Alberta Premier Danielle Smith says the province is boosting education funding to support a growing student population. Smith speaks with reporters before a meeting in Halifax, on July 15.Darren Calabrese/The Canadian Press
Premier Danielle Smith says Alberta will spend $8.6-billion over the next seven years to address the unprecedented growth of the province’s student population, which she calls a symptom of Ottawa’s excessive immigration policy.
In a televised address on Tuesday evening, Ms. Smith said the province’s strong fiscal position with a surplus this past year and a modest surplus expected this year allows for the injection of billions in the capital budget for new K-12 schools, an increase of roughly $6.5-billion from April’s budget.
She said 200,000 student spaces will be created over seven years through the new school construction accelerator program. The program will allow for up to 30 new schools to be built each year, up from about a dozen, in addition to the renovation or replacement of up to eight schools yearly.
The Premier said the student population has surged in recent years, estimating an influx of 33,000 new pupils per year since the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. However, the Alberta government’s student population statistics are more modest, showing an increase of 29,980 students in the 2023-24 school year, 24,288 in 2022-23 and 10,976 in 2021-22.
Ms. Smith blamed Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and the Liberal government’s immigration policy for exacerbating provincial shortages in the education system, as well as in health care, housing, other social services and the job market. She singled out temporary residents as part of the problem.
“Canada’s previous immigration policies under leaders like prime minister 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,” the Premier said.
“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.”
Ms. Smith called on Mr. Trudeau to limit immigration immediately in a way that aligns with “our country’s economic needs and core values,” described earlier in her address as those who contribute to society, protect “our freedoms,” follow the rule of law and respect other cultures.
“If the current federal government won’t make these changes, our government will certainly support a new one that will.”
Alberta is Canada’s fastest growing province with a population expected to soon reach 4.9 million, according to provincial estimates. The population expanded by nearly 205,000 people, or by 4.41 per cent, between April, 2023 and April, 2024 – the highest year-over-year growth rate since 1981.
Ms. Smith’s recent remarks on immigration signal a change in her long-held view that all population growth is good. She previously said that she wanted 10 million people in Alberta by 2050 to help charge the economy and boost provincial clout.
Just last week, the Premier told Ottawa that “asylum claimants” are no longer welcome in Alberta, adding that the province is supporting a disproportionate share of people from Ukraine who fled to Canada to escape the war with Russia. She also claimed that the federal government planned to relocate tens of thousands of asylum seekers to Alberta without any financial assistance, which was disputed by Ottawa.
Asylum claimants comprise about 5 per cent of all non-permanent residents in Canada.
In Tuesday’s address, Ms. Smith said that the population growth will also require expansion and investment outside of education, most notably in health and transportation infrastructure.
“That is also being worked on daily,” she said, without providing specific details. “But this school construction accelerator program is ready to commence now.”
She put the onus on school boards and municipalities to have sites for new schools permitted and prepared for construction work – holding them responsible for delaying construction in the past. She asked high-growth communities, such as Calgary and Edmonton, to make this a “top priority.”
She added that, “if you can prepare the sites, the province will have the dollars set aside to get shovels in the ground.”
The increase in capital funding will also be used to add 12,500 student spaces in charter schools over the next four years.
With a file from Kelly Cryderman