Alberta Premier Danielle Smith signals immigration shift ahead of provincial address
· Toronto Sun
Alberta Premier Danielle Smith is slated to deliver a provincial address on Thursday evening where she said she’ll have more to say on immigration as another challenging budget looms.
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At an unrelated press conference on Wednesday, Smith was asked if her address will revolve around immigration after her chief of staff hinted at it in a Wednesday post on X. She said a number of things would be addressed — including Canada’s rapid population growth which she says needs to change.
“We’ve had the fastest growing population in Canada — adding 600,000 new people in the last four years alone.”
“This clearly has to change. This is not sustainable.”
Smith said they’ll begin the conversations with Albertans about what “needs to happen” next.
Rob Anderson, Smith’s chief of staff, responded to a social media post on Wednesday which compared Canada’s population growth from 2000 to 2024 to other countries. He told Albertans to tune into Smith’s address Thursday evening.
“This absolute insanity needs to stop. It will,” Anderson said on social media.
Smith said she’d like to see newcomers who arrive in Alberta come with a job. She said that immigration has been “out of balance” saying at least two-thirds of newcomers should be economic migrants.
“You have to be a taxpayer before you start using our services and we’ve had the reverse,” Smith said.
“We’ve had people who are heavy, heavy users of our services, and might not even be a taxpayer, might not even have job (prospects). (We’ve) got to get back to the original intention.”
The province has seen a decline in revenue with the price of oil dropping. Alberta’s expenses have been growing faster than its revenue growth, said Smith, and a rising population has put more pressures on the system.
Budget 2026 will be announced Feb. 26 and, earlier this month, Finance Minister Nate Horner warned that the province will be making “tough choices.” He said that it has been a difficult year amid economic uncertainty, declining revenue and ongoing trade conflict.
Smith is scheduled to deliver the address at 6:45 p.m. on Thursday
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