On November 5, Ottawa tabled its budget. It includes an immigration plan that would grant permanent residency to almost 660,000 people next year.Let that number sit for a second. Six hundred and sixty thousand.The regular target is 380,000 permanent residents a year. On top of that, Ottawa will convert 200,000 temporary residents to permanent status in 2027, and it is finishing another one-time program that adds almost 80,000 more. Add in temporary residents and CBC said that’s more than a million people granted residency in one year.Prime Minister Mark Carney calls it "sustainable." He said Ottawa has "taken back control."Here’s the thing. Canadians didn’t ask for this. Environics has asked the same question for decades, and it found the share of Canadians who say there’s too much immigration more than doubled between 2022 and 2024, to 58%. Ottawa lightly tapped the brakes on the influx and support for some immigration climbed, but that doesn’t mean they should press the pedal to the floor again. But that’s just what they did.Ottawa loosened the temporary foreign worker program. Low-wage work permits can now last two years instead of one. How many more Tim Hortons workers do we really need?Do this in an economy where youth unemployment across Canada just hit 13.7%. Alberta lost 24,000 jobs in October, and our unemployment rate jumped to 7.3%, the highest in a year. What do you think happens to the 17-year-old looking for a first job at a coffee shop when the employer can bring in more low-wage workers instead?On October 19, Albertans voted. More than two million ballots on each question. Turnout was over 67%, well above the last provincial election. All five immigration questions passed.Fifty-five percent said "yes" to Alberta taking more control over immigration to bring it down to sustainable levels. Fifty-three percent backed a 12-month residency rule before temporary residents get provincial social support. Fifty-two percent backed limiting provincial programs to citizens, permanent residents, and people with Alberta-approved status. And on charging temporary residents a fee for healthcare and education, it was 52% too, just barely..I’m not going to pretend that it was a landslide. It wasn’t. Calgary and Edmonton voted no on most of it, and the margins were thin. Even the premier admitted on her radio show, "I had an idea that Albertans would give us a mandate."But let’s look at what she did with it.Two days after the vote, she said there was "nothing imminent in the fall session." Details would wait for spring. A few days later, on her radio show, she said Albertans want her to "proceed with caution."Caution. On questions where more than a million Albertans voted yes.Folks, a win at 52% is still a win. Nobody tells a government that won an election with 52% to sit on its hands until it feels more popular. We just spent about $84 million running this referendum. If the result goes into a drawer until spring, and spring becomes "after the election," what was the $84 million for?And make no mistake, this is urgent. Ottawa isn’t waiting until spring. The "levels plan" is set. The new foreign worker rules took effect on November 6. Alberta has nearly 280,000 non-permanent residents right now. Roughly one in six Albertans still doesn’t have a family doctor, according to the Alberta Medical Association. And the ER triage doctors promised back in January are only now working in six emergency rooms, months behind schedule.Some good news is a warning too. Calgary rents have come down about 9.5% in two years. But that relief came while Ottawa was finally cutting temporary numbers. Carney brags that student numbers are down 71% and temporary foreign workers are down 57%. If cutting volume was a good policy last year, why is ramping it back up good policy now?Now let me be clear about something, because the other side will twist this. None of this is about the people who came here. The nurse from Manila, the welder from Ukraine, the family that played by the rules. They’re not the villains. They did exactly what our governments invited them to do. The problem is volume and planning. Ottawa keeps setting numbers our housing, hospitals, and job market can’t absorb, and then calls anyone who notices a bigot.Premier Danielle Smith said she wants to move "quite quickly" on economic migration, and she’s chasing a Quebec-style deal with Ottawa. Good. Do it. Table the proposal before the premiers meet in December, not after.And on the rest, the 12-month residency rule and the fees, she’s suggested grandfathering people who are already here. Fine. That’s a reasonable way to show caution. So, write the bill. Grandfather current residents, apply the new rules to new arrivals, and put it on the order paper.Caution is one thing. Waiting forever is another. When Smith wants to move on something, she tends to do it quickly. What she is doing now is ragging the puck and a short deferral can turn into a permanent shelving of the policies.Albertans gave the premier a mandate. A narrow one, but a mandate. Use it.
