Lennie Kaplan is a former senior manager in the fiscal and economic policy division of Alberta’s Ministry of Treasury Board and Finance.It appears that the Smith government is taking a “leaf out” of the Quebec playbook with its policy proposal to reduce government benefits to non-permanent residents (NPRs), including asylum claimants, in Alberta. But the difference is that the Government of Quebec is being upfront about the financial support being provided to its asylum claimants, rather than hiding behind a distraction through a referendum.In November 2025, the Quebec government threatened to cut social assistance to asylum claimants if the federal government did not reimburse the provincial government for the associated expenses.According to the Quebec government, in 2024, the cost of provincial financial support for the 171,088 asylum claimants (as of 2024 fourth quarter) amounted to $733 million, including $500 million for social assistance. The Quebec Minister of Immigration has apparently sent a letter to the federal government requesting reimbursement of the expenses incurred over the past few years.As of the fourth quarter of 2025, Alberta had an estimated 29,555 asylum claimants compared to 190,613 asylum claimants in Quebec as of the same time. This effectively means that the number of asylum claimants in Alberta is about 15.5% the size of the number of asylum claimants in Quebec.Assuming a straight-line comparison of costs using Quebec’s $733 million estimate, the Alberta government would have provided about $125 million in annual financial support to asylum claimants in Alberta..The Alberta government has identified the costs of support to NPRs, including asylum claimants in Alberta, to be a significant public policy issue, but has not provided an estimate of the fiscal impact. Premier Smith claims that the Alberta government has not quantified the annual costs it has incurred from accommodating NPRs, including asylum claimants. However, the Quebec government has been conducting ongoing analysis of the fiscal impacts for the past two years, while the Alberta government claims it has not yet done this work. This seems strange.In the spring of 2024, the Alberta government established a Productivity Review Cabinet Committee (PRCC) to conduct a deep dive into provincial expenses. I believe that the asylum claimant issue has been examined by the PRCC, as part of its mandate, and there is an estimate of the policy’s fiscal impact. However, a recent Access to Information (ATI) request from me to the Premier’s Office on what the PRCC program review had been doing over the past few months resulted in the return of 2,091 nearly blank pages.As is the case with Quebec, I presume the Alberta government has already sent a letter to the federal government detailing the annual costs incurred by the province to support NPRs, including asylum claimants, in the province.If the Alberta government deems this to be a significant policy issue, and they have the right to do so, let’s put the fiscal impacts on the table. Release the letter sent to the federal government and tell us what’s in the PRCC program review files. No more redactions and distractions.Lennie Kaplan is a former senior manager in the fiscal and economic policy division of Alberta’s Ministry of Treasury Board and Finance, where, among other duties, he examined best practices in fiscal frameworks and program reviews. In 2019, Mr. Kaplan served as executive director to the MacKinnon Panel on Alberta’s finances — a government-appointed panel tasked with reviewing Alberta’s spending and recommending reforms.
