Alberta Premier Danielle Smith is floating the idea of charging temporary residents a $1,900 fee for access to public health care.
The figure comes as Albertans will vote in the Oct. 19 referendum on charging certain non-permanent residents a “reasonable fee or premium” for access to Alberta’s health care and education systems.
“I gave you the idea of what we’re looking at … $1,900 per person,” Smith said Tuesday, referring to comparable health-care premiums charged by the United Kingdom.
In the U.K., temporary workers pay a premium before arriving in the country in order to access health care: about $1,450 per year for students and about $1,950 per year for all visa and immigration applications from people over 18 years of age.
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When asked about the potential $1,900 fee, Alberta NDP Leader Naheed Nenshi called Smith “out of touch,” adding that he believes the potential fee distracts from the UCP government’s “failure with the health care system.”
“Her math doesn’t make sense either because, let’s remember, the temporary workers pay taxes,” he said.
“So if [Smith] says that every temporary worker, who pays the same taxes as every other Albertan, is sucking out money from the health care system, guess what? That means every Albertan is sucking money out of the health care system.”
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Smith made her comments as part of a fireside chat Tuesday with Calgary Chamber of Commerce president and CEO Deborah Yedlin. She asked the premier about the potential fee creating an additional cost burden on businesses when it comes to recruiting and retaining employees.
“I guess that’s the question: is $1,900 — for the business to take on that fee — is that going to make or break your business? If it is, you’re probably hiring into a low-skilled profession and we want those low-skill jobs to go to youth employment,” Smith responded.
“But if you’re hiring a high-skill worker and we’re asking them to pay $1,900 to pay for their own health care, if that’s a make or break, I don’t know … I’d need to have to be persuaded of that.”
Speaking to reporters after the chat, Yedlin cautioned that the fee is not necessarily going to make businesses more competitive in Alberta.
“That’s an extra cost on the worker or the business. And to be honest, that adds to the cost structure that businesses are already dealing with as they have [faced rising supply chain costs], energy prices, etcetera.”
“A low-skilled worker, obviously, is not going to be making the same wage as a software engineer. And so that’ll be harder for them to support that extra cost. Their employer will probably have to do that instead,” Yedlin said.
“And if that is someone who’s in the hospitality sector, those are tough businesses and they have very thin margins and they need to be able to access the labour that they need to run their businesses.”
In the event a fee or premium imposed on temporary residents is made legislation, it is unclear whether it would apply to current temporary residents who already have free access to public health care, or only to new temporary residents to Alberta.
Finance Minister Jason Nixon said there would be consultations before a decision is made on whether or not current temporary residents in Alberta would avoid the fee.
The government has started to look at how it may implement future legislation, but it would likely not be implemented until after the 2027 provincial election, according to Nixon.
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During the fireside chat, Smith explained, “Here’s how we look at it is somebody who’s made a commitment to be an Albertan and a Canadian for a lifetime as a permanent resident — they’re going to be a lifetime taxpayer. They’re entitled to the same programs as everybody else as a citizen.”
“But if somebody’s here temporarily, then they really should pay their own way.”
Albertans head to the polls on Oct. 19.
