A recent CBC-commissioned poll suggests more than half of Albertans want the province to take a more active role in setting the rules for immigration.
That suggests Premier Danielle Smith may find support for at least some of her referendum questions on immigration this fall.
But it’s not a sure thing, and when CBC News put the poll questions directly to some Albertans at a cultural festival, the reasons why they might vote “yes” to more provincial control were mixed.
Gauraz Srivastava says he supports provincial control because Canada’s current system doesn’t make sense. He watched his brother apply to immigrate here from India and get turned down, only to see him get status and a well-paying job in California’s Silicon Valley.
“There’s so many examples I can give you,” said Srivastava, a businessman who moved from India 20 years ago.
“So many people who are very talented — they could not come. [But] the people who do not have a related experience, they can.”
Srivastava was at a kickoff celebration for Asian Heritage Month at the Chinese Cultural Centre in Calgary. He said Alberta needs workers in many fields. If it had its own immigration rules, it could better target immigrants with the work experience the province needs.
Also at the celebration, Nivat Mark Chainarongpinij echoed that reasoning.
“The federal immigration [officials] don’t really know what they’re doing. I mean, they screw up a lot of cases. … I think we should take control, and we should determine who is best to stay and work here and to become a permanent resident where they can be a valuable asset to the province.”
Smith plans to hold a referendum in October and ask several questions about immigration.
To get an early sense of how Albertans are feeling, CBC News included two related questions in Janet Brown Opinion Research’s ninth Road Ahead poll last month.
The poll asked respondents if they agree or disagree that the government of Alberta should take more control over immigration to the province. Fifty-seven per cent said they agree or strongly agree with that statement.
Then the poll asked if immigrants who have lived in Alberta for less than a year should not have the same access to public services. Forty-five per cent of respondents said they either agree or strongly agree with that.
The Calgary-based polling company directed a random phone survey of 1,200 Albertans between April 7 and 22, 2026, carried out by Trend Research. The survey has a margin of error of +/- 2.8 percentage points, 19 times out of 20.
Smith’s first proposed referendum question is more restrictive than the CBC poll question. It says: “Do you support the government of Alberta taking increased control over immigration for the purposes of decreasing immigration to more sustainable levels, prioritizing economic migration and giving Albertans first priority on new employment opportunities?”
Janki Mehta moved from Mumbai three years ago and works in corporate media. She says Alberta should control and target immigration, because that’s important for those making the choice to come here as well.
“It’s a bad thing when you don’t have the jobs for the people you’re migrating,” she said. “People have left their whole lives and are coming to another country.”
But for Smith’s other questions — on restricting public services, especially during the first year — Mehta says that doesn’t make sense.
“You can restrict whatever you want to restrict at the later years, but the first year, if you really want somebody to come into Alberta and be an Albertan, learn their Albertan ways, you need to have that extra support,” she said.
“I think the first year is very crucial. For me, when I came in here, my mental health took a toll because I didn’t have friends, I had no family, I didn’t know anyone in Alberta. I just came here because the government said we want more media people in the province.”
John Santos, a data scientist with Janet Brown Opinion Research, said he thinks the relatively high support for provincial control of immigration is being driven by people who want immigration to be more focused on economics.
“There is a large proportion of Albertans … who think that immigration levels have been too high and we’ve had the wrong kinds of immigrants coming here,” he said. “[This] question is tapping into some of those sentiments — people who want more economic-focused immigrants, less refugees, fewer family reunifications.”
The team found a big difference between UCP voters and NDP voters on this issue. Ninety per cent of respondents who said they would vote UCP said they agree or strongly agree with Alberta taking more control versus 21 per cent of NDP voters.
The polling team said it wasn’t surprised to see less support for restricting access to public services.
Pollster Janet Brown said, “It’s one thing to say government should take more control of something. It’s another thing to say, ‘Yes, I will vote to take benefits away from my friends and neighbours.’”
CBC News also set up at the public library in Pincher Creek, Alta., as part of a larger effort to understand Albertans’ views and information needs ahead of the referendum.
We heard from people who believe high immigration has led to shortages in housing, health care and jobs. Several people were convinced that all immigrants receive a lot of financial support from the government, and that immigration has to be restricted because the country can’t afford it.
Others said that’s a myth. Divyakant Makwana immigrated as an international student and now owns the Dollarstore in downtown Pincher Creek. He said he didn’t get any federal help when he came, and he paid much higher tuition fees than students who are Canadian citizens.
Margaret Cox is retired and now volunteers at the local long-term care centre. She said she supports controlled immigration and that it’s critical to this country’s economy but doesn’t want Alberta in control — not under the current provincial government.
She says the tone of the current debate tends to unfairly blame immigrants for shortages, encouraging hate speech, and she wants there to be space for Canada to welcome refugees and others for humanitarian reasons, too.
“Maybe the province should have some say, but not close the doors,” she said. “When it comes to immigrants, I see more people working in our health-care system than abusing it.”
CBC News wants to provide Albertans with a wide range of information and context ahead of the coming referendum. Do you have questions you want a CBC reporter to research? Is there any information you’d like us to verify or fact check? Share your thoughts here.
The CBC News random survey of 1,200 Albertans was conducted using a hybrid method between April 7 to April 22, 2026, by Edmonton-based Trend Research under the direction of Janet Brown Opinion Research. The sample is representative of regional, age and gender factors. The margin of error is +/- 2.8 percentage points, 19 times out of 20. For subsets, the margin of error is larger.
The survey used a hybrid methodology that involved contacting survey respondents by telephone and giving them the option of completing the survey at that time, at another more convenient time, or receiving an email link and completing the survey online. Trend Research contacted people using a random list of numbers, consisting of 30 per cent landlines and 70 per cent cellphone numbers. Telephone numbers were dialed up to five times at five different times of day before another telephone number was added to the sample. The response rate among valid numbers (i.e., residential and personal) was 11.7 per cent.
