Alberta minister wants 'illegal immigrants' to be counted in federal targets

OTTAWA — Alberta Immigration Minister Joseph Schow says he wants Ottawa to stop turning a blind eye to illegal immigration in Canada and have an honest conversation about the strain he says it’s putting on infrastructure and public services.

“I’m not going to sugarcoat it, we believe there’s 500,000 illegal immigrants currently spread across Canada and these individuals are benefitting from taxpayer-funded services.” said Schow.

“The federal government is choosing to disregard this number and that’s a real problem.”

Schow, who is also Alberta’s minister of jobs, economy and trade, is calling on federal officials to account for the estimated number of undocumented migrants in the country when setting next year’s immigration targets.

“These illegal migrants must be taken into account, as every province is feeling the pressure of Ottawa’s mismanagement of the immigration system,” said Schow.

Federal officials have recently acknowledge the need to slow down the rate of immigration after welcoming millions of newcomers in the years following the COVID-19 pandemic.

An immigration levels plan recently put forward by Ottawa projects a 19 per cent reduction in temporary arrivals and eight per cent drop in permanent resident admissions over the next three years.

Prime Minister Mark Carney has also promised to cap Canada’s non-permanent resident numbers at below five per cent of the population.

Schow says these efforts are likely to fall short of what’s needed, with federal officials still flying blind on the question of illegal immigration.

“If they’re leaving out this huge chunk of data, how can they set real targets?” said Schow.

The exact number of undocumented migrants in Canada is unknown, but Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada disclosed in a briefing note last year that the number could be as high as 500,000.

Some 114,373 irregular border crossers petitioned to stay in Canada between February 2017 and June 2025, according to the federal government.

Schow said the lack of hard numbers on illegal immigration is all the more reason for Ottawa to pump the brakes on its intake of migrants.

“The fact that they don’t have an exact, or close to exact, number just shows again how badly they’ve lost control of the system,” said Schow.

A recent poll found that 48 per cent of Canadians think mass deportations are necessary to curb the number of people living illegally in the country.

Schow wouldn’t give an estimate of the number of people living illegally in Alberta but did point out that the province has led the country in both interprovincial migration and overall population growth in recent years.

Alberta’s population grew by about 200,000 last year and the province has continued to see robust gains into 2025 .

Schow said that the demographic weight is crushing the Albertan dream of upward mobility.

“People around the world rightly see us as a beacon of hope and opportunity … and for that exact reason, we have to be mindful that we’re growing our population in a way that’s strategic.”

The office of federal Immigration Minister Lena Diab didn’t respond to an email about Schow’s comments by press time.

Immigration is one of six topics the Alberta government is putting forward to residents as part of the Alberta Next Panel , struck to consider tactics for enhancing the province’s sovereignty.

One idea under discussion is withholding provincially-funded social services from foreign nationals who haven’t been vetted by the province.

Schow wouldn’t discuss the panel’s work but said he supports more provincial control over immigration.

“They’ve lost the trust of Canadians, and I’m not sure they can get it back, so I’m making the call for the federal government to involve the provinces more when it comes to immigration,” said Schow.

National Post

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