The Decibel - The other nine questions in the Alberta referendum

Episode Date: October 9, 2026

Albertans will go to the polls to vote in a referendum on October 19. By now, everyone knows about the question on whether Alberta should stay in Canada, or hold another referendum on whether to separate. But there are, in fact, nine other proposals Albertans are being asked to vote on.Matthew Scace is a staff reporter for The Globe based in Calgary. He’s on the show to explain what else Albertans are being asked to vote on, and what those results could mean for Alberta Premier Danielle Smith’s government.Questions? Comments? Ideas? Email us at [e-mail] Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

We all know there's a referendum coming up in Alberta. And while the question getting all the attention is around Alberta independence, Albertans will also vote on nine other questions about the future of their province. And those questions haven't gotten nearly as much airtime. So today we're talking to Matthew Skase. He's a Globe reporter who works out of the Calgary Bureau. And he's going to tell us about these nine other questions. I'm Cheryl Sutherland in for Manica Ram and Wilms.

And this is the decibel from the Globe and Mail. Hi, Matt. Thanks for being here. Great to see you, Cheryl. Thanks for having me. So, as we all know, Albertans are going to the poll soon. We've been talking about this referendum for a long time now.

But let's get into kind of a very basic question. Because a referendum is not an election. Can you just tell me what the difference is? Yeah. So you'll notice on the ordering council where the questions were established by the government, they say that this is a not a binding process. So effectively, this referendum,

while it is taking the public's temperature on these issues, it's not as binding as a general election. So when the results come in, we will find out what the public has said. But what happens after that and what the government decides to do with it, is still going to be kind of up in the air, even if the government says it's committed to pursuing the results, depending on what the public says. So there are 10 questions in this referendum. Where did they come from? Yeah.

So if you cast your mind back to about a year and a half ago, Alberta Premier Daniel Smith, was just welcoming the new prime minister, Mark Carney, after he was elected liberal leader, and had a list of grievances with Ottawa around energy environment policy. And she threatened a national unity crisis if he didn't repeal those laws. She subsequently announced this thing called the Alberta Next Panel, which was this long, summer long effort to get Albertan's opinion on how they felt about Ottawa. So she set up these town halls in different parts of the province. I went to about four or five in southern Alberta.

was in Calgary. She's in Edmonton. Then she went to a lot of different places in rural Alberta, and was asking people what kind of changes they would like to see to Alberta's arrangement with Canada. And out of that panel process where people would come in and go to a mic and state how they felt, and they would take straw polls. They were doing online polls as well. Decide what kind of things might go to a referendum in Alberta. And so last December they released the report and they said, We want to go to a referendum on X, Y, and Z. So one of those things was exercising more control over immigration. That's around when they first floated withholding social services from some newcomers,

initiating some, quote, piecemeal changes to the Constitution. And the one that isn't on this referendum, but was suggested was leaving the Canada pension plan and starting up a standalone provincial pension plan. So out of these town halls, Matt, these are where these 10 questions came from that Daniel Smith's government wrote. But broadly speaking, what are these questions about? Yeah, so these nine other questions outside of the separation question generally deal with two things, arguably three. One is immigration reforms and how the province can take more control over immigration, citizenship and voting, and constitutional issues. All right, we'll get into those in a second.

But I do have a question about logistics on October 19th for Alberts when they do go to vote. physically what will be happening? How will they be voting? So some Alberts have already voted by mail, and so they've already been through this process. But when voters go to the polls on October 19th or advanced polls, they will be given 10 separate ballots that are 10 separate colors, and they will have all 10 questions on those sheets of paper. So you go fill out one piece of paper, and then you put it in a ballot box. You fill another piece paper, put into other ballot box. So the logistics of actually voting are very different from what we've experienced from general elections. Yeah, it's not one ballot. different pieces of paper and different colors?

