EDMONTON — Premier Danielle Smith said her government will act on the mandates Albertans gave her through Alberta's referendum, but said the split results on her questions offer valuable information and messaging. "There are the debates that take place, robust debates that take place in political parties," said Smith to reporters on Wednesday. "Those top concerns aren't necessarily shared by the general public.""That's why you want to make sure that you have a mandate from the general public before you move forward on some of these things." Albertans voted Monday on nine referendum questions proposed by Smith, including one on Alberta taking greater control over immigration, three on restricting temporary residents’ access to public and social services, and one on requiring individuals to show proof of citizenship before voting. Smith expressed widespread optimism about these questions before the referendum, often saying the UCP is confident Albertans will back its proposals. Some polls have not yet reported results, but it appears Smith will receive a positive mandate to move forward with the proposals; however, only the proof-of-citizenship question is likely to pass with more than 54% support. ."Certain areas of Calgary and Edmonton supported some, and certain areas did not support some, so I take that as 'Let's proceed with caution," Smith said. "I take it, generally speaking, since there is a majority support for those top five questions, I take that as a general indication that they want us to work with the federal government on getting this balance right, and so we'll do a bit more consultation on what that looks like."Smith said she has had conversations with Prime Minister Mark Carney since the referendum, and he is "accepting that Albertans want to have a more collaborative approach between his government and ours on issues of immigration." The premier said the UCP is working to build a proposal to him, something similar to what Quebec has, but emphasizing that Alberta will need skilled economic immigrants to meet the workforce needs that will come from projects like Pacific Link, defence infrastructure, and a high-speed rail. .Albertans are also skew slightly in favour of placing fees and restrictions on access to health care, education, and social supports for temporary residents and their families. "When it comes to the other questions, what I'm taking from that is, 'Proceed with caution,'" Smith said. "Is that, I think people understand that if you're coming here temporarily and haven't made a commitment to be an Alberta lifetime taxpayer, then you might have different rules associated with that." However, Smith thinks the mediocre support may suggest those measures need to be phased in, rather than imposed all at once, because it is "very difficult to change rules midstream on people. "I want to be very cautious about that and try to interpret a little bit of the result that we got back," Smith said. "But I think what I did hear is that Albertans want us to address these issues, and so we'll do so over the coming months and years." Smith said Albertans should not expect the UCP to introduce any legislation in the fall legislative session, but "We'll certainly have more to say in the spring session." .The other four referendum questions proposed Alberta lobbying for constitutional changes to let provinces appoint federal judges, abolish the Senate, opt out of federal programs in provincial jurisdiction without losing funding, and give provincial laws precedence in provincial or shared areas. Though roughly 70% of polls have reported on these questions, Smith will receive a positive mandate on the second and fourth proposals, but not the first and fourth. However, support sits between 47.6% and 51.5% for each of the four. Smith suggested that limited support for these questions could reflect skepticism about whether the government should spend effort advocating for these constitutional changes rather than focusing on issues where it can make meaningful change. "That's why I think the numbers were so different on the immigration questions versus perhaps, and remains to be seen, but perhaps the constitutional one," Smith said. "And I think that that's a message we'll take away. We have to focus on the things that Albertans want us focusing on."
