Alberta migrant groups express alarm over referendum results on immigration reform

Migrant groups are expressing alarm over early results in the Alberta referendum, which appear to show that Albertans are largely supportive of policies to limit access to public services for temporary residents.

A majority of Albertans voted on Tuesday to remain in Canada in a referendum that exposed a stark urban-rural divide, particularly on the issue of immigration. Though voters rejected the question on separation, the first four questions on the ballot broadly focused on whether the Alberta government should have greater control over immigration into the province, and whether there should be restrictions on access to provincially funded social services for non-permanent residents and non-citizens.

“The immediate reaction from temporary foreign workers here is deep concern that they are going to have to start paying for health care,” said Marco Luciano, executive director of Migrante Alberta, a migrant rights advocacy group based in Edmonton. “Even though Alberta voted to stay in Canada, for foreign workers, there’s nothing to celebrate today.”

See the vote counts for Alberta’s nine other referendum questions

The four questions asked voters whether the province should take greater control over immigration; charge temporary residents a fee for education and health care; introduce a law mandating that only Albertans with a yet-to-be-defined “approved immigration status” be eligible for health care, education and other provincially funded social services; and mandate that temporary residents have to live in Alberta for 12 months before qualifying for social programs.

Preliminary results show that a majority of Albertans voted “yes” to all four questions, though ballots were still being counted as of Tuesday evening. Elections Alberta has said that unofficial final results to all the questions will be available by Wednesday evening.

“The immigrant community feels scapegoated by these questions, and the responses to the questions,” said Avnish Nanda, an Edmonton-based lawyer and founder of Our Alberta Advantage, a pro-immigrant advocacy group that was created to oppose the referendum questions about immigration.

Mr. Nanda, who has been organizing in newcomer communities for years across the province, said that in the lead-up to the referendum, immigrants – including people who had migrated decades ago, and not just newcomers – felt an increased sense that the provincial government was targeting them to appease the separatist movement. “The bottom line is, if the Premier follows through on the results of the questions, it will cause economic harm to the province,” he added.

There are approximately 260,000 temporary residents in Alberta, making up approximately 5.8 per cent of the province’s population as of the end of 2025, according to Statistics Canada data. Industry groups like the Calgary Chamber of Commerce and the Canadian Federation of Independent Business have long noted how critical it is that Alberta supports robust immigration policies to address a skilled labour shortage.

Albertans largely support measures aimed at reducing immigration, split on constitutional questions

A poll on the proposed changes to immigration policies, conducted by the Calgary Chamber in association with Abacus Data last month, found that a majority of businesses (52 per cent) were not in favour of any changes to current immigration policy. Additionally, businesses were concerned that the health care and education fees proposed for temporary residents would ultimately be paid by employers to retain immigrant workers.

Alberta Premier Danielle Smith has floated the idea of charging temporary residents a $1,900 fee to access public health care. Ms. Smith has stated that temporary residents cost the province significantly more in public services than they contribute in taxes, estimating that for every $1 in taxes that a worker pays, taxpayers are covering $10 in services.

Keyli Loeppky, senior director of Alberta and interprovincial affairs at the Canadian Federation for Independent Business – an industry group that has lobbied for increasing the temporary foreign worker quota in Canada – told The Globe and Mail that some of the policy suggestions in the ballot questions, if implemented, will worsen the skilled labour shortage in the province.

“Small business owners will be looking for the government to strike the right balance between addressing the concerns for Albertans, but also maintaining access to a reliable work force,” she said.

Immigration in Canada is a shared jurisdiction between federal and provincial governments, meaning that Ottawa holds exclusive control over the admission and processing criteria. While preliminary results show Albertans voted yes to the province taking increased control over immigration, it is not a policy that is constitutionally viable, noted Yameena Ansari, a Calgary-based immigration lawyer.

Opinion: The pro-Canada side won in Alberta. That’s not an endorsement of the status quo

Provinces can ask Ottawa to increase the quota of temporary residents allotted to migrate into the province through provincial-nominee programs, but other than that, as long as they remain a part of Canada, provinces have little control over immigration policy, she said.

Alberta does, however, govern education, health care and certain social services, and could introduce bills in the coming months that make it harder or more expensive for temporary residents to have access to these public services.

“I have no doubt that she will go hard on these reforms given the outcome on the ballot,” said Gil McGowan, president of the Alberta Federation of Labour, referring to Premier Danielle Smith. “But I think we need to stop behaving like this is a legitimate exercise in democracy. It wasn’t. It was a bad faith effort by Danielle Smith to fan the flames of xenophobia. And it is within this context that we have to view the results of the other questions.”

Jim Stanford, a labour economist and executive director of the Centre for Future Work, a Vancouver-based think tank, suggested that the questions on immigration were designed to channel the “primal anti-immigration sentiment” in certain parts of the province.

“The questions were biased and slanted in how they were worded, and a bone that Danielle Smith threw to appease the separatist-friendly segment of her base. All this does is raise a big red flag to the rest of the world saying Alberta is a place with nativist, prejudicial sentiment,” he said.