Cory Morgan: How Smith’s Immigration Plan Could Affect the Other Provinces

Alberta Premier Danielle Smith holds a press conference at the Legislature in Edmonton on Dec. 10, 2025. The Canadian Press/Amber Bracken

Commentary

While immigration levels have declined since Prime Minister Mark Carney took office, people remain concerned about the impact of high immigration on local services. Alberta Premier Danielle Smith has decided to take the matter into her own hands, and if she imposes the policies she is proposing, it may shake up the nation as the balance of immigrants shifts.

Quebec has long had a unique status in determining who may directly immigrate to the province. Quebec’s system operates independently from the federal system, and the province puts a strong emphasis on French-speaking proficiency when selecting immigrants. Smith wants Alberta to embrace a similar system, but with more emphasis on the employability of immigrants than on the language spoken.

While provinces may establish systems to prioritize certain categories of immigrants for themselves, the nature of Canada’s federation limits the effectiveness of those systems. Once a person lands in Canada, they may initially be compelled to start in a particular province, but there is nothing to stop them from migrating to a different province after that. Canada wouldn’t be a functional confederation if it limited the mobility of individuals between provinces.

Premier Smith knows she can’t stop immigrants from coming into Alberta from other provinces. Her plan is to make it unappealing for temporary immigrants to come to Alberta by blocking access to provincially administered services such as public education, subsidized daycare, and health care. She wants to follow the United Kingdom model, where immigrants have to work a number of years before they can access social services. The UK is planning to extend that period to 10 years.

The target isn’t so much skilled immigrants seeking to permanently immigrate to Alberta as it is the temporary immigrants who some feel are abusing the system. For example, 20,000 students from India who came to Canada on educational visas never showed up for class. Where did they go, and are they consuming local social services?

Access to housing, health care, and education has been challenging for Canadians, and mass immigration in the last 10 years has made those challenges worse. Smith’s plan could lead to government cost savings and more accessibility to services, as some immigrants may have to pay out of pocket.

Canada has been known as a landing spot for many “citizens of convenience,” too. When the Israel-Hamas war broke out in 2023, there were concerns that Canada might need to evacuate as many as 75,000 citizens from neighbouring Lebanon. Why are so many citizens residing overseas? Are they contributing to the tax system, or do they only return when needing things such as health care or long-term care upon retirement?

Canada can’t rescind citizenship to those who spend time outside of the country for extended periods, but by requiring new Canadians to work and reside within the country for as much as 10 years before they can access services, the number of those viewing immigration to Canada as a quick path to free services would drop.

There will be some downsides to Smith’s plan—for both Alberta and the country. Immigration is essential to Canada’s economic well-being. New Canadians fill many much-needed roles in both unskilled and professional job categories that can’t adequately be filled by existing citizens. While Smith insists that she wants to welcome new immigrants if they have marketable skills, the impression of Alberta being anti-immigrant may cause some professionals to shy away. A labour shortage could lead to reduced productivity and increased inflation as businesses raise prices to compensate for increased labour costs.

The plans in Alberta could adversely impact other provinces. It’s hard to tell how many immigrants are dependent on social services in the province right now. If those immigrants pick up and move to other provinces to take advantage of services there, the pressure on social programs could cause shocks. It certainly won’t endear Alberta to its neighbours. There could also be a chain reaction of other provinces responding by implementing similar policies to Alberta’s, which could lead to a series of waves of interprovincial migration as the nation adapts to a hodgepodge of regional immigrant policies.

In the 1990s, Alberta Premier Ralph Klein gave free one-way bus tickets to welfare recipients to send them to other provinces. It was effective, but enraged the nation.

As with many of Premier Smith’s initiatives, this could lead to unity challenges within Canada. She is effective in forcing the issue for the federal government on items, if nothing else.

Immigration remains ultimately a federal responsibility. If Smith’s plans lead to a breakdown of stable immigration levels in provinces, it will be due to the federal government failing to react properly to Alberta’s proposals. If the feds want standardized immigration controls across the country, they must demonstrate the ability to take control. Otherwise, provinces like Alberta will act unilaterally and ultimately weaken the federation.

Citizens are losing patience, and other premiers will surely follow Danielle Smith’s lead if federal reforms aren’t expedited.

Views expressed in this article are opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times.