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Premier Danielle Smith is set to make a speech about immigration on Thursday night, a week before her government’s provincial budget.AMBER BRACKEN/The Canadian Press
Alberta Premier Danielle Smith is expected to speak about immigration in a televised address Thursday night, one week before her government is set to deliver a budget that’s expected to show how sliding oil prices have hit provincial coffers.
At an unrelated news conference on Wednesday, Ms. Smith confirmed that she will outline new actions on immigration after foreshadowing in recent months that her government was considering restricting access to social services for non-residents.
Immigration has become a key issue for Ms. Smith’s United Conservative Party government that continues to try to find ways to wrestle away responsibilities from Ottawa.
The topic featured prominently at town halls that the Premier convened across the province last summer.
Dubbed the Alberta Next panels, the events were envisioned as a way to gauge residents’ interest in how the provincial government could alter its relationship with the federal government.
On Wednesday, Ms. Smith said immigration was the “number one” issue she heard from residents at those forums.
Ms. Smith said rapid population growth in recent years has contributed to Alberta’s growing expenses, and poor oil revenues over the past year have challenged the province’s ability to cover those costs.
She also said that many non-taxpayers are using government services, creating “a lot of tension in society.”
“The social contract that we have is that you have to be a taxpayer before you start using our services, and we’ve had the reverse,” she said.
While Ottawa has sole responsibility for immigration, the Alberta Next Panel suggested reviewing social services available to certain migrants and introducing a provincial certificate of immigration.
Droves of people have moved to Alberta over the past three years, from inside and outside Canada, partly abetted by the UCP’s highly successful “Alberta is Calling” ad campaign that offered tax credits to new residents and promised a lower cost of living.
Ms. Smith’s address on Thursday is scheduled to begin at 6:45 p.m. MT.
