Alberta public research group warns of immigration scapegoating in referendum questions
Posted September 16, 2026 10:03 pm.
With Alberta’s referendum about a month away, racialized groups are bracing for the worst.
One Alberta public policy research group claims Premier Danielle Smith is using immigration as a scapegoat to direct blame away from affordability and public services.
“Shifting the blame for a lack of investment in public services, in health care, in education, on to a minority community, and the consequences of that are quite dire,” said immigration scholar Bronwyn Bragg, an associate professor at the University of Lethbridge.
Bragg, with the research group Parkland Institute – recognized as a left-leaning or progressive public policy think tank – is raising the alarm over five questions on the ballot in the provincial referendum that Albertans will vote on next month.
Those questions are about the province taking more control over immigration levels, access to public services for non-residents, and proof of citizenship for voting.
Bragg says while there are legitimate concerns around how immigration and foreign workers are impacting Alberta’s labour force, as well as the high cost of living, some of the questions can already be solved now, and some are out of the province’s hands.
“Limiting access to health care and education is something they could already do right now,” she said. “Most of the immigration to Alberta comes from what we call secondary migration. That’s when an international immigrant arrives in Toronto or Vancouver or Quebec and says ‘I’m going to Alberta’ and they move here. And that’s a right that is enshrined in the Charter; people have mobility rights.”
An anti-hate group advocating for radicalized Albertans says there’s already fear in Alberta’s newcomer community with the referendum on the horizon
“From January to June 2026, in comparison to January to June 2025, we have seen an increase of 83 per cent of hate incidents reported on our reporting tool,” said Sunpreet Johal, the president of StopHateAB.
“Multiple places of worship in Edmonton and Calgary have received threat calls that their place of worship is going to be blown up.”
Johal tells CityNews he’s worried about what comes after the vote, concerned Alberta’s immigrant community will take the blame if referendum questions fail.
“There is a sense of fear not only among newcomers, but even people who were born and raised in Alberta as well, who are people of colour,” he said. “They we’re born and raised here, went through the education system, but feel they are not welcome here due to the colour of their skin.”
Alberta’s immigration ministry fired back on the report, calling it an opinion piece. The ministry told CityNews through a statement the referendum questions were based on feedback they heard from Albertans during townhalls held last year.
“It overlooks that Alberta is not the only one raising the alarm on the loss of control over immigration, and that unchecked immigration policies have placed excessive pressure on cost of living as well as our public services such as health care and education,” the statement reads, in part. “Any accusation that the referendum questions on sustainable immigration constitute ‘scapegoating’ is false and inflammatory.”
A recent poll from Research Co. shows 65 per cent of Albertans support the province taking increased control of immigration and access to public services.
Albertans vote in the referendum Oct. 19.
