Alberta Premier Danielle Smith announced more emergency school funding on Tuesday but warned that even the record funding may not be enough to counteract Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s mass immigration policies.
The premier delivered her Fall 2024 address on Tuesday night.
During her monologue, she said that over 200,000 people immigrated to Alberta last year. Historically, Smith noted that Alberta has welcomed newcomers with shared values like freedom and hard work and immigrants who contribute to society and abide by the law.
“Equally as important, though, Canada’s previous immigration policies under leaders like Prime Minister Stephen Harper as an example, focused on ensuring that immigration levels matched our nation’s economic needs and was commensurate with our ability to build enough houses and infrastructure to keep up with that growth,” said Smith. “However, the Trudeau government’s unrestrained open border policies, permitting well over a million newcomers each year into Canada, is causing significant challenges and has broken this delicate balance.”
True North previously reported that after accounting for permanent residents, temporary foreign workers, international students, and illegal immigrants, around 2.2 million people arrive in Canada annually.
The unprecedented immigration has led to housing and job shortages, as well as problems with social services like health and education, according to Smith. She added that the additional strain affects all Albertans, new, old, and everything in between.
“I am joining with other premiers across our country and calling on the current federal government to immediately reintroduce sensible and restrained immigration policies, similar to the levels we saw under Stephen Harper,” said Smith. “And, if the current federal government won’t make these changes, our government will certainly support a new one that will.”
Smith said that her promised income tax cut will be delivered in the next budget, which will help offset the loss of income from the federal carbon tax and other policies driving inflation.
The premier said the province is adding approximately 33,000 students per year, equivalent to about 35 schools.
Alberta invested a record $9.3 billion in its education system in 2024-25, with an additional $215 million allocated in July to address the population boom.
Between 2012/13 and 2021/22, education spending grew across Canada, driven by a large increase in compensation. Even before the unprecedented increase, Alberta led the country in enrollment increase.
The recent budget allocated $2.1 billion towards new school construction to add 33,000 new spaces, but many more are needed.
Smith announced a new school construction accelerator program on Tuesday, accompanied by an additional $8.6 billion increase in the province’s K-12 capital budget. The program is set to build 50,000 new student spaces over the next three years and 150,000 in the subsequent four years, which Smith said is the fastest and largest build the province can manage with its available resources.
Additionally, a portion of the fund will be dedicated to building 12,500 new charter school spaces and investment in non-profit private schools and independent schools to emphasize school choice.
Alberta’s surplus was recently revised from the initially projected $367 million to $2.9 billion.
Smith said there was no time to waste and asked schools and municipalities to get on board immediately.
“That is why I’m asking all school boards to work with their respective municipalities and the Ministry of Education on an expedited basis to get priority school sites permitted, services, and otherwise prepared for immediate construction,” said Smith. “If you can prepare the sites, the province will have the dollars set aside to get shovels in the ground.”
The premier pleaded with all school boards to cut the red tape and start construction immediately.
“Our province has become a beacon of freedom, opportunity, and quality of life and prosperity for millions across our country and around the world. And, with that incredible success comes very real growth challenges,” said Smith. “But we are Albertans. There has never been, not will there ever be any challenge too large for us to overcome and conquer together. May our province forever remain strong and free.”
