Alberta Minute: Issue 388

Alberta Minute - Your weekly one-minute summary of Alberta politics.

📅 This Week In Alberta: 📅

• The Alberta Legislature returns tomorrow at 1:30 pm for its fall sitting, and will also sit on Wednesday and Thursday. Among the government business listed is a motion asking the Assembly to approve in general the business plans and fiscal policies of the government. Two private members' bills await second reading: Bill 212, the Pharmacy Statutes (Rewards Points) Amendment Act, 2026, and Bill 213, the Alberta Personal Income Tax (Emergency Services Volunteer Tax Credits) Amendment Act, 2026.
  
  
• Albertans voted decisively to remain in Canada in the October 19th referendum, with about 75% choosing to stay rather than begin the legal process toward a binding referendum on separation, according to the unofficial count. The nine other questions have been far closer, and as counting continued, "no" pulled ahead on all four constitutional questions. The "yes" side continued to lead on all five immigration questions, but by tight margins, with urban ridings in Calgary and Edmonton largely voting against them. Premier Danielle Smith said her government would proceed with caution on immigration, and conceded that the constitutional matters seem less important to Albertans. Elections Alberta missed its 48-hour target for completing the hand count, but have put out a statement saying this was due to mixing up some ballot boxes in some ridings, rather than having to hand count ballots, as all ridings where mistakes weren't made were completed on time. Official results are scheduled for release on Thursday.
  
  
• Premier Danielle Smith says she will honour Albertans' decision to remain in Canada and will not hold another referendum on separation for as long as she is Premier. In a 14-minute televised address on October 20th, the day after the referendum, Smith said disputes with Ottawa will be settled through the country's political and legal institutions rather than separation, while promising to use every legal and political tool to protect Albertans' interests and to be "unrelenting" when Ottawa interferes with provincial rights. She said the federal government is no longer trying to phase out Alberta's largest economic sectors, pointing to the scrapping of the oil and gas production cap and the federal net-zero electricity regulations, and the fast-tracking of Pacific Link, a new oil pipeline to the BC coast. Smith said voters had directed the Province to take greater control over immigration, to make temporary residents pay a portion of the cost of the public services they use, and to require proof of citizenship to vote, and that her government will pursue those reforms in the coming months and years, along with its earlier mandate to seek reform of the federal equalization program. She told those who voted for a separation referendum that their frustrations are legitimate and their voices have been heard. NDP Leader Naheed Nenshi said the referendum came at a tremendous financial and mental cost, and that the money could have been spent on schools, doctors, and nurses.
  
  
• Prime Minister Mark Carney says Ottawa has held conversations with every province except Quebec about sharing powers over economic immigration, after slim majorities of Alberta voters appeared to back greater provincial control over newcomers in the October 19th referendum. Asked on October 21st whether his government is open to giving Alberta the same immigration powers Quebec gained under a 1991 accord, Carney replied in French, "We'll see." He said his government will focus for now on pragmatic solutions rather than constitutional reform, keeping immigration at sustainable levels while discussing how economic immigrants can be most effectively distributed across the country, and pointed to drops in new foreign students, asylum seekers, and temporary foreign workers. Conservative MP Dane Lloyd said his party has always sought to return areas of provincial responsibility to the provinces, while Calgary Liberal MP Corey Hogan questioned the strength of Premier Danielle Smith's mandate given the small majorities and the ongoing count. The same day, Smith told members of her United Conservative Party that separatists are not welcome as candidates, and urged the party to focus instead on the referendum's other measures, including immigration.
  
  
• Alberta's western neighbour has a Conservative government for the first time since 1928, after the BC Conservatives won a majority in Saturday's snap provincial election and ended nine years of NDP government. Election-night counts had the Conservatives winning about 63 of the Legislature's 93 seats, well past the 47 needed for a majority, and the party had 51% of the popular vote to 36.3% for the NDP. Interim Conservative Leader Lorne Doerkson, who took over a party in disarray just five weeks earlier, is set to become Premier. The Conservatives campaigned on cutting income taxes, repealing the Province's Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples Act, and expanding natural gas and LNG development. NDP Leader David Eby, who called the election two years early, conceded on Saturday night and resigned as party leader. Former NDP MLA Nathan Cullen warned that holding the Conservatives' coalition together will be difficult, pointing to Premier Danielle Smith's experience governing one in Alberta. Doerkson's own future is also uncertain, since the party's constitution bars interim leaders from seeking the job permanently.

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