09/17/2026
Alberta Referendum Questions for October 19, 2026
Sourced from Elections Alberta website https://www.elections.ab.ca/elections/referendum/
Feodor Snagovsky, an associate political science professor at the University of Alberta, spoke with Great West Media to help Albertans break down each of the ten questions to figure out what they're asking and why Albertans should care.
He started off by saying there's something that unites virtually all the questions together; many of them contain multiple questions in one.
"Many of the questions are double or triple barrelled... such that when you answer yes or no, it's not actually clear what you are answering yes or no to," Snagovsky said.
The referendum will be split up into three categories of questions, five immigration questions, four constitutional questions, and one separation question.
Immigration
Question 1: 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?
The first immigration question is effectively four questions rolled into one. Snagovsky tried to simplify it as:
1. Do you support the Government of Alberta taking increased control over immigration?
2. For the purposes of decreasing immigration to more sustainable levels?
3. Prioritizing economic migration?
4. Giving Albertans first priority on new employment opportunities?
He said it's written in such a way to illicit a specific response.
"Who could possibly argue with having immigration at sustainable levels," he said, noting that what would be more sustainable is not defined and said that the vast majority of immigrants coming to Canada are already economic migrants.
Question 2: Do you support the Government of Alberta introducing a law mandating that only Canadian citizens, permanent residents and individuals with an Alberta-approved immigration status will be eligible for provincially-funded programs, such as health care, education and other social services?
Simplified version: Should only Canadian citizens, permanent residents and those with Alberta approved immigration status be eligible for social services programs like health care and education.
Question 3: Assuming that all Canadian citizens and permanent residents continue to qualify for social support programs as they do now, do you support the Government of Alberta introducing a law requiring all individuals with a non-permanent legal immigration status to reside in Alberta for at least 12 months before qualifying for any provincially-funded social support programs?
Simplified: Should those with non-permanent legal immigration status be required to live in Alberta for at least 12 months before they qualify for provincially funded social support programs.
Question 4: Assuming that all Canadian citizens and permanent residents continue to qualify for public health care and education as they do now, do you support the Government of Alberta charging a reasonable fee or premium to individuals with a non-permanent immigration status living in Alberta for their and their family's use of the health care and education systems?
Simplified: Should those with non-permanent immigration status in Alberta pay a reasonable fee or premium for their and their family's health care and education?
Question 5: Do you support the Government of Alberta introducing a law requiring individuals to provide proof of citizenship, such as a passport, birth certificate or citizenship card, to vote in an Alberta provincial election?
Simplified: Should individuals provide a passport, birth certificate, or citizenship card to prove citizenship to vote in Alberta elections?
Snagovsky said questions two through four are all fundamentally asking whether we should treat immigrants differently than others, from making them wait a year for social services access or making them pay an undefined fee to obtain it.
"I think this is misguided policy, because it's in everybody's interest for people who are coming to Alberta to be able to be in a position to contribute meaningfully to the rest of society," he said, adding that there's an idea particularly among the political right that immigrants in Alberta don't contribute to the province.
"That's simply not the case. Immigrants pay taxes, immigrants work... they provide services Albertans need. It is not only unfair to not give folks like this access to the same services we enjoy as citizens and permanent residents, it's also bad public policy. Because if we don't give these folks health care access to health care, education and other social services, they're going to be much more poorly placed to make those contributions that brought them here in the first place," the U of A professor added.
On question five, Snagovsky said it's basically a way of erecting additional barriers to voting for those who believe voter fraud is a wide spread issue in Alberta and Canada, of which he said there's no evidence to suggest that conclusion, and called it a solution in search of a problem.
"We can't even get citizens to vote," he said, referencing how voter turnout has declined across the province, with voter turnout of 60.5 per cent in the 2023 provincial election and 67.5 per cent in the 2019 election. "What makes you think that people who are not eligible are voting in large numbers?"
Constitutional
Question 6: Do you support the Government of Alberta working with the governments of other willing provinces to amend the Canadian Constitution to have provincial governments, and not the federal government, select the justices appointed to provincial King's Bench and Appeal courts?
