Smith hammers “open borders” mass immigration in televised address to Albertans

In a televised address to Albertans, Smith issued a stern warning: dipping oil prices and mass immigration levels threaten to derail Alberta’s success.

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In a televised address to Albertans, Premier Danielle Smith declared the province is outperforming the rest of the country in key economic areas but issued a stern warning: dipping oil prices and mass immigration levels threaten to derail Alberta’s success.

Smith spoke as her government prepares to launch the provincial budget. She stated Alberta’s economy was “once again booming,” contributing to the province’s leading national position in job growth, investment, GDP and wages.

However, she warned that dipping oil prices and federal mass immigration policies threaten to turn surpluses into deficits and continue to strain the province’s social and healthcare systems. To address this, Smith’s government will propose several referenda, including on more provincial control over immigration levels, extending provincially-funded programs like healthcare and social services only to those with an Alberta-approved immigration status, and other measures.

“In just the last five years of Trudeau’s tenure, Alberta grew by almost 600,000 people to more than five million,” Smith said, accusing former prime minister Justin Trudeau of pursuing “disastrous open border immigration policies.”

She contrasted current policy with immigration levels under former prime minister Stephen Harper, saying earlier federal governments “restrained international immigration to manageable levels” and prioritized highly skilled workers who “started contributing income taxes the moment they arrived.”

“Throwing the doors wide open to anyone and everyone across the globe has flooded our classrooms, emergency rooms and social support systems with far too many people, far too quickly,” Smith said, noting Alberta’s student population has grown by more than 80,000 in four years, with over 140,000 students now having English as an additional language.

She noted her government’s success in negotiating an energy agreement with Ottawa in November, which she said led to the elimination of the “destructive oil and gas production cap and net zero power regulations.” Smith stated the agreement has had an “immediate supercharging effect” on the Albertan economy.

“In just the last few weeks, we have had tens of billions in new projects announced,” Smith said, noting agreements for new AI datacentres, pipeline expansions and a “final investment” into Dow Chemical’s multi-billion dollar plastics facility.

“These investments will create a massive number of new jobs for Albertans and will prime the pump so to speak for more investments in all other sectors of the economy from agriculture to tech to tourism to aviation and everything in between.”

“When I became Premier, the price of oil averaged $90 a barrel U.S.,” Smith said. “These strong oil prices saw our budget enjoy royalty revenues of over $25 billion dollars and a surplus of around $11.6 billion dollars which we used to build up the Heritage Fund and pay down provincial debt.”

The Heritage Fund uses surplus energy revenue to save for economic downturns and other necessary provincial spending.

She warned, however, that with oil prices dropping to around $60 a barrel, that downturn could be just around the corner.

“Each $1 drop in the price of oil means roughly $750 million less in oil royalties for the province,” Smith said. “What had been an $11.6 billion surplus in 2023 at $90 oil has turned into a large budget deficit at $60 oil.”

She noted Alberta had endured oil price crashes before and is now more resilient than ever, but warned rapid population growth adds to the fiscal pressure otherwise offset by the province’s diversifying economy.

“Low oil prices combined with out of control federal immigration policies are together driving unsustainable budget deficits not just here but across the country,” she said.

Smith outlined a three-part strategy to address the short, medium and long-term fiscal challenges.

Her long-term plan centres on expanding the Alberta Heritage Fund to $250 billion by 2050. The fund has grown from roughly $16 billion in 2021 to almost $32 billion today.

“That’s how quickly you can move the dial. We just have to stick with it,” she said, arguing that investment income from a $250 billion fund would insulate Alberta from future oil price volatility.

Smith said Alberta will seek to double oil and gas production and exports to more than eight million barrels per day by 2035, including building 1.3 million barrels per day of additional pipeline capacity to the west coast and expanding capacity to the U.S.

“Alberta will double our pipeline capacity over the next 10 years, and our oil producers will grow and fill that pipe,” she said. “We will not permit Alberta’s and Canada’s most valuable resource deposit, worth almost $10 trillion, to remain in the ground to the detriment of millions of Canadians.”

Smith hedged concerns by pledging to avoid “drastic cuts to social services,” and to keep approved wage increases for doctors, nurses and teachers in place. She said her government would instead cut bureaucracy, improve efficiencies, limit spending increases to below inflation and population growth, and implement audits to social programs to ensure they are more financially sustainable.

“Critically,” she said Alberta will seek to directly confront federal immigration levels that she argues are overwhelming provincial services.

“The changes we need to make to immigration are a significant departure from the status quo,” Smith said. “I am seeking a referendum mandate from Albertans to implement them.”