Different colors. It's very fun. Yeah. Okay. And it will be interesting because there are a lot of people who know about the separation question, but the nine questions, like you said, have kind of flown under the radar. And we can talk about how these questions are framed and how long they are. But a lot of people might be experiencing or learning about these questions when they get to the ballot box. So it's going to be a little bit different from just checking off your preferred candidate in walking home. You're really going to have to take in these questions and decide which people are going to vote. Yeah, okay. So you said how they're framed and how long they are. So

give me a sense of, give me one question. Yeah. So here's a question and I'll just read it in one go. We'll see if I can do it in one breath. The question is, do you support the government of Alberta working with the governments of other willing provinces to amend the Canadian constitution to better protect provincial rights and federal interference by giving a province's laws dealing with provincial or shared areas of constitutional jurisdiction priority over federal laws when the province's laws and federal laws conflict. End of question. You weren't able to do that in one breath. No. It was a long question. It was a long question. So, I mean, on a serious note, though, I mean, that sounds very complicated and it could be very confusing for people going to vote.

We're going to be very interested to see how people react to those questions. One, the worry on referendum day is that the voting process is going to be lengthy and arduous for a lot of people. There might be really long lines. And this is one contributing factor because, like I said, People haven't really processed these nine other questions. And they interact with each other, too. The four questions on immigration sort of are of the same ilk, but they ask different things. So people, if they're processing these questions and they really spend time thinking about it, they could be at the polls thinking about them in real time for an extended amount of time.

So it's just the fact of people actually getting through the questions and trying to decide which way they're going to vote is going to be complicated. And then, like I said, just understanding what they mean. And we can talk about the specifics around some of these questions because they are complicated. Some of them are unclear on what they would actually lead to. So there are a lot of complications going into referendum day. And it's also just a new experience for Albertans because we've never been through a standalone referendum. We've had one that was tied to a municipal election, but it was two questions. And this is 10.

This is 10. Okay. So earlier you talked about kind of these two buckets of questions. here. Some on immigration and some on amending the Constitution. So let's start with the questions around immigration. What are Albertans being asked to vote on? Broadly speaking, what they're being asked to vote on is Alberta working to take more control over immigration, which is generally a federal responsibility. So the first question that they're asked is quite broad. It says, do you support the government, Alberta, taking increased control over immigration with the purpose

of decreasing immigration to more sustainable levels? And then it gets into more specific, says, it goes along into the next three questions. So it asks if you approve of the government introducing a law mandating that only Canadian citizens, permanent residence, and individuals with a quote, Alberta approved immigration status, which does not exist at this point in time. And we don't know exactly what that would mean. Those people would be eligible for a provincially funded programs such as health care education and social services. So that's one bucket. Do you support that? One other one asks whether Alberta support a law requiring all individuals with non-permanent, so non-permanent residents to live in Alberta for at least a year before qualifying for certain social support services.

So those would be as defined on the government's website, but not in the referendum question. Child care subsidies, student aid, income supports. And then the last one on the actual costs around immigration is suggesting that the government charge a, quote, reasonable fee or premium to individuals with non-permanent immigration. status for their use of health care and education systems. So it would be charging non-permanent residents for health care and education. There's also one more that proposes introducing a new law that would require voters to provide proof of citizenship in future provincial elections.

It sounds like these questions are about Danielle Smith and the government trying to take more control over immigration. Have we gotten any details about what Danielle Smith is proposing in terms of how some of this would work? Yeah, so there are two things. One, she has pointed to Quebec a lot as precedent for this. Quebec has an agreement that it struck with the federal government in 1991 that allows it to select certain economic migrants. So she wants a similar model to that.

When we're talking about the actual numbers around what the government believes is a, quote, reasonable fee, say, for health care and education, they have not put this on paper, but last month at a Calgary Chamber of Commerce event, the Premier floated the idea of charge roughly $1,900 for healthcare for non-permanent residents. And that was the first time that I or any other reporters had heard of what kind of number the government was considering. It wasn't included in a formal announcement. It was just suggested in a Q&A on stage.

So in terms of concrete details, that's about as close as we've gotten to on that issue. The other thing that I'll note on that number is that when the Premier was asked after she mentioned that number, when this would be implemented, when we would get more details around what these things would look like. Whether, say, a non-perman resident who's currently living in Alberta would have to pay these fees or whether it be just the non-permanent residents who come after legislation is introduced, those details would be settled up in legislation over the next year and over the next year Alberta will be going into a provincial election.

And so those details may be provided before the provincial election, but we may not actually have the final bill passed into legislation. until the next general election. So it seems like we might be going into the next general election with this being a major issue that the government is running on. So there's a lot of a lot of TBDs around what these proposals will actually look like. So you mentioned there that this is immigration is generally the jurisdiction of the federal government.

