In 2012, a refugee claimant in Saskatoon was diagnosed with cancer. The federal government ruled he was not eligible to receive life-saving chemotherapy drugs.
Saskatchewan premier Brad Wall sharply criticized the feds’ stance.
“It’s unbelievable that some of the decisions that have been taken federally are having this impact on people who are clearly the most vulnerable, refugees who are obviously fleeing something quite terrible – that’s why they’re refugees,” Wall said.
“This is the kind of country we are,” Wall said. “You cover it.” And in the face of Ottawa’s refusal, Saskatchewan did cover it.
Anti-immigration questions passed the recent Alberta referendum by small margins. While the motivation behind the questions smells (very) strongly of racism, the result isn’t necessarily as nefarious. Many people who cast Yes votes are fair-minded, and racism was not what motivated their ballots.
Do you support “sustainable” levels of immigration? Of course, who wants unsustainable levels of anything? Should newcomers be charged a “reasonable” fee for access to Alberta services? Sure, I guess, as long as it’s reasonable…
While racism is an undeniable reality, many of the Yes votes were the result of these slanted and manipulative questions. But the narrow vote is enough to give the provincial government the cover it needs to indulge mean-spirited people within their party and create discriminatory policies that will ultimately harm Alberta.
“People are going to want to come here, and we want to embrace them,” Danielle Smith said in 2023. And she was right. A strong economy needs people — workers, consumers, entrepreneurs, investors. And immigration is one of the most reliable job-creating measures there is.
At that time Smith was talking about her fantasy of doubling the province’s population in 25 years. It was far from realistic — unsustainable, one might say — but it was exciting talk.
I suspect Smith knows full well that immigration creates jobs, and that our difficulty in managing population growth in Alberta comes from a lack of foresight at all levels of government.
There’s a story of a corporate boss who needed a “fall guy” to take responsibility for the organization’s failures.
“I never said this was your fault,” the boss said as he fired the hapless employee. “I said I’m blaming you.”