Raging Grannies Street Rally protests immigration referendum questions

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?

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 healthcare and education systems?

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?

Raging Grannies administrator Barb Phillips is accusing Alberta premier Danielle Smith of using the referendum to scapegoat immigrants.

“Incorrectly blaming immigrants that it’s their fault that we have a $9.4-billion deficit this year,” Phillips says. “We just want to bring it to the public’s attention. It’s hard to understand because [Smith] only made that one big announcement and we really haven’t heard much more from her about them.”

Phillips says she finds worries about immigrants confusing when, in 2024, the province was trying to bring more immigrants to Alberta.

“We needed more citizens and [Smith] had grand plans to double the population of Alberta to 10 million by 2030,” she says. “And then it seems kind of weird that two years later, we’re saying that we’ve got too many people here and they’re not pulling their weight.”

The province has also put forward Bill 26, the Immigration Oversight Act, which is meant to give the government more provincial oversight of immigration and reduce mistreatment of newcomers.

“Bill 26 would establish registry requirements for employers of temporary foreign workers and new licensing requirements for foreign worker recruiters and immigration consultants,” says the Alberta government.

If passed, employers will need to register with the province before accessing federal programs like the labour market impact assessment.

The bill would prohibit certain practices used by employers, foreign worker recruiters, and immigration consultants and would establish powers to investigate and penalize anyone caught contravening the prohibitions.

The Raging Grannies rally is happening on the sidewalks of 13th Street North and 18th Avenue North Friday from noon to 1:00 p.m.

Phillips says it is open to anyone interested in supporting the cause.

“We’ll have posters of course, we’ll have our Raging Grannies banner which let’s everyone know what we’re about and when we’re out and about, and we’ll take it from there,” Phillips says. “We just want to make people aware in our community of some of these issues that they don’t realize the importance of.”

Canvassers for the Water Not Coal citizens’ petitions will also be attending the rally, as they did last week, to collect signatures for their petition.

by Nathaniel Leigh

Raging Grannies Street Rally protests immigration referendum questions

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