So does Alberta actually have the power to do any of what they're proposing? Yeah. What the premier said about these four questions and the other constitutional ones is that these would give her government leverage over Ottawa and help them out in negotiations. So like I said, Quebec has an agreement with Ottawa on economic migrants. She would like to see negotiations between the feds in Alberta on an arrangement like that. Charging a fee or premium, I haven't heard any objections to whether that would be unconstitutional or not. I did talk to a lawyer, a legal scholar yesterday, who said that some of these restrictions could raise questions

about mobility rights, because if a migrant is only allowed to work in Alberta, it may be challenging for them to move to other provinces, or vice versa, if you move to Ontario as a non-perman resident and want to move to Alberta, that may cause problems. So there's a lot of unknowns around how this will actually all pan out. We'll be right back. So we talked about the questions around immigration, and there are also this other bucket that are all about constitutional questions. Tell us about those? Yeah, so there are four other constitutional questions and what these propose, the government is asking whether the population supports working with other governments to amend the Canadian constitution around certain issues. The reason for that is because in order to reopen the

constitution, you have to have at least seven provincial legislatures covering 50% of the entire Canadian population to actually pursue a constitutional change. There's a really high bar and it's a really It's high bar. Very difficult. Very difficult to reopen the Constitution. It's not something Alberta can do unilaterally. So these questions are generally around, again, giving Alberta more control over its affairs. One asks whether Albertan support the ability for provinces to opt out of federal programs that, quote, intrude on provincial jurisdiction, such as health care, education, social services, without the province losing any of the funding that's associated with that. Because a lot of federal funding comes with strings attached. Another one, the last question around constitutional issues asks giving the province precedents when its laws, quote, come into conflict with federal laws. Right now, federal law is the overriding law in Canada.

And then the other ones ask whether they support abolishing the Senate and giving Alberta control over appointing justices to the King's Bench and Appeal Courts. So it's bringing more control into Alberta is essentially the theme. I feel like that's the theme here with these two buckets, more control for Alberta. Yes. What it sounds like with immigration and also with these constitutional amendment questions, these are these are hard to do, right? And for the constitutional questions, like Alberta can't do that unilaterally with immigration questions.

This is usually the jurisdiction of the federal government. But let's just say, hypothetically, let's just say there's an overwhelming yes vote on all of these questions. What would actually happen? Like can the province actually move forward with any of this? Most of these would require, I think, negotiations between Ottawa and Alberta and would effectively start, I guess, a campaign from the Premier to get these changes rolling. Going back to the constitutional issues, this would require a lot of diplomacy between provinces just because of the rules. In terms of the immigration questions, it's going to be a long time before these seem to come into play or become a reality.

So what happens next is really hard to say. And like we said at the beginning, these are all non-binding questions. And if the margins are tight or the questions lose, then obviously the government's going to maybe reconsider its approach. So it's really up to what the people say. And then the government will decide how it goes forward with these. Okay. So takeaway here is even if the referendum shows overwhelming support, it doesn't mean anything is. going to happen anytime soon. No, a good example of this is in 2021, I believe, Alberta went through

a referendum on whether it should get rid of daylight saving time. And just over a sliver of 50% of Albertans said no. And so the problems didn't go ahead with abolishing, getting rid of daylight saving time. You'll note that this year, Alberta will not be changing the clocks on November 1st because the Premier decided earlier this year that we would be getting rid of daylight saving in tow with BC and as Saskatchewan has existed for many years. So like I said, these referendums aren't binding and sometimes the government makes up its own mind on these issues because these are policies that the government could just do on its own without a referendum. Yeah, okay. That's a really good example there. So if none of this is binding, Matt, what is Danielle Smith's government trying to do?

Yeah, a bit of a history lesson on Premier Smith and this government, because they have been in power for about four years now. When Smith was first elected Premier, the first bill she introduced was the Sovereignty Act, which got a lot of attention. And it was, again, about Alberta, learning more control over its affairs. And you'll hear a lot from her government in Alberta, more Alberta and less Ottawa. And that has been a theme over the course of her premiership. She has tried to wield that Sovereignty Act to shield the province from certain federal laws. The Alberta next panel was a months-long conversation about how to carve out more space for Alberta to operate on its own. So really what the Premier wants is more room for Alberta to control its own own destiny.

