Western Standard - November 02, 2026


Alberta Voted for Immigration Reform. So Where Are the Bills？

HANNAFORD： What？ Get rid of the Indian Act？

Episode Stats


Length

2 minutes

Words per minute

165.04

Word count

389

Sentence count

27


Transcript

Transcript generated with Whisper (turbo).
00:00:00.000 Where she did win, at least, was on the five immigration-related questions.
00:00:06.320 Voter ID, allowing Alberta to have more say over immigration,
00:00:11.100 allowing us to charge premiums for temporary foreign workers
00:00:14.300 to actually pay for the public services that they're using
00:00:17.060 while they're visiting, while they're guest workers in Alberta.
00:00:21.020 A majority of Albertans voted for that.
00:00:24.180 But they announced, as the legislature was coming back,
00:00:27.640 that there's not going to be any legislation on this yet.
00:00:31.040 They're going to slow walk it,
00:00:33.080 that they're not immediately going to be introducing this stuff.
00:00:36.520 It strikes me, Dave, as bizarre
00:00:39.400 that they did not have bills already written for this stuff.
00:00:42.380 This stuff shouldn't have even been a referendum.
00:00:44.120 They should have just done it over a year ago.
00:00:47.820 And if the left doesn't like it,
00:00:48.900 they could have gone and got the signatures
00:00:50.300 to have force a referendum to repeal it.
00:00:52.440 But instead, she put it on the ballot.
00:00:54.740 It strikes me as bizarre
00:00:55.740 that there's no legislation written for this yet.
00:00:57.640 There's no plan for implementing these things yet, other than voter ID.
00:01:01.580 I think they do actually have, they're going forward on that front.
00:01:05.820 It strikes me as very strange that they're not moving forward on these things right now
00:01:10.120 that are, one, approved in a referendum, two, are broadly popular with Albertans,
00:01:15.780 and three, is desperately needed.
00:01:19.100 I think she's taking the prime minister at his word.
00:01:23.600 And, you know, she ended up getting a pipeline in the Major Projects office.
00:01:30.200 And I think she's trusting Carney again with immigration.
00:01:34.540 The day after the referendum, Carney said he's willing to work with Alberta.
00:01:39.880 And he was willing to work with any provinces who have complained.
00:01:43.300 Saskatchewan's also complained.
00:01:45.300 Some eastern Canadian provinces have complained.
00:01:47.360 So I think she's sort of holding her fire until she sees what the prime minister actually comes forward and does with immigration.
00:01:57.520 He said he's not going to take it to below sustainable levels, but obviously everybody agrees that something needs to be done.
00:02:05.540 We cannot have the same level of immigration that we currently have and student visas and whatnot.
00:02:12.500 But I think, Smith, it is just, okay, Carney, the ball is yours.
00:02:17.680 We'll give you a certain amount of time.
00:02:19.440 Run with it and give us a proposal.