Alberta going after entrepreneurs and immigrants working as health-care professionals

Improving the Alberta Advantage Immigration Program

Changes to the Alberta Advantage Immigration Program (AAIP) will make it easier for in-demand workers and entrepreneurs to become permanent residents.

Alberta’s economy has momentum, and Alberta’s government is committed to further growth and diversification so the province remains the economic engine of Canada. In 2022, nearly 50,000 people from around the world chose Alberta as the place to invest, work and raise their families.

AAIP is an economic immigration program that enables Alberta to nominate qualified workers in in-demand sectors for permanent residency. By improving the program, Alberta will be more competitive in attracting skilled newcomers from across the world.

“Alberta is a land of opportunity. In our province, you can find the career you want, take home a strong and regular paycheque, and still spend time with family and friends. Not only do people around the world want to come here, we want them to come here to be a part of our communities and our prosperity, and help Alberta continue to grow and succeed.”

Danielle Smith, Premier

Alberta’s government is making five improvements to the AAIP that will help both businesses and international skilled workers.

Changes to the Rural Entrepreneur and Rural Renewal streams will help Alberta’s rural communities remain vibrant and grow. A lowered investment threshold of $100,000 for the Rural Entrepreneur Stream will will open the door to additional qualified entrepreneurs who wish to establish or purchase an existing business in participating rural Alberta communities. Removing the requirement for a letter from a settlement agency under the Rural Renewal Stream will help rural communities attract, recruit and welcome newcomers based on local needs.

“Bringing more workers needed in the province will be key to continuing to grow Alberta’s economy and meeting our labour shortages. These changes to AAIP show our commitment to making Alberta one of the best places in the world to put down roots, contribute positively to your community and be prosperous.”

Rajan Sawhney, Minister of Trade, Immigration and Multiculturalism

Alberta has the best front-line health care workers in the world and the province will work to have the right supports in place to ensure Albertans get the care they need when and where they need it. A new, dedicated pathway to attract medical professionals to Alberta means that up to 30 per cent of Alberta’s Express Entry Stream allocation in 2023 will be reserved for health-care professionals with an Alberta job offer from a health-care sector employer and who meet the requirements to work in one of the eligible health occupations.

Two more changes will see a new phone line that directly connects AAIP staff members with clients and collaboration with the federal Economic Mobility Pathways Pilot. Participating in this pilot will help refugees with the skills and qualifications needed in Canada to immigrate through existing economic programs.

“These policy changes are aimed squarely at filling needed skills gaps, boosting vibrancy in rural communities, and creating more economic opportunity for refugees. We applaud these moves to enhance economic immigration in a way that is responsive to specific provincial needs.”

Adam Legge, president, Business Council of Alberta

“From HV Global Immigration, we would like to thank Minister Rajan Sawhney for listening and proactively implementing reasonable changes to the AAIP. Apart from the other improvements, change in minimum investment at AAIP’s Rural Entrepreneur Stream would definitely help new and prospective immigrants to qualify for this program. This change will generate more revenue and create jobs for Albertans. Last, but not least, the new information phone line is going to be a big relief. Thanks once again Minister Sawhney for your hard work and listening to our ideas and solutions.”

Vivek Mahajan, co-founder & CEO, HV Global Immigration Ltd.

Quick facts

Alberta currently has about 100,000 job openings across the province.
Alberta is forecasting a cumulative job shortage of 33,100 workers by 2025 across several occupations, skill levels and sectors (source: Alberta’s Occupational Outlook, 2021-2030).
Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada sets AAIP’s annual nomination limits.
- Alberta recently received an increase in nominations:
  - 9,750 nominations in 2023
  - 10,140 nominations in 2024 (estimated)
  - 10,849 nominations in 2025 estimated)

Government of Alberta

This is a news release from the Government of Alberta.

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Alberta government should eliminate corporate welfare to generate benefits for Albertans

Published on May 2, 2024

Todayville

From the Fraser Institute

By Spencer Gudewill and Tegan Hill

Last November, Premier Danielle Smith announced that her government will give up to $1.8 billion in subsidies to Dow Chemicals, which plans to expand a petrochemical project northeast of Edmonton. In other words, $1.8 billion in corporate welfare.

And this is just one example of corporate welfare paid for by Albertans.

