Alberta slams Ottawa’s immigration policies as “reckless”

Isaac Lamoureux, True North

Alberta is blasting the Liberals’ latest immigration decision, warning it will further strain the province’s overloaded housing and healthcare systems.

Alberta is blasting the Liberals’ latest immigration decision, warning it will further strain the province’s overloaded housing and healthcare systems.

In a Tuesday news release, Alberta Immigration Minister Joseph Schow said the federal plan to accept up to 10,000 new applications to sponsor migrant parents and grandparents in 2025, “at a time when provinces are already struggling,” shows a disregard for provincial capacity.

“Under the federal Liberal government, Canada’s immigration levels have ballooned – almost two million newcomers entered Canada last year alone – without any regard for the provinces that are tasked with delivering frontline services,” said Schow. “This latest move will only serve to further increase the unsustainable pressures on our hospitals, schools and housing markets.”

“Inviting large numbers of parents and grandparents into the country without proper coordination with provinces places disproportionate strain on already busy health systems,” said Schow. “This creates serious concerns for both Albertans and the newcomers themselves, who may not receive timely care if our system is overwhelmed.”

True North previously reported that Alberta Premier Danielle Smith said the Liberals “blew it” on immigration, leading to widespread affordability issues.

“You’ve seen the result of it. The reason why housing prices have spiked, why food affordability has spiked, why affordability on every front has spiked is just because if you have too many people chasing too few jobs, too few homes and too little employment, you’re just going to end up causing problems,” said Smith. “The federal government blew it, and it’s such a tragedy.”

Smith said Alberta had hoped to attract unemployed Canadians through its “Alberta is Calling” campaign, but federal policy overwhelmed those efforts.

“What we didn’t anticipate was that the federal government was going to completely let off all controls of all streams of immigration at that time,” said Smith.

One question asked at the ongoing Alberta Next Panels is: “Should Alberta take more control of the immigration system to counter Ottawa’s open border policies?”

While polls at the panel were conducted after each of the six topic areas, the sentiment surrounding immigration in Alberta is at such a point that the host of the town hall in Red Deer considered the outcome predetermined and didn’t even bother conducting the poll on immigration.

Canada admitted over 817,000 newcomers in the first four months of 2025, and a federal memo shows more than 3 million temporary residents are now in the country — equivalent to 18.5% of the private sector workforce. Nearly 130,000 are without valid permits.

Schow called on the federal government to reduce total immigration to under 500,000 annually, while giving provinces more sway on immigration targets.

“Our systems need time to catch up before more pressure is added,” he said.

“Immigration must be sustainable and aligned with provincial capacity and priorities. The federal government cannot continue to make unilateral decisions that ignore the realities on the ground,” said Schow.