English transcript

A lot of the nine referendum questions that we saw in February

were kind of ambiguous in terms of the details, right?

Like, we didn't know what is a reasonable fee for non-immigrants,

that kind of thing.

And forgive me, I haven't had a chance to look at the website,

so I don't know if this stuff is addressed in detail there,

but I'm wondering if you can kind of explain how that is a different policy

or a policy that moves beyond what we saw in the Immigration Oversight Act,

which, like, there's one question,

do you support Alberta taking increased control over immigration, etc., etc.

And the Immigration Oversight Act did take more control,

provincial control over immigration.

So can you talk about how the referendum question,

the policy involved there might go beyond that specific legislation?

Sure. There's a few things I'd say.

So when we look at the Canada-Quebec Act from 1991,

so that's the agreement where Quebec has control over their economic migration,

they have an agreement to bring in migrants through the whole process

from work permit to permanent status,

and then the federal government determines citizenship.

So that is the kind of model that we would be looking at

if we get a mandate from the people, that's one part.

The other is that we believe that we should return

to what guest workers were meant to do.

Guest workers were meant to provide additional revenue for the province,

they were also meant to fill gaps that couldn't be filled

by Alberta workers or Canadian workers.

And I think we've gotten quite a far way from that kind of approach,

especially when we look at the dollars.

We did a rough calculation

of what guest workers and their families cost our system,

and it's about a minimum of $400 million

when we look at ER and doctor visits, as well as surgeries.

There were 35,000 visits in the 2024 year that we looked at,

it may be higher in 2025.

We have 45,544 children of temporary workers

who are in our education system,

it's another $600 million.

Social services like child care subsidy,

Alberta child and family benefits, student aid,

we estimate will cost $100 million for temporary residents.

So we're well over a billion dollars in cost,

and yet in that same year,

those same temporary workers generated $150 million in tax revenue.

And that's not how it's supposed to work,

we're actually supposed to generate more revenue

than the cost associated with supporting those workers.

So that's why we're looking at how they would pay

for a health care premium,

as well as ensuring that maybe they leave their kids at home

until they're prepared to make a permanent commitment to Canada.