Our immigration system is not perfect. The rapid increase in immigration in the decade leading to 2024, absent the necessary infrastructure, has provoked thought about how to improve the system. Alberta’s answer includes posing three questions in its Oct. 19 referendum that call for limiting newcomers’ access to publicly funded services.

Question 2 proposes excluding persons other than Canadian citizens, permanent residents, and “individuals with an Alberta-approved immigration status” (an undefined term) from accessing publicly funded services.

Question 3 proposes excluding persons with a non-permanent resident legal immigration status from accessing publicly funded services until they have lived in Alberta 12 months, no matter how long they have lived in Canada.

Question 4 proposes charging an unspecified fee to persons with non-permanent resident legal status for accessing health and education, presumably excluding those who cannot pay.

These questions appear to target temporary foreign workers, refugees, and foreign students. A child of a temporary foreign worker would be excluded from accessing public education. A 70-year-old Ukrainian refugee who suffered a stroke would be excluded from accessing health care unless she could afford the fee. This, though the excluded persons were legally admitted to Canada and pay federal and provincial taxes, just like everyone else.

On its website, Alberta offers three arguments.

The first argument: The cost of delivering services to these persons is estimated at more than $1 billion per year. No authority is cited. Nor is the amount of annual taxes paid by these persons.

Access to services has never been based on whether an individual is a profit centre for the province. Those who most need public services, like the elderly or disabled, often have the least income and pay the least taxes. The proffered approach would set a dangerous precedent for all Albertans.

The second argument: Immigration policies with rapid population growth puts “pressure on Alberta’s health, education and other social services, resulting in delayed access to health care …, larger classrooms for students and unaffordable cost pressures to social services overall.”

Alberta’s rapid population growth is the result of deliberate policy. On a January 2024 podcast, Premier Danielle Smith advocated more than doubling Alberta’s population, to 10 million people. The Alberta is Calling campaign encouraged the migration of people from across the country. In March 2024, the premier wrote the prime minister to request double the places for immigrants under the provincial nominee program and the Ukrainian refugee program.

The cause of the strain on services is the policy of rapid population growth without commensurate investment in infrastructure and complements of professionals. Consider hospitals: In Edmonton, the population has doubled since 1988 when the last new hospital was constructed.

At best, it is disingenuous to blame Alberta’s services deficit on temporary foreign workers, refugees, and foreign students. At worst, it is shifting the blame for Alberta’s failure to invest in infrastructure onto vulnerable groups.

The third argument: Alberta youth unemployment is high (at 15.6 per cent), suggesting temporary foreign workers take the jobs of young Albertans. No evidence is cited. A July 2026 Canadian Federation of Independent Businesses report disputes this: “the jobs most commonly filled by temporary foreign workers are exactly the ones that young Canadians are least willing to take.”

As Sen. Paula Simons wrote in Alberta Views: “… does it make any sense to prevent refugee and immigrant children from going to school, learning English and integrating? … Does it make our communities safer or more prosperous to prevent children — including those whose parents are legally here — from acquiring the language skills, academic training and cultural know-how to work and thrive and contribute to our economy and society?”

Alberta has not shown that denial of health care, education, and other publicly funded services to lawfully admitted temporary foreign workers, refugees, and foreign students is a solution to Alberta’s deficit, inadequate public services, or youth unemployment.

If improvement to our immigration system is the goal, we should focus on the rules for admission, not the denial of basic services to those lawfully admitted. These proposals breach fundamental human rights, fan the flames of racism and division among us, and disrespect the premise upon which Canada was built.

Douglas Stollery and Sheila Greckol are members of beforevoting.ca, a non-profit dedicated to providing information about questions on the upcoming Alberta referendum.

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