Albertans split on immigration as Calgary, Edmonton fault Ottawa: polls

Albertans are feeling the squeeze when it comes to immigration, with new polls revealing a deep divide in Calgary and Edmonton.

Source: Wikimedia Commons

Albertans are feeling the squeeze when it comes to immigration, with new polls revealing a deep divide in Calgary and Edmonton. Many residents believe Ottawa has dropped the ball on population growth and want a cap on new arrivals to stay put.

A pair of Canada Pulse Insights surveys for CityNews found only one in four residents in Calgary and Edmonton believe the federal government is managing immigration better than last year, despite Prime Minister Mark Carney’s pledge to bring it “down to sustainable levels.”

According to the polling firm, 51% of Edmontonians and 49% of Calgarians say Ottawa’s performance has not changed, while about one-quarter in each city believe it has worsened.

In Edmonton, “Ottawa is getting poor marks among Edmontonians for their efforts,” the report said, noting “most want the restrictions introduced 10 months ago to stay in place for at least another year.”

Across both cities, a majority of respondents said immigration continues to strain housing, hospitals and employment opportunities.

In Calgary, 64% of residents say housing affordability problems are driven more by immigration than by developers or landlords trying to profit from raising prices. The exact same percentage of Edmontonians held the same belief.

Employment pressures were also cited as a key concern.

In Calgary, 59% of residents claim that difficulty finding jobs for young people is due to high levels of foreign worker permits, not a weaker economy. In Edmonton, this belief rises to 69%.

Despite these frustrations, support for continued immigration remains moderate. Roughly two-thirds of residents in both cities said they still support welcoming newcomers, though a sizeable minority would stop immigration altogether.

Over one-third of Calgarians, 35%, say they would “not let any newcomers into the country for the foreseeable future.” Slightly more, 37%, of Edmontonians held the same belief.

Alberta Premier Danielle Smith has repeatedly blamed Ottawa’s policies for overwhelming provincial infrastructure. She previously said that “the federal government blew it, and it’s such a tragedy,” linking mass immigration to rising housing and healthcare costs.

“You’ve seen the result of it,” Smith said. “The reason why housing prices have spiked, why food affordability has spiked, why affordability on every front has spiked is just because if you have too many people chasing too few jobs, too few homes and too little employment, you’re just going to end up causing problems.”

Despite Carney pledging to reduce immigration levels, Alberta Immigration Minister Joseph Schow said that Canada is on pace to receive more than a million new temporary and permanent immigrants this year, excluding the three million temporary residents already in the country.

“Most of that growth has come from international migration, along with the highest levels of interprovincial migration in Canada,” said Schow. “Employment, housing, health care and other public services are under pressure due to Canada’s open border policy, and the strain will only get worse if immigration is not brought under control.”

Previousfederal immigration data highlighted that Canada welcomed over 817,000 newcomers in the first four months of 2025, an annual rate of over 2.4 million.