Before You Vote: Eligibility for Social Services
A Nonprofit’s Guide to Alberta’s October Referendum: Deciding who can access health care, education, and other services.
We explore Question 2 in our series breaking down the 2026 Alberta Referendum.
What the Government is Asking
Our last post examined Alberta’s role in immigration. Now, we’re turning to a question about who is eligible for publicly funded services in Alberta. The second question on the ballot reads:
“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?”
Voters will be asked to choose yes or no.
A ‘Yes’ vote signals public support for the Alberta government to change eligibility criteria for health care, education, and social services. The government is not required to act on these changes.
A ‘No’ vote signals a lack of support for the Alberta government to pursue these changes. The government is still legally entitled to act on it.
The criteria for an ‘Alberta approved immigration status’ governing eligibility for provincial programs and services in Alberta has not been defined for the referendum. Creating a new status that regulates immigration at the federal level – and that could be recognized nationally – would require negotiations with the federal government.
Visit the Government of Alberta’s website on the referendum here.
Why the Government Has Proposed This Change
In its referendum website, the provincial government points to a sharp rise in newcomers arriving through federal immigration policy as the driver behind this question. The Province argues this growth has outpaced Alberta’s capacity to deliver core services, pointing to longer wait times for health care, larger class sizes in schools, and rising cost pressures across the social service system as evidence of that strain.
Within this context, the Government of Alberta is proposing to limit free access to provincially funded programs for non-permanent residents, framing the change as a way to make Alberta’s services more sustainable, accessible, and affordable for Albertans over the long term.
Cost is a central part of the government’s case: it estimates that delivering social services to non-permanent residents currently costs taxpayers more than $1 billion per year, a figure it points to as justification for who is eligible for these programs.
Who is the question referring to?
Question 2 asks if anyone who is not a Canadian citizen, permanent resident, or “individual with an Alberta-approved immigration status” should be eligible for services. The latter is not yet defined, but those who might find themselves not eligible for services could include:
Temporary residents, who are admitted into Canada for a fixed time with work or study permits, or as a visitor. This is a legal immigration status administered by Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC).
Non-permanent residents (NPR), which is a broader term drawn from Statistics Canada’s population counts rather than IRCC’s immigration status categories. It includes temporary residents as defined above, plus asylum claimants – people who have made a refugee claim but whose status hasn’t been finalized. Because the government uses the term NPR in the referendum questions, this is what our analysis will follow.
Individuals without Alberta-approved immigration status, which is currently an undefined term - we don’t yet know who would and wouldn’t qualify. If this status would refer only to eligibility, the change could be made through provincial legislation. A nationally recognized status that regulates immigration at the federal level would require negotiations with the federal government.
261,031 non-permanent immigrants living in Alberta as of April 1 2026
33,000 skilled temporary workers already living in Canada will transition to permanent residency in 2026-27, as part of a federal government initiative to reduce Canada's temporary population to less than 5% between 2026 and 2028
For Nonprofits
Many nonprofit organizations work directly with newcomers who have non-permanent immigration status, such as international students, temporary foreign workers, refugee claimants, and their families. Nonprofits support these newcomers by providing services such as childcare, education supports, housing supports, food security programs, settlement services, and building community connections.
Without a clear definition of an “Alberta-approved immigration status,” it is difficult to know which non-permanent residents would be affected by changes to eligibility, and how.
The government's case for a ‘yes’ vote suggests the changes could affect eligibility for health care, education, and other social services. However, "other social services" is not defined in the referendum materials, making it difficult to predict which programs or supports could be affected. If your organization delivers provincially funded services, changes to eligibility rules could alter who is able to access them and how they are administered.
Depending on how restrictions are designed, nonprofits could face new barriers for the people they support and new responsibilities around navigating eligibility.
The question doesn’t address what happens to people outside of the ‘approved’ category: where NPRs who have not been approved by the government will go to access health care or where their children can access education. When people cannot access these essential, publicly funded services, their needs do not disappear. Instead, they resurface elsewhere - often at the doors of community organizations, emergency services, families, and employers, and often at a higher cost.
About Eligibility for Provincially Funded Programs
Eligibility today isn’t set by one overarching law. Each program sets its own rules through its own legislation, regulations, and policy. A temporary resident may qualify for one program and not another.
Many of the people who could be affected by eligibility changes – including temporary residents, and their families, on work and study permits – currently contribute to the provincial tax base if they earn an income in Canada and, under existing rules, can access certain provincially-funded programs.
Here’s how that plays out.
Did you know?
The federal Canada Health Act does not require provinces to insure temporary residents. For that reason, Provinces across Canada treat temporary resident coverage differently. Some impose multi-month waiting periods, some exclude certain categories, such as international students. For example, Ontario international students are covered by mandatory university health plans instead.
Health Care:
Temporary residents may be eligible for Alberta Health Care Insurance Plan (AHCIP) coverage if they establish residency (buy or rent a home), intend to live in Alberta for at least 12 consecutive months, and hold a valid entry document from federal immigration authorities (IRCC or CBSA). A temporary resident, such as a visitor, who doesn’t qualify for AHCIP can still access Alberta health services, but they would pay out of pocket or rely on private insurance to cover the cost.
Education:
The Education Act sets out who can access education in the province. A child who, as of September 1, is between the ages of 6-19, is a resident of Alberta, and has a parent who is a resident of Canada is entitled to access an education program. The Act defines a ‘resident of Canada’ as someone who is lawfully entitled to be or remain in Canada and who is living and ordinarily present in Alberta. An ‘Alberta approved immigration status’, as proposed in Question 2 could change which children meet these criteria.
Alberta’s public-school boards already have the authority to charge tuition to international students whose parents are not residents of Canada. Tuition is capped at the school board’s actual cost of enrolling the student. For reference, the Edmonton Public School system operates an international student program, and charges a tuition fee of $13,500 CAD per school year.
Non-Permanent Residents Access to Public Education
Alberta’s ‘resident student’ definition is currently being tested. Temporary-status enrollment has nearly quadrupled since 2021, and school divisions are now requiring immigration paperwork to confirm eligibility – potentially leaving thousands of students’ school access uncertain as residency permits expire. In response, Edmonton public trustees and the Alberta School Boards Association have both called for the change to guarantee school access regardless of immigration status.
Other provinces address this directly. Ontario’s Education Act and British Columbia’s education system finds that students living in the province are entitled to education, regardless of their or their parents immigration status.
Other social services may also be affected, though the province has not specified which ones.
How Does a Law Get Made?
If the Government chooses to introduce a law to change eligibility for services and programs, the government would introduce a bill in the Legislature, which moves through several readings, debate, and committee review before royal assent. Much of the detail – definitions, exemptions, timelines – would then be set through regulations.
The referendum is the clearest single moment to signal where you stand, but the decisions that affect the sector most, like how ‘Alberta approved status’ is defined and who’s exempt, happen at the legislation stage, where there may be opportunities to engage.
How Nonprofits Can Get Involved
Interested in learning more about how you and your organization can get involved? See our post on the rules of engaging with the referendum, so that you and your organization can advocate responsibly.
Making an Informed Vote
The Government of Alberta has shared its own resources setting out its position; we encourage you to read those alongside a range of other sources before you decide.
Stay tuned for the next post. If you have any questions, reach out to us - policy@thenonprofitchamber.org