Carney won’t rule out giving Alberta a Quebec-style immigration deal

Prime Minister Mark Carney is not ruling out giving Alberta more authority over immigration along the lines of a deal Ottawa signed with Quebec in the early 1990s.

Reporters on Parliament Hill asked the prime minister on Wednesday if Ottawa could reach an agreement on immigration powers with Alberta similar to the one with Quebec.

“We’ll see,” Carney replied in French.

He added that “Quebec is distinct” because of its culture and language and said Ottawa will also talk with the other provinces about immigration levels.

Following the failure of the Meech Lake accord, the federal government signed an agreement with Quebec in 1991 which granted the province the power to set its own economic immigration targets.

Carney’s comments come after just over a million Albertans voted yes on a referendum question calling for more provincial control over immigration policy to reduce the number of newcomers to “sustainable levels.”

About 53 per cent of voters said yes to that question, according to preliminary results available on Wednesday. The officially certified results are due later next week.

At a news conference in Calgary on Wednesday, Alberta Premier Danielle Smith said she told Carney the day before that her government is putting together a “proposal” for the federal government.

“We have been looking for some inspiration from Quebec’s 1991 Canada-Quebec accord,” she said.

In his English remarks, Carney argued his government has “retaken control” of immigration and is listening to the provinces.

“We have been having discussions with the provinces’ first ministers around getting immigration, first and foremost, to the right levels,” Carney said.

“I just want to underscore we will not budge from overall levels that are sustainable. We’re getting them to that level now.”

Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre said on Tuesday the Liberals have lost control of immigration and provinces should have more control over their intake numbers since they must deliver services for newcomers.

“Recently, the prime minister went to The New York Times, a foreign newspaper, to tell them that he wants to increase immigration. That too is a mistake,” Poilievre said in Calgary on Tuesday.

“It shows he is totally out of touch. Immigration is totally out of control.”

Carney told the U.S. newspaper last month that the next question his government faces is when to “resume some controlled increase in the population.”

The federal Conservatives sent out a fundraising email to party supporters this week saying immigration should be “dramatically reduced,” not “ramped back up.”

Immigration Minister Lena Diab did not respond to reporters’ questions when she walked into the weekly Liberal caucus meeting Wednesday. Federal immigration levels are due for an update by next month.

The federal government had set out plans to increase the national target for permanent residents to 500,000 a year. But Ottawa changed course and slashed the targets in its 2024-2025 plan.

The most recent plan sets out targets of 385,000 permanent resident admissions this year, 370,000 next year and the same figure for 2028.

—with files from David Baxter