The Alberta government says eliminating diversity, equity and inclusion from public sector hiring will make sure employers are using a merit-based system.
But is it addressing a genuine problem that needs solving? Or is it, as the Opposition NDP argues, political posturing? CBC’s West of Centre spoke to experts and politics watchers who are split on the answer.
In a news conference last month, Premier Danielle Smith and Justice Minister Mickey Amery said the government’s merit-based hiring bill is going to make the process more fair while ensuring the best-qualified candidates are selected.
NDP Leader Naheed Nenshi has called the move a doubling down on the “culture war” that doesn’t address the priorities of voters.
But the premier’s executive director, Bruce McAllister, posted on social media to describe scenarios where candidates are chosen for their race or sexuality rather than experience.
“It’s racist. It is discrimination against straight people, white people, Chinese people, Christians,” part of the post reads.
Diversity, equity and inclusion is a framework that aims to promote fair treatment and participation for people of all walks of life. It’s commonly referred to as DEI or EDI for short.
The Alberta bill would target hiring policies like one that was well-documented at the University of Alberta. It said if two candidates were equally qualified for a position, the hiring panels should favour the person from a historically underrepresented group.
The university changed the policy last spring after a provincial panel recommended post-secondary institutions adopt a culture of greater neutrality.
The bill is in addition to the “Peterson law,” also introduced by Smith and Amery last year, which eliminated mandatory DEI training from regulated professions. It was inspired by the 2022 sanctioning of author and academic Jordan Peterson by the psychology regulator in Ontario.
A large-scale walking back of DEI commitments made headlines in January 2025 when U.S. President Donald Trump signed sweeping executive orders against equity programs. A number of major private American companies followed suit with their own rollbacks.
Two years later, says Calgary-based DEI consultant Hagir Sail, there is a MAGA effect of quiet rollbacks happening — but plenty of resistance to DEI is homegrown.
“People, when they feel that life has become more difficult or don’t have the same opportunities they used to have, they start pointing at the other,” Sail said.
Sail pushes back against the Albera government’s narrative that DEI means lower standards in hiring decisions.
“It’s irresponsible to think that biases and systemic barriers don’t play a role in keeping people at a lower place than they are.”
But is scrapping DEI something that most Canadians support? It depends how you ask the question.
A Leger poll in 2024 suggested support has softened for DEI hiring in Canada. When asked if companies should take cultural background into account when hiring, 57 per cent of Canadian respondents said no, 28 per cent said yes.
But then when you ask Canadians more generally if they think the policies have a net positive impact on society or if DEI at work is a good thing, over 50 per cent say yes. That’s from 2025 polling from Abacus and the Environics Institute.
The Alberta Union of Provincial Employees has said that DEI hiring practices were never used in a way that would be unfair or encourage bias.
Leela Aheer, a former UCP deputy leader and cabinet minister, spoke to CBC West of Centre host Kathleen Petty. Aheer says DEI helps recruit the best people and this legislation is out of touch with voters who want unity. (Diane Yanko/CBC)
Leela Aheer, a former deputy leader and cabinet minister in Jason Kenney’s UCP government, said rather than addressing a problem worth solving, the bill sends a worrisome message to some Albertans.
“Now you’re campaigning on the backs of vulnerable people,” Aheer said. “And when it lands right after the referendum that told immigrants that their place here was up for a vote, what does that do to us as a province?”
Erika Barootes, a former principal secretary to Danielle Smith, said DEI policies were introduced to solve a problem but have ended up becoming one.
“We had good intentions, but that pendulum swung so damn far that now it’s about correcting it.”
“And a lot of people are just like, ‘Thank goodness, someone’s doing it.’”
Smith isn’t alone in challenging the policy — freshly elected premiers coast to coast are showing a similar resistance to DEI.
Quebec’s Paul St-Pierre Plamondon has been critical of ‘wokeism,’ calling it anti-democratic. B.C. Conservative Lorne Doerkson’s platform promised to “restore merit-based hiring across the public sector.”
The debate has also been playing out quietly at the federal level. The standing committee on science and research recently released a report recommending that DEI not be used in awarding federal research funding and that demographic quotas or targets get banned.
One of the people called as a witness to the committee is Dave Snow, an associate professor of political science at the University of Guelph. Snow said DEI in university research has gone too far, taking on what he describes as an activist tone that comes at the expense of research excellence.
But Snow said he doesn’t anticipate sweeping changes in the federal public service or academia.
“I think the commitment to EDI is really strong and I think if anything…the Trump administration’s really strong attacks on EDI has hardened the resolve of Canadian universities.”
As for the Alberta bill, once it receives royal assent and comes into force it will change the way provincial public agencies are able to hire: including Crown corporations, post-secondary institutions, school boards and municipalities.
