{"id":437795,"date":"2026-02-21T11:05:06","date_gmt":"2026-02-21T11:05:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/437795\/"},"modified":"2026-02-21T11:05:06","modified_gmt":"2026-02-21T11:05:06","slug":"alberta-holds-referendum-on-scrapping-free-healthcare-for-migrants","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/437795\/","title":{"rendered":"Alberta holds referendum on scrapping free healthcare for migrants"},"content":{"rendered":"

Alberta will hold a referendum on whether the Canadian province should wrest control of immigration from the federal government and place strict limits on access to free healthcare and education.<\/p>\n

In a televised address on Thursday, Danielle Smith<\/a>, the premier of Alberta, said that giving \u201cfree access to our most generous in the country social programmes to anyone who moves here\u201d was \u201cfinancially crippling\u201d.<\/p>\n

She announced Albertans will be asked nine questions in October, including whether they support new laws that would limit access to free social services to \u201cCanadian citizens, permanent residents and individuals with an Alberta-approved immigration status\u201d and charging fees to \u201cindividuals with a non-permanent immigration status\u201d for use of the healthcare and education systems.<\/p>\n

The referendum will also include questions on whether Alberta should seek to amend the Canadian constitution, including \u201cto abolish the unelected federal Senate\u201d and \u201cprotect provincial rights from federal interference\u201d.<\/p>\n

Ms Smith blamed Alberta\u2019s budget deficit on low oil prices and \u201cout of control federal immigration policies\u201d.<\/p>\n

Smith criticises Justin Trudeau\u2019s policies<\/p>\n

She took particular aim at former prime minister Justin Trudeau\u2019s \u201cdisastrous\u201d policies, which \u201cthrottled our most important job-creating industries\u201d and \u201cflooded our classrooms, emergency rooms, and social support systems with far too many people, far too quickly\u201d.<\/p>\n

An ally of Donald Trump, the US president, whom she has visited at his Mar-a-Lago resort, Ms Smith was the only Canadian premier to refuse to sign a joint statement co-ordinating a response to Mr Trump\u2019s tariff threats<\/a> last year.<\/p>\n

Since being elected premier of Alberta in 2022, the former lobbyist and journalist has railed against caps on fossil fuel production and net-zero regulations.<\/p>\n

Leaders of a Right-wing separatist group called the Alberta Prosperity Project recently held meetings with officials from the US state department about the logistics of the province breaking away from Canada, including the possibility of switching to US currency.<\/p>\n

Ms Smith does not support the movement, instead saying she wants a \u201csovereign Alberta within a united Canada\u201d.<\/p>\n

Increase fossil fuel exports<\/p>\n

The referendum is part of her broader three-part strategy to shore up Alberta\u2019s finances.<\/p>\n

While in the long term she hopes to free the province \u201cfrom its over-reliance on oil and gas revenues,\u201d she is seeking to increase the amount of fossil fuels Alberta sends elsewhere in Canada and internationally over the next 10 years, she said on Thursday.<\/p>\n

The short-term plan is to limit spending, implement more income testing for social programmes, and \u201caddress head-on the challenge of out-of-control immigration levels\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe changes we need to make to immigration are a significant departure from the status quo so therefore I am seeking a referendum mandate to implement them,\u201d Ms Smith said.<\/p>\n

Some experts criticised Ms Smith\u2019s broadcast and referendum plans, arguing that the province\u2019s budget issues could not be blamed on immigration.<\/p>\n

Gerard Kennedy, a law professor, also told Canadian broadcaster CBC that the constitutional changes proposed by the referendum would require multiple \u2013 or, in some cases, all \u2013 provinces to agree.<\/p>\n

Bradley Lafortune, head of advocacy group Public Interest Alberta, said: \u201cThis is a Trump-style, Maga government that is doing their best to imitate the current Republicans in the United State.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Alberta will hold a referendum on whether the Canadian province should wrest control of immigration from the federal…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":437796,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[43],"tags":[626,102,2960,50,5438,56,54,55,157732,1384],"class_list":{"0":"post-437795","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-healthcare","8":"tag-canada","9":"tag-health","10":"tag-healthcare","11":"tag-news","12":"tag-standard","13":"tag-uk","14":"tag-united-kingdom","15":"tag-unitedkingdom","16":"tag-us-content","17":"tag-us-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/437795","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=437795"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/437795\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/437796"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=437795"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=437795"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=437795"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}