Understanding the immigration questions

Posted on October 15, 2026 by Vauxhall Advance

By Vamini Selvanandan

Are you having trouble making sense of the five immigration questions posed by the UCP government in the upcoming October 19 referendum? If you answered yes, you are not alone.

Collectively called the “immigration questions,” the first five questions on the ballot actually represent separate issues. The first asks if the province should take more control over immigration. The next three ask how non-permanent residents should receive health, education and social services. The fifth is not about immigration at all, but about the extent to which Albertans must go to prove their citizenship when voting in provincial elections.

Immigration is a constitutionally shared responsibility between provincial and federal governments. Alberta already has an important say in who it recruits and nominates for permanent residence through the Alberta Advantage Immigration Program. Economic immigration is prioritized, and the province chooses workers based on labour needs and shortages. Employers need to demonstrate a genuine need for the foreign worker and that Canadians or permanent residents are not available to fill that position.

The next three questions refer to services that non-permanent residents receive. These residents include temporary foreign workers, international students, refugee claimants and visitors. They make up about 5% of Alberta’s population, and their numbers are declining.

Alberta already restricts access to services. Temporary foreign workers, for example, are only eligible for health care if they establish Alberta residency, intend to remain for at least 12 months and have sufficient time remaining on an eligible work permit. They are not eligible for most social and income-support programs.

Most non-permanent residents work, spend money locally and contribute to our economy. The government also collects taxes from them to fund the health care, education and social service systems that all of us use.

Temporary foreign workers have been invited to Alberta by employers to support agriculture, tourism, food processing, construction and other industries with labour shortages. They produce our food, build our houses and care for our children and elderly. Additionally, international students pay substantially more toward their education—on average, more than four times the undergraduate tuition paid by Canadian students in Alberta.

When answering Questions 2, 3 and 4, we can consider the people who work and study alongside us, pay taxes and help keep our schools, businesses and communities functioning. What access to services should reasonably accompany their contributions to Alberta?

The government argues that rapid population growth is putting pressure on public services. But Alberta also lags behind the rest of the country in per capita school board and health investment by the provincial government. Restricting services for a small group will not solve broader problems with health-care capacity, classroom size, housing supply and affordability. 

It is worth asking our elected officials what concrete actions they are taking to produce more family doctors, affordable homes and lower household costs.

Question 5 asks whether Albertans should have to show documentary proof of citizenship to vote. Elections Alberta’s published records show very few documented cases of non-citizens voting. Ensuring that only citizens vote is legitimate, but is requiring every voter to produce proof of citizenship a proportionate response? What barriers might that create for eligible citizens?

These three considerations can help guide us in the ballot box: Will the proposed policy improve everyday life for us? Does it treat the people who live and work here fairly? And does it strengthen or weaken our democracy?

Vamini Selvanandan is a rural family physician and public health practitioner in Alberta. For more articles like this, visit http://www.engagedcitizen.ca.