Loud cheers for mass deportations and Alberta separation were the peaks of an otherwise tame and quiet town hall for Premier Danielle Smith’s Alberta Next Panel in Lloydminster.
Smith’s panel, which is touring the province to hear from the public on ways to shield the province from federal overreach, drew a friendly crowd of about 350 to a public recreation centre Wednesday night.
The panel’s pre-selected topics, which range from asking Albertans if they would support creating a provincial pension plan to supporting changes to the Canadian constitution, were easily approved by the crowd.
Some said Smith needed to just get to work already.
“I’d like to change all these questions instead of ‘should Alberta’, to Alberta should,” said Rick Strankman, a former provincial legislature member who served under the Wildrose Party banner when Smith was leader.
“It’s high time, ladies and gentlemen, that we stood up.”
The loudest cheers weren’t heard, however, until the panel reached the topic of immigration and its proposal to create a new provincial system that would withhold social services from immigrants who weren’t approved.
One speaker, who didn’t identify herself, said her family is looking to leave Canada over Ottawa’s immigration policies.
The woman asked Smith to negotiate with United States President Donald Trump to create an asylum system for people like her.
The next speaker then asked Smith if the panel’s proposal would include a mass deportation effort, a suggestion that also garnered major cheers from the crowd.
Smith, in response, said her plan was to see how many people leave after their permits expire, but she didn’t think immigration to Alberta had reached the point of deportations “just yet.”
“We have to just monitor on a case-by-case basis,” Smith said.
“Let’s stop the problem and then let’s see whether or not over a period of time those who are here can be absorbed and we can get everybody working to the level of their ability.”
Smith also said, in response to a woman who wanted immigration deterred because her grandchildren are struggling to find jobs, that her government plans to announce a new policy next week to address youth unemployment.
She said the province is also asking employers to reduce their reliance on the temporary foreign worker program — a program Smith acknowledged was advantageous for business owners.
“But we are cutting ourselves off if we don’t give that child, that kid, a first job [because] then they don’t get their second job, and the third job, and their fourth job,” Smith said.
“We’ve got to reset and make sure that our young people are taken care of.”
As in past panel events, straw polls done after each topic showed overwhelming support for each of the panel’s six proposals. Only two hands shot up in disagreement when it came to immigration.
The enthusiastic support shown to Smith’s panel followed a similar turnout in Fort McMurray the night before and at past events in Edmonton and Red Deer.
Some protesters did show up in Lloydminster.
About two dozen people lined the halls of the recreation centre before the event started with signs criticizing Smith’s push for a provincial pension plan, her recent move to make Albertans pay out of pocket for COVID-19 vaccines this fall, and other issues.
One protester, Colleen Henning, told The Canadian Press she was there to make sure Smith knew not everyone signed off on the panel’s proposals.
“She’s trying to make issues where there are not issues,” said Henning, a resident of Vermilion, about 60 kilometres west of Lloydminster.
Henning said Smith was stoking separatist desire and bending to the more extreme factions of her United Conservative Party base.
“[People] don’t want many of the things the extremists in her party want, but she just has to keep trying to play to her base so that she can stay in power.”
Smith’s panel will travel to Medicine Hat next week, which will be the first of five town halls scheduled throughout September.
Will Alberta Next panel result in a plan, or just another outlet for frustration?
