EDMONTON — A new poll from Leger showed that Premier Danielle Smith's questions regarding immigration in Alberta each have over 60% support from respondents, despite what the Alberta NDP have said. According to the results released on Thursday, 63% of Leger's poll respondents supported a policy restricting provincially funded programs to Canadian citizens, permanent residents, and individuals with provincially approved immigration statuses. Smith has said Alberta's upcoming October referendum on immigration was inspired by results from the Alberta Next panel, which showed that Albertans strongly desired better immigration controls. Critics, such as the Alberta NDP, have accused the Alberta Next survey of failing to reflect Albertans' views. "Anybody who tried to fill out that survey knows how those questions were already fashioned in such a way to get to a predetermined outcome," said Deputy Leader of the Official Opposition Rahki Pancholi on Feb. 20. "Most of those decisions coming from those town halls at the Alberta next panels were just straw polls with people putting up their hands." Leger's results are a near replica of those from the Alberta Next panel survey in released in December, which found that 62% were in favour of such a policy..Ahead of and following the Budget 2026 release, Smith has placed much of the blame for the $9.4 billion projected deficit on poor federal immigration policies that have flooded Alberta and strained the province's social services. The Leger poll addresses two of Smith's other immigration referendum questions, including having a one-year waiting period before non-permanent legal immigrants have access to Alberta's social services, and found that 65% of respondents were in favour. "We are asking Albertans if they want to have a system that puts Alberta's citizens as well as permanent residents, first when it comes to taxpayer-funded programs, and then have reasonable premiums and the ability of those who are temporary to access the programs with their own resources," said Smith during a Feb. 20 press conference..A third immigration question in Leger's poll is whether non-permanent immigrants should have to pay a "reasonable" fee before using Alberta's social services. Some of Smith's critics have discredited this proposed policy idea by calling it a "head tax" that targets immigrants. Conversely, Smith has said the policy is in place in other countries around the world, and that individuals temporarily in Canada should be treated like any other tourists. "Well, I mean, this is what we're talking about, is making sure the services are prioritized to the people who have registered a permanent stake in our country and our province," Smith said."That's Canadian citizens and permanent residents, and temporary individuals should be treated as temporary and tourists."A majority, 63%, of Leger's survey respondents appear to lean more towards Smith's perspective and support having a fee. These three immigration questions, along with the overarching question about whether the provincial government should fight the federal government for more control over immigration, are among the nine referendum questions scheduled to be posed to Albertans when they head to the polls on Oct. 19.