And that's just been a running theme. And of course, in Alberta for longer preceding her. When you look at the separation question, she's left in more to the people. to decide for themselves, whereas she's put $4 million of advertising money into campaigning for these questions for people to vote, yes. For the nine other questions? Yeah, for these nine other questions. Okay.

What does the political opposition said about these questions and the referendum more broadly? Yeah, so there's been a pretty strong amount of opposition to these questions. The NDP, Alberta NDP have recently started to get a little bit louder. they've been really banging their drum on the separation question, because that is obviously an existential question for Alberta. But they've started to get loud about it. And Nahed Natchi, the Ndepi leader, called it slow motion separatism that fans the grievances underpinning Alberta separatism.

His deputy leader in February, when these questions were first announced, before we knew there was going to be a separation vote, his deputy leader Iraqi Pancholi said that they're designed to inflame and cited growing racism in the province and call. them divisive. And one of the more prominent campaigns that's cropped up over the past several months, it's run by a political strategist named Stephen Carter. And they've had these signs around Calgary that have said, stay in Canada, vote no to the nine. So I know we'll get a solid answer after October 19th. But as of right now, do we have a sense of how the public feels about these questions? Yeah. Yeah. It's interesting because the separation question is so baked in for so many

people. Like that is not a question that people are trying to make their minds up about in the last weeks of the campaign. But these questions seem to be sort of floating under the radar. A lot of people still don't know about them. Janet Brown, she's one of our top pollsters in Alberta. She released some numbers in September, one that found 54% of Albertans believe that the province should take more control over immigration. When you get into the details about what the province should do, so asked if Alberta should limit free access to health and education for non-permanent residents, 51% they said they disagree. 44% said they agree.

So there's a bit of a split there. 49% believe that Alberta should push for constitutional changes. So that's right down the middle. And asked if they're familiar with the nine other questions, 44% said not vary or not at all. Oh, okay. So there's still a really low degree of awareness around these nine other questions. What can people expect to happen after referendum day? Yeah, so the separation question is expected to come in around two to four in the morning on October 20th, the day after referendum day.

Those ballots are being counted first, and then the next, the nine will be counted after that. And they're counted by hand, right? They're counted by hand because a couple years ago, the premier decided would be getting rid of electronic tabulators and said it would increase trust in our elections to have them counted by hand. we're not exactly sure when we'll get those nine, the final or unofficial results on these nine questions, but elections Alberta has a 48-hour deadline from when the polls close to get those ballots counted. So it may take a couple days. Interesting. Just finally, Matt, before I let you go, what will the results in either direction mean for the government? So what really matters here for the government is going to be the margin of victory and what alberans tell them what direction they want to

take with this. If it is a tight vote that is 51% say to for the immigration changes, the government may well pursue those because that is the number they need. But that is a really tight decision that shows Albertans are split on some pretty consequential changes to immigration. So going into a provincial election that's coming at the very latest next October, the government will surely be thinking about what that result means if Albertans are split on these kind of issues. So the Premier will be looking at those questions pretty closely. And they have a lot of skin in the game with this. They've put $4 million in advertising, like I said, to get these questions passed. She said that she wants them to get passed by Albertans in large numbers so she can go and,

like I said, negotiate with the prime minister. So there's a lot in the line. And the campaigners who were campaigning against the nine questions, if they, if they win, they're saying that that's effectively a mandate review of the Premier and a rebuke of herself because she has put so much, so many resources and so much support behind those nine questions. So the separation question will take up a lot, a lot of oxygen on October 20th and the days after. But these nine other questions do matter politically for the Premier going forward. Yeah, a lot in the line, it sounds like. Matt, thank you so much. much for coming on the show and walking us through these other nine questions.

Appreciate it. Thanks for having, Cheryl. That was Matthew Skace, a staff reporter in the Globe's Calgary Bureau. That's it for today. I'm Cheryl Sutherland. Manika Ramman Wilms is the host of the decibel. Michal Stein produced this episode. Our producers are Madeline White, Rachel Levy McLaughlin, and me.

Our editor is David Crosby. Adrian Chung is our senior producer, and Angela Pichenza is our executive editor. Thanks so much for listening.