Stay open for growth: Former premiers urge 'No' on the immigration questions

Alberta’s continued prosperity depends on immigration. Our province’s remarkable journey from frontier trading post to global energy power is strongly linked to a tradition of welcome for everyone. That’s why we’re standing up together to say the five immigrant-targeting questions on the Oct. 19 ballot are a threat to our continued prosperity.

Our own families all came to Alberta at various times for the opportunity to build a better life, and in strong and welcoming communities. Aside from Indigenous peoples in Alberta, most Albertans can still trace their family’s history to when mom and pop, baba and gido, or an enterprising great grandma left home for the promise of something better.

It’s all so recent that we still know their pioneering names in most of our family histories.

Our forebears worked hard and struggled often, but ultimately thrived, building the foundation for each of us to give back through public service. Thanks in no small part to them, we were each incredibly fortunate to get to serve as premiers of this beautiful province. Our stories are not exceptional, as we all know it’s this special part of the country and how we work together that makes big things possible here.

Folks still choose Alberta because its long-standing promise to migrants has consistently been that your success here is dictated by how hard you work and your commitment to the province (and, yes, to Canada, too), and not by how you look, how you worship, where you came from or when you came. In turn, our industries and economy have grown leaps and bounds with the arrival of people from around the world who chose Alberta to work, open businesses, innovate and grow their families — enriching Alberta socially and economically.

By nearly every economic measure, immigrants are a boon to Alberta’s economy. Recent independent economic analysis by the Calgary Chamber of Commerce demonstrates that the majority of Alberta businesses struggle with labour shortages and need migrant labour to fill vacancies. This shortage is more serious in rural areas and especially our north, and will only get tighter if we boom again between eagerly anticipated pipelines, energy projects and defence initiatives. Labour shortages already impair every part of our economy, including key sectors such as health care, and the only way to address that remains through immigration.

Immigrants not only fill critical labour shortages, but are critical to augmenting the province’s aging population to help pay for roads, hospitals and other essential services. The same Calgary Chamber report found that in 2026, immigrants under 40 contributed approximately $1.1 billion, with a net provincial fiscal contribution of just under $1 billion after accounting for provincial programs. In other words, the taxes that immigrants pay fund critical health and social services.

Newcomers also contribute to Alberta’s economy by opening businesses and creating jobs. More than 36 per cent of small or medium-sized businesses in Alberta with paid staff are immigrant-owned. The figure reaches 65 per cent in the food and business sector, and we are all richer and spicier for that. The small- and medium-sized businesses immigrants start and grow are critical to both rural and urban centres across the province, and are often a retail or service lifeline for small communities.

The technology sector in Alberta also relies on immigrant capital, labour and entrepreneurship. Often, the founders and critical employees of these companies come to Alberta as international students and academics, working in labs and startups at universities and colleges across the province. In an increasingly competitive global economy, made more volatile by trade wars, they are essential to ensuring our continued financial growth. We must attract more leaders, innovators and changemakers — not repulse them with the mixed messages embedded in these five questions that would sully our fine tradition of welcome.

Questions one through five on this fall’s referendum ballot, if passed, are a clear and present threat to Alberta’s continued prosperity. Although there are reasonable debates to be had on immigration policy, this is not the right forum. These five propositions take complex policy issues and confound them into confusing, contradictory questions that are hard to decipher.

The key risk we all wish to highlight is that if the measures are adopted, each could have harmful and unintended effects. Mainly, Alberta will immediately be perceived as a less attractive place for precisely the talent we already need.

Why would the best and brightest workers and students move to Alberta if we intend to charge them more for the same basic services they are already paying for through taxes on their earnings? Even the rhetoric around the referendum questions may have already damaged Alberta’s reputation by creating the regrettable and false impression that Alberta is becoming a hostile place for newcomers.

In an increasingly unstable world facing dizzying technological disruptions, and with Canada actively seeking new markets, approving the immigration measures sends precisely the wrong signal to our allies and customers. In addition to obvious productivity benefits here, every newcomer is a potential link to other markets, another network and new investors.

Alberta and Canada need those friends and opportunities more than ever.

Rather than debating the specifics of the propositions, we suggest it’s more appropriate to just vote No and get back to working on attracting the talent we need through better policy-making approaches, including working constructively with industry, other provinces and the federal government to get what we all need for Alberta and Canada to thrive.

As you make up your mind on if and how you intend to vote on the immigration questions, please consider the economic harm approving these measures could have on Alberta’s economy. If they are adopted, it could take generations to undo the damage.

We encourage you to make a plan to vote this week. Try to vote in advance if you can, as lines next Monday could be long if we all turn out to make ourselves heard.

Unified, we urge you to choose Canada and vote No on all the immigration questions, so we can say once again, proudly, that Alberta is open, welcoming and ready to get on with building big things together.

Rachel Notley was Alberta’s 17th premier; Alison Redford was Alberta’s 14th premier; Ed Stelmach was Alberta’s 13th premier.