Simplified: Should Alberta work with other provinces to amend the constitution so provincial governments select judges for provincial courts?
Question 7: Do you support the Government of Alberta working with the governments of other willing provinces to amend the Canadian Constitution to abolish the unelected federal Senate?
Simplified: Should Alberta work with other provinces to amend the constitution to abolish federal senate?
Question 8: Do you support the Government of Alberta working with the governments of other willing provinces to amend the Canadian Constitution to allow provinces to opt out of federal programs that intrude on provincial jurisdiction such as health care, education and social services, without a province losing any of the associated federal funding for use in its social programs?
Simplified: Should provinces be able to opt out of federal programs that overlap with provincial jurisdiction, like health care or education, without losing the federal money tied to those programs?
Question 9: 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 from 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?
Simplified: Should provincial laws automatically override federal laws whenever the two conflict in shared areas of jurisdiction?
Snagovsky said the preamble that begins each of the constitutional questions, about the provincial government working with the governments of other provinces to amend the constitution, is important.
"The government is saying they realize that these things are a non-starter pretty much," he said. "The Government of Alberta cannot do these things unilaterally."
On question six, Snagovsky said it's not accurate that the federal government selects judges.
"They're selected by these Judicial Advisory Committees that have both federal and provincial representation. They're ultimately appointed by the federal government within the Crown, but the provincial government already does have input on that," he said.
Abolishing the Senate is something Snagovsky said many in Alberta have long fantasized about, but said there's no evidence to prove that the institution is hindering things.
"This is an evergreen fantasy federalism thing that many people have been talking about for a long time," he said.
That fantasy federalism feeling is something he feels unites questions six through nine, such as the provincial government opting out of federal programs.
"There are already provisions for if the province wants to opt out of certain programs, such as the Canadian Pension Plan, it can do that," he said.
Speaking about the last of the constitutional questions, he said in the current system known as paramountcy, the federal law wins if the provincial and federal government pass laws that conflict with one another. He wasn't aware of any popular instances where this happens.
"We can have a reasonable debate about which level of government ought to have final say... but there's no chance the federal government agrees to this. And the federal government is a necessary partner to any constitutional change," he said.
Separation
Question 10: Should Alberta remain a province of Canada, or should the Government of Alberta commence the legal process required under the Canadian Constitution to hold a binding provincial referendum on whether or not Alberta should separate from Canada?
Simplified: Should Alberta remain in Canada, or should the government hold a second, binding referendum on whether Alberta should stay in or leave Canada?
The question on separation is likely the one most Albertans are familiar with, and the subject of much debate across the province.
"This is a question about a question," Snagovsky said, adding that the reason it's not a clean 'stay or go' question is because that would then trigger the Clarity Act.
"That means the federal parliament in the House of Commons has to approve any secession questions before we go to the ballot in order for those to be recognized by the federal government in negotiations to leave," he said.
Snagovsky said the trouble with this question's wording is that it creates a "permission structure," where people might vote to send a message to the government as they aren't actually voting to leave Canada.
"The trouble with that is that you shouldn't bet on something you can't afford to lose. If enough people vote to "send a message" without actually wanting to leave Canada, we could end up in a Brexit situation," he said.
Snagovsky said each of the 10 questions are incredibly important, and strongly encouraged Albertans to not only vote, but to register for special mail in ballots. Applications for those are open now until Friday, Oct. 9 at midnight on the Elections Alberta website via elections.ab.ca/request-a-special-ballot.
"The number of ballots and the complexity of the questions means the government should expect delays on voting day," he said.
Great West Media will have continued referendum coverage leading up to the provincial referendum, which is set for Monday, Oct. 19.
In a referendum, electors are asked to respond to a question, generally with a “yes” or “no” vote, although other questions providing a choice are possible. Referendums are conducted under the Referendum Act and Referendum (General) Regulation and can be regarding constitutional or non-const...
