Carney isn’t ruling out a Quebec-style immigration deal for Alberta

OTTAWA — Prime Minister Mark Carney did not rule out Wednesday giving Alberta more authority over immigration along the lines of a deal Ottawa signed with Quebec in the early 1990s.

When reporters outside the weekly Liberal caucus meeting on Parliament Hill asked the prime minister if Ottawa could reach an agreement on immigration powers with Alberta similar to the one with Quebec, Carney replied in French, “We’ll see.”

He added that “Quebec is distinct” because of its culture and language and said Ottawa will also talk with the other provinces about immigration levels.

Following the failure of the Meech Lake accord, the federal government signed an agreement with Quebec in 1991 which granted the province the power to set its own economic immigration targets.

Carney’s comments come after just over a million Albertans voted yes on a referendum question calling for more provincial control over immigration policy to reduce the number of newcomers to “sustainable levels.”

About 53 per cent of voters said yes to that question.

In English, Carney said Ottawa will “not budge” from its goal of making its immigration intake numbers sustainable and the federal government is “getting them to that level now.”

“We have been having discussions with the provinces’ first ministers around getting immigration, first and foremost, to the right levels. This government has retaken control … of immigration,” the prime minister said.

“I just want to underscore we will not budge from overall levels that are sustainable. We’re getting them to that level now.”

Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre said on Tuesday the Liberals have lost control of immigration and that provinces should have more control over their intake numbers since they must deliver services for newcomers.

“Recently, the prime minister went to The New York Times, a foreign newspaper, to tell them that he wants to increase immigration. That too is a mistake,” Poilievre said in Calgary on Tuesday.

“It shows he is totally out of touch. Immigration is totally out of control.”

Carney told the U.S. newspaper last month that the next question his government faces is when to “resume some controlled increase in the population.”

The federal Conservatives sent out a fundraising email to party supporters this week saying immigration should be “dramatically reduced,” not “ramped back up.”

Immigration Minister Lena Diab did not respond to reporters’ questions when she walked into the weekly Liberal caucus meeting Wednesday, but the federal immigration levels are due for an update by next month.

The federal government had set out plans to increase the national target for permanent residents to 500,000 a year. But Ottawa changed course and slashed the targets in its 2024-2025 plan.

The most recent plan sets out targets of 385,000 permanent resident admissions this year, 370,000 next year and the same figure for 2028.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 21, 2026.

— With files from David Baxter

Kyle Duggan, The Canadian Press