The Alberta Next panel, which has a stop in Lloydminster on Aug. 27, is coming in for some stick from freshly minted Alberta NDP MLA Naheed Nenshi.
The opposition leader labelled the $2 million UCP government effort as “full of extremist language” and having no place in Alberta.
One member of the 15-person panel, Adam Legge, who is president of the Business Council of Alberta, is refraining from commenting on “what the province has put on the website,” which promotes Alberta Next.
One of the online survey questions is whether health care and education should be denied to immigrants who “do not have an Alberta-approved immigration status.”
Another panel member, University of Calgary economist Trevor Tombe, states the ideas expressed on the website come from the government.
The government counters that it needs to take control of Ottawa’s immigration policies to ensure that immigration numbers are sustainable.
Nenshi contends the surveys “are not about creating new jobs or bringing back investment.” He sees the work of the panel as “separatist” and ultimately damaging to Alberta’s economy and investment opportunities.
The website in one of its videos states that housing prices have skyrocketed, immigration is outpacing job creation, and is fuelling unemployment. The video makes no mention that under the Alberta Advantage program, the province brought in 9,942 immigrants in 2024, with 85 per cent being temporary foreign workers. Nor does it mention that unemployment is at about 7.4 per cent (May 2025) and was at 7.3 per cent at the same time last year.
Tombe says he does not concur with the immigration issues as shown on the panel’s website.
The Alberta Next panel is touring the province this summer and will be in Lloydminster on Aug. 27. The venue will be announced in mid-August.
Matters such as an Alberta Pension Plan to replace the Canada Pension Plan, an Alberta Police Service rather than the RCMP, immigration, withdrawing from the federal tax system and having Albertans pay taxes in the province, federal transfers and equalization, and any constitutional changes that Albertans want will be shared at the in-person sessions, according to event planners.
