Temporary Residents Are Not a Strain on Public Resources, Despite Alberta’s Claims

Under Premier Danielle Smith, Alberta’s stance on immigration has taken a sharp U-turn. In 2023, Smith urged the Centre to double Alberta’s PNP allocation for 2024, 2025, and 2026. Now, she blames the federal government’s “unsustainable” immigration policies for the province’s fiscal deficit. She also questions government spending on public services for temporary residents. 

The Conservatives’ arguments portray non-permanent residents as people who take from our system, without giving anything in return. However, data doesn’t support these arguments.

How Many Temporary Residents Are There in Alberta? 

In July 2025, there were just over 292,000 non-permanent residents (NPRs) in the province. That is about 5.8% of Alberta’s population, which recently crossed five million. 

The majority (56%) were work permit holders. Study permit holders made up 17%. Another 7% held both work and study permits. The rest held other permits, were family members, or asylum claimants. 

The share of NPRs in Alberta peaked at 6% on January 1, 2025, and has been declining since. This aligns with new federal policies to bring temporary residents (TR) down to 5% of the country’s population by 2027. 

What Publicly Funded Services Can Temporary Residents Access? 

Not all temporary residents are eligible for publicly funded services. 

Under the Alberta Health Care Insurance Plan (AHCIP), non-permanent residents are only covered if intend to live in Alberta for at least 12 consecutive months on valid legal status and are physically present for at least 183 days. The 183-day requirement also makes them tax residents of Canada under CRA rules. 

Visitors and temporary residents staying in Canada for less than 12 months are not entitled to publicly funded services. They must pay out-of-pocket or get private health insurance. 

Children of work permit and study permit holders are entitled to free public schooling (K-12 for children aged 6 to 19). For post-secondary education, non-permanent residents and their children must pay international tuition fees. 

Temporary Residents and Healthcare Spending 

Alberta estimates that it costs about $100 million a year to provide insured health services to non-permanent residents. That comes down to $342 per temporary resident. 

The province noted this figure excludes hospital care. But research shows that temporary residents are less likely to use hospital services than the remaining population. 

The “healthy immigrant effect” has been well-documented. A 2023 study in the Canadian Journal of Public Health (CJPH) found that the hospitalization rate for temporary residents was almost half compared to permanent residents. 

This makes sense as temporary residents staying longer than six months or working in high-risk sectors are also required to pass medical screenings before arrival. Immigrants also tend to be younger and healthier than the general population. 

Moreover, temporary residents are more likely to return home to seek treatment if they become severely ill. This is called the “salmon effect”. 

So, the burden temporary residents put on the healthcare system is already low. Will charging them a fee for access to public healthcare reduce it further? Likely not. 

Universal healthcare encourages preventative care. If people need to pay for health services or provincial health coverage, they may delay primary care and show up later in emergency rooms with more advanced, expensive conditions.  

Also, Alberta relies on internationally trained workers to keep its hospitals running. Across Canada, the number of temporary foreign workers in healthcare grew from 3,200 in 2000 to 57,500 in 2022. Is it fair to expect temporary residents to provide care for Canadians without having free access to it themselves? And would that deter them from coming to Canada? 

Education Spending and Children of Temporary Residents 

Alberta estimates it will spend about $544 million in 2026 to educate children of temporary residents. This is based on 45,554 students and an average per-student cost of $12,000.  

$544 is only 5% of Alberta’s total K-12 education budget of $10.8 billion. More importantly, removing temporary resident children from classrooms will not reduce costs by 5%.  

In Alberta, the average class size is around 25 children. Less than two kids per class (1.25) are children of temporary residents. Since schools don’t need more classrooms or teachers for these two kids, education costs don’t increase in direct proportion to enrolment. 

There are other reasons why limiting free access to public schools for temporary residents is a bad idea. First, Canada is a signatory to the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child. This requires signatory states to provide free primary education to all children. Restricting primary education based on immigration status would put Canada in breach of its international obligations. 

Second, families who cannot afford fees may pull children out of school or delay enrolment. The long-term cost of under-educated children, whether they remain in Canada or not, is greater than the cost of educating them. 

Third, charging temporary residents to send their children to school may discourage them from coming to Canada. It will be discriminatory against people with children and will make Alberta less attractive to foreign talent. 

Fourth, school fees may discourage NPRs from bringing their families with them. Family separation goes against the objectives of the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act. 

Moreover, international students help fund Alberta’s post-secondary education system with higher tuition fees. So, is it fair to charge children of NPRs to attend K-12? 

What Temporary Residents Pay: How They Already Fund Public Services 

The political conversation conveniently skips over the fact that temporary residents already pay into public services in many ways. 

Income Tax, Deductions & Indirect Taxes 

Anyone, including NPRs, who spends more than 183 days in Canada in a year is considered a tax resident and must pay taxes on their global income in Canada. In 2020, 890,200 temporary residentsreported positive employment income on their tax returns. 

Plus, temporary residents pay indirect taxes (GST or PST/HST, depending on the province) on nearly everything they buy. Many NPRs also contribute to CPP and EI, often without drawing the full range of benefits. 

International Tuition Fee 

Between 2019 and 2023, Alberta cut funding for post-secondary education by more than half a billion dollars. This funding gap was bridged by international tuition fees. International undergraduates in Canada pay roughly $41,746 a year in tuition on average, compared with about $7,734 for domestic students. 

Other Spending 

Government of Canada estimated that international students contributed $37.3 billion in total spending in 2022 (including tuition, housing, travel, and other spending). Their GDP contribution was 1.2 per cent of the national economy. Student spending also supported about 361,230 jobs and generated around $7.4 billion in tax revenue. Similar spending patterns apply to work permit holders and other NPRs. 

Adding It All Up 

The argument that non-permanent residents, who make up 5.8% of the population, are causing fiscal strain simply does not hold up. 

Temporary residents eligible for publicly funded services in Alberta are also likely taxpayers. They pay income tax, sales tax, and significantly higher post-secondary tuition. NPRs use fewer health resources, are younger, and fill critical gaps in Alberta’s labour force. 

The data does not support the claim that non-permanent residents are taking from the system without giving anything back. If anything, it shows just how much Canada relies on temporary residents. 

So, when temporary residents contribute to the economy, why should they be entitled to fewer public services?