in October will ask Albertans nine questions concerning immigration and the Constitution:<\/p>\n

Immigration<\/p>\n

1. Do you support the Government of Alberta taking increased control over immigration for the purposes of decreasing immigration to more sustainable levels, prioritizing economic migration and giving Albertans first priority on new employment opportunities?<\/p>\n

2. Do you support the Government of Alberta introducing a law mandating that only Canadian citizens, permanent residents and individuals with an Alberta-approved immigration status will be eligible for provincially-funded programs, such as health care, education and other social services?<\/p>\n

3. Assuming that all Canadian citizens and permanent residents continue to qualify for social support programs as they do now, do you support the Government of Alberta introducing a law requiring all individuals with a non-permanent legal immigration status to reside in Alberta for at least 12 months before qualifying for any provincially-funded social support programs?<\/p>\n

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4. Assuming that all Canadian citizens and permanent residents continue to qualify for public health care and education as they do now, do you support the Government of Alberta charging a reasonable fee or premium to individuals with a non-permanent immigration status living in Alberta for their and their family\u2019s use of the healthcare and education systems?<\/p>\n

5. Do you support the Government of Alberta introducing a law requiring individuals to provide proof of citizenship, such as a passport, birth certificate, or citizenship card, to vote in an Alberta provincial election?<\/p>\n

Constitution<\/p>\n

6. Do you support the Government of Alberta working with the governments of other willing provinces to amend the Canadian Constitution to have provincial governments, and not the federal government, select the justices appointed to provincial King\u2019s Bench and Appeal courts?<\/p>\n

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7. Do you support the Government of Alberta working with the governments of other willing provinces to amend the Canadian Constitution to abolish the unelected federal Senate?<\/p>\n

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8. Do you support the Government of Alberta working with the governments of other willing provinces to amend the Canadian Constitution to allow provinces to opt out of federal programs that intrude on provincial jurisdiction such as health care, education, and social services, without a province losing any of the associated federal funding for use in its social programs?<\/p>\n

9. Do you support the Government of Alberta working with the governments of other willing provinces to amend the Canadian Constitution to better protect provincial rights from federal interference by giving a province\u2019s laws dealing with provincial or shared areas of constitutional jurisdiction priority over federal laws when the province\u2019s laws and federal laws conflict?<\/p>\n

With files from Lisa Johnson, The Canadian Press<\/p>\n

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