According to a recent study published by the Fraser Institute, from 2007 to 2021, the latest year of available data, the Alberta government spent $31.0 billion (inflation-adjusted) on subsidies (a.k.a. corporate welfare) to select firms and businesses, purportedly to help Albertans. And this number excludes other forms of government handouts such as loan guarantees, direct investment and regulatory or tax privileges for particular firms and industries. So the total cost of corporate welfare in Alberta is likely much higher.

Why should Albertans care?

First off, there’s little evidence that corporate welfare generates widespread economic growth or jobs. In fact, evidence suggests the contrary—that subsidies result in a net loss to the economy by shifting resources to less productive sectors or locations (what economists call the “substitution effect”) and/or by keeping businesses alive that are otherwise economically unviable (i.e. “zombie companies”). This misallocation of resources leads to a less efficient, less productive and less prosperous Alberta.
And there are other costs to corporate welfare.

For example, between 2007 and 2019 (the latest year of pre-COVID data), every year on average the Alberta government spent 35 cents (out of every dollar of business income tax revenue it collected) on corporate welfare. Given that workers bear the burden of more than half of any business income tax indirectly through lower wages, if the government reduced business income taxes rather than spend money on corporate welfare, workers could benefit.

Moreover, Premier Smith failed in last month’s provincial budget to provide promised personal income tax relief and create a lower tax bracket for incomes below $60,000 to provide $760 in annual savings for Albertans (on average). But in 2019, after adjusting for inflation, the Alberta government spent $2.4 billion on corporate welfare—equivalent to $1,034 per tax filer. Clearly, instead of subsidizing select businesses, the Smith government could have kept its promise to lower personal income taxes.

Finally, there’s the Heritage Fund, which the Alberta government created almost 50 years ago to save a share of the province’s resource wealth for the future.

In her 2024 budget, Premier Smith earmarked $2.0 billion for the Heritage Fund this fiscal year—almost the exact amount spent on corporate welfare each year (on average) between 2007 and 2019. Put another way, the Alberta government could save twice as much in the Heritage Fund in 2024/25 if it ended corporate welfare, which would help Premier Smith keep her promise to build up the Heritage Fund to between $250 billion and $400 billion by 2050.

By eliminating corporate welfare, the Smith government can create fiscal room to reduce personal and business income taxes, or save more in the Heritage Fund. Any of these options will benefit Albertans far more than wasteful billion-dollar subsidies to favoured firms.

Authors:

Spencer Gudewill

Policy Analyst, Fraser Institute

and

Tegan Hill

Associate Director, Alberta Policy, Fraser Institute

Alberta

Official statement from Premier Danielle Smith and Energy Minister Brian Jean on the start-up of the Trans Mountain Pipeline

Published on May 1, 2024

Government of Alberta

Alberta is celebrating an important achievement for the energy industry – the start-up of the twinned Trans Mountain pipeline. It’s great news Albertans and Canadians as this will welcome a new era of prosperity and economic growth. The completion of TMX is monumental for Alberta, since this will significantly increase our province’s output. It will triple the capacity of the original pipeline to now carry 890,000 barrels per day of crude oil from Alberta’s oil sands to British Columbia’s Pacific Coast.

We are excited that Canada’s biggest and newest oil pipeline in more than a decade, can now bring oil from Edmonton to tide water in B.C. This will allow us to get our energy resources to Pacific markets, including Washington State and California, and Asian markets like Japan, South Korea, China, and India. Alberta now has new energy customers and tankers with Alberta oil will be unloading in China and India in the next few months.

For Alberta this is a game-changer, the world needs more reliably and sustainably sourced Alberta energy, not less. World demand for oil and gas resources will continue in the decades ahead and the new pipeline expansion will give us the opportunity to meet global energy demands and increase North American and global energy security and help remove the issues of energy poverty in other parts of the world.

Analysts are predicting the price differential on Canadian crude oil will narrow resulting in many millions of extra government revenues, which will help fund important programs like health, education, and social services – the things Albertans rely on. TMX will also result in billions of dollars of economic prosperity for Albertans, Indigenous communities and Canadians and create well-paying jobs throughout Canada.

Our province wants to congratulate the Trans Mountain Corporation for its tenacity to have completed this long awaited and much needed energy infrastructure, and to thank the more than 30,000 dedicated, skilled workers whose efforts made this extraordinary project a reality. The province also wants to thank the Federal Government for seeing this project through. This is a great example of an area where the provincial and federal government can cooperate and work together for the benefit of Albertans and all Canadians.