Premier Danielle Smith speaks in Calgary on Tuesday.--CP Photo Dayne Patterson
zmason@medicinehatnews.com
Premier Danielle Smith announced a packed referendum slate coming Oct. 19 during her televised address to the province Thursday evening.
The referendum questions will cover a number of topics, including non-constitutional questions that ask whether Albertans support numerous proposals limiting immigration and the availability of social services to immigrants.
The second set of questions ask Albertans whether they support the provincial government in its efforts to make several amendments to the Canadian constitution, including the abolition of the federal senate and changes that would allow provincial governments to to select justices.
“I know that as a province we will thoughtfully ponder, debate and ultimately come to a wise decision on these questions that will benefit our families and our fellow Albertans for generations, just as we’ve always done,” she said.
Another constitutional question asks whether Albertans support the provincial government working with other willing governments to allow provinces to opt out of federal programs like health care and education without losing any of the associated federal funding for use in Alberta’s social programs.
The address began by summarizing what Smith characterized as key victories of the last year, including tens of billions in new projects and the signing of the energy MOU with Ottawa in November.
Smith quickly shifted to discuss what she called “very serious growth and budget challenges that must be addressed” ahead of the release of the province’s annual budget next week.
She pointed to a combination of low oil prices and federal immigration policies she described as “out-of-control” as the primary drivers of budget deficits that she called unsustainable.
She cited a crash in oil prices by more than $30 a barrel since 2022 as the source of large deficit. The premier did not specify the extent of the deficit, which should be revealed in next week’s budget announcement.
Smith said Alberta’s population grew by 600,000 over five years. While she said sustainable immigration is an important part of the provincial growth model, she blamed immigration policy for strains in the province’s classrooms, emergency rooms and social support systems.
The premier said her government has a three-part strategy consisting of short-, medium- and long-term measures to address budget challenges.
Smith said the government’s long-term strategy to contend with budget deficits is to grow the Alberta Heritage Fund. The UCP government announced in February 2024 a plan to grow the fund to more than $250 billion by 2050.
Smith said her government has doubled the fund from roughly $16 billion in 2021 to nearly $32 billion today.
In the medium term, the government has pledged to double Alberta’s oil and gas production and exports to more than 8 million barrels a day by 2035. Smith says the province will double pipeline capacity over the next 10 years, allowing oil producers to expand to fill that demand.
“We will not permit Alberta’s and Canada’s most valuable resource deposit, worth almost $10 trillion, to remain in the ground to the detriment of millions of Canadians,” said Smith. “That’s not going to happen.”
The short-term solution, says Smith, is cutting unnecessary bureaucracy, which she says is the goal of her proposed changes to immigration in the province.
“The changes we need to make to immigration are a significant departure from the status quo, and therefore, I am seeking a referendum mandate from Albertans to implement them.”
She says the constitutional questions on the referendum ballot are designed to strengthen Alberta’s constitutional and fiscal position within a united Canada.
The full list of referendum questions is as follows:
Non-constitutional questions
– Do you support the Government of Alberta taking increased control over immigration for the purposes of decreasing immigration to more sustainable levels, prioritizing economic migration and giving Albertans first priority on new employment opportunities?
– Do you support the Government of Alberta introducing a law mandating that only Canadian citizens, permanent residents and individuals with an Alberta-approved immigration status will be eligible for provincially-funded programs, such as health care, education and other social services?
– Assuming that all Canadian citizens and permanent residents continue to qualify for social support programs as they do now, do you support the Government of Alberta introducing a law requiring all individuals with a non-permanent legal immigration status to reside in Alberta for at least 12 months before qualifying for any provincially-funded social support programs?
– Assuming that all Canadian citizens and permanent residents continue to qualify for public health care and education as they do now, do you support the Government of Alberta charging a reasonable fee or premium to individuals with a non-permanent immigration status living in Alberta for their and their family’s use of the healthcare and education systems?
– Do you support the Government of Alberta introducing a law requiring individuals to provide proof of citizenship, such as a passport, birth certificate, or citizenship card, to vote in an Alberta provincial election?
Constitutional questions
– Do you support the Government of Alberta working with the governments of other willing provinces to amend the Canadian Constitution to have provincial governments, and not the federal government, select the justices appointed to provincial King’s Bench and Appeal courts?
– Do you support the Government of Alberta working with the governments of other willing provinces to amend the Canadian Constitution to abolish the unelected federal Senate?
– Do you support the Government of Alberta working with the governments of other willing provinces to amend the Canadian Constitution to allow provinces to opt out of federal programs that intrude on provincial jurisdiction such as health care, education, and social services, without a province losing any of the associated federal funding for use in its social programs?
– Do you support the Government of Alberta working with the governments of other willing provinces to amend the Canadian Constitution to better protect provincial rights from federal interference by giving a province’s laws dealing with provincial or shared areas of constitutional jurisdiction priority over federal laws when the province’s laws and federal laws conflict?
