This post deals with Premier Smith’s statements and decisions about immigration into Alberta. It does not address Danielle Smith’s personal beliefs, allegations of racism or disinformation.
Some required context: Alberta is Calling was a campaign to increase immigration to Alberta. It was an aggressive, taxpayer-funded multi-phase recruitment operation that was launched by Premier Jason Kenney in August 2022. Smith’s government expanded, funded, and cheered the program along and as of today Alberta is still paying money to attract more immigrants and even offering a $5,000 refundable tax credit to qualified immigrants who move there.
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Executive Summary
Two years ago Premier Danielle Smith demanded the Liberals increase immigration into Alberta. The Federal government in Ottawa has never allowed in the number of immigrants required for Alberta to meet the goals Premier Smith has set for her ambitious populations goals – they have always been lower. Today Premier Smith claims that despite sending less immigrants than she requested, Ottawa has allowed too many immigrants into Alberta’s and that Alberta’s failure to plan for the immigrants that did arrive, isn’t her governments fault.
December 2023 – Premiere Smith Wants to Maintain High Immigration Numbers
In 2023 Alberta’s population had just grown by nearly 200,000 people or about 4.4%. This put the total population of Alberta at approximately 4.7 million people. Smith’s comments at a year end interview about immigrations were:
“We need skilled workers. We know that being able to manage growth means that we’ve got to get more boilermakers and millwrights and electricians and welders — and this is going to be our opportunity to tell the rest of the country that we love the professions and the trades, and we want you here.”
January 2024 – Premiere Smith Highlights Alberta is Calling and Calls for More Immigration and Restating the October 2023 Goals
From her New Years Day statement:
“Our government has set in motion major commitments to make Alberta a better place for everyone. We continue to see strong economic growth as we stand up for our province’s autonomy in the face of federal overreach, and we are showing the world that Alberta is still calling. 2024 will bring our province new opportunities, and we are ready and willing to ensure we harness these new opportunities and keep Alberta as the best province in Canada to live, work and raise a family.”
And in her concurrent year-end interview with the Calgary Herald:
“We’ve got a bit of a unique market. And I think we have the ability to continue to welcome people here. This is the place to be.“2
In a podcast in January 2024 Premiere Smith called to more than double Alberta’s population from less than 5 million at the time to ten million by 2050.
“Let’s have an aggressive target to double our population. People are going to want to come here, and we have to embrace them, and we want to build this place out.”3
March 2024 – Premiere Smith Claims the Federal Government is Failing to Provide Enough Immigrants to Alberta
Premier Smith held a press conference where she shared an open letter to Prime Minister Trudeau. In it she complains the federal government is failing to provide enough new immigrants to Alberta and that the Federal government should increase the ‘allocation’ of immigrants to Alberta via the Provincial Nomination Program.
“I am requesting that your government immediately increase Alberta’s Provincial Nomination Program allocation to 20,000 annually in 2024, 2025 and 2026. This would support our efforts to address critical labour shortages and supports a collaborative federal-provincial-territorial relationship that respects Alberta’s role in addressing its regional immigration needs. Since Alberta’s program is heavily focused on temporary residents, this increase will support the transition of this group to permanent residency. Additionally, Alberta is welcoming a substantive number of Ukrainian evacuees, with over 57,000 evacuees currently in Alberta. It is anticipated that upwards of 93 per cent of Ukrainian evacuees will stay in Alberta and seek permanent residency…”
“…The federal government could address this issue either through new federal pathways for Ukrainian evacuees or through increased allocations to Alberta’s Provincial Nominee Program. Under the Provincial Nominee Program, Alberta requests a further 10,000 allocations for Ukrainian evacuees, in addition to the 20,000 the province is already seeking for economic needs. The recent unilateral notification by the federal government that our province will not receive any increases in our 2024 allocations underscores the importance of Alberta continuing to advocate for greater involvement in decisions regarding immigration policy and planning, including the selection and settlement of immigrants similar to that available to Quebec. Should the federal government continue to not be responsive to our requests…”
“We continue to experience labour shortages that could be resolved by welcoming skilled workers from around the world, including evacuees from Ukraine, many of whom have the exact skills that our job market most needs. Let us welcome the skilled individuals we need into our province on our terms.”
Danielle Smith at the press conference where she announced sending the letter4https://tnc.news/2024/03/28/alberta-control-of-immigration-smith/[/efn_note]
May 2024 – Premiere Smith Launches Phase 3 of Alberta is Calling – The Most Aggressive and Expensive Expansion of Alberta is Calling Ever
Under Premiere Smith the Government of Alberta announce and expansion of the Alberta is Calling plan allocating it a $2.5 million advertising budget and allocating $10 million in the 2024 provincial budget to pay $5,000 cash to the first 2,000 eligible skilled tradespeople who relocated to Alberta
“It’s laser-focused on attracting skilled trades that we need to build Alberta’s houses, schools, hospitals and job-creating infrastructure.
Matt Jones, Minister, Jobs, Economy, Trade & Education, Alberta
“Less than two years ago, Danielle Smith herself asked Justin Trudeau to increase immigration levels because Alberta wanted more than what Ottawa was already allocating. In 2024, she stated publicly that she wanted to double Alberta’s population to 10 million people.”
Alberta NDP Deputy Leader Rakhi Pancholi
June 2025 – Premiere Smith Blames Alberta’s Inability to Maintain/Provide Infrastructure on the Federal Government for Doing What She Askedeading
ble Alberta’s population and Alberta was able to absorb the numbers required Premiere Smith realizes her government failed to plan for it. She then blames the Federal government for actually listening to Alberta and doing what they wanted. Remember that more than half of the ‘500,000’ immigrants Premier Smith refers to below arrived in the Province BEFORE she demanded an increase in immigration.
“We were calling to those who were unemployed Canadians in other parts of the country to come to Alberta. 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.”
“The federal government blew it, and it’s such a tragedy.”
“We’ve had over 500,000 people come here in the last five years, and you just can’t build homes fast enough, you can’t hire doctors fast enough, you can’t build schools fast enough.”
February 2026 – With Alberta’s Immigrant Numbers LOWER than Danielle Smith Wanted & Projected; And While Continuing to Offer Tax Incentives to People She Blames Ottawa’s Immigration Policy and has the gall to say the following:
“Although sustainable immigration has always been an important part of our provincial growth model, throwing the doors wide open to anyone and everyone across the globe has flooded our classrooms, emergency rooms, and social support systems with far too many people, far too quickly.”
Premiere Danielle Smith through the doors wide open, demanded more immigration, created a target which requires massive and sustained immigration and failed to do the basic calculations for the infrastructure required and now wants to punish those who immigrated there at her invitation by cutting basic benefits like healthcare. In the same speech she lied about Alberta’s social programs compared to others in Canada’s and neglected to mention that as of today – her government is still offering a $5,000 tax incentive for people to move to Alberta.
Comments by Alberta NDP Deputy Leader Rakhi Pancholi of February 20, 2026
Frankly we can’t sum up Danielle Smith’s immigration policy better than NDP Deputy Leader Rakhi Pancholi did recently:
“Less than two years ago, Danielle Smith herself asked Justin Trudeau to increase immigration levels because Alberta wanted more than what Ottawa was already allocating. In 2024, she stated publicly that she wanted to double Alberta’s population to 10 million people.”
Alberta NDP Deputy Leader Rakhi Pancholi
It appears that Danielle Smith is learning from the playbook of her friends to the south – make a grandiose statement leading to terrible policy decisions that damage the working system and then, without evidence or even reason, blame your opponents and claim that only you can fix it – if they give you even more power.
