Thank you for having me.
Good morning, Chair and honourable members of the Standing Committee on Citizenship and Immigration. My name is Landon Johnston. I'm the elected city councillor for Ward 14 in Calgary.
I appear today not as a representative of the City of Calgary but as a Canadian citizen, as an Albertan and as someone who has seen first-hand the pressure our communities face.
I'm here to speak to the budgetary and service impacts on municipalities and provinces of any forced redistribution of asylum seekers going from Quebec to Alberta and Calgary. I will also offer a brief comparison of supports for low-income residents and newcomers between our jurisdictions.
Calgary's fair entry program is a low-income subsidy that helps residents access essential services. Since 2018, applications have grown by 52%, while Calgary's population has grown by roughly 23%. Indications show that an increasing number of immigrants are using these services. Expanding the program to absorb significantly more users without additional revenue will strain transit operations and other services where subsidized costs already exceed revenues.
Provincially, Alberta's public schools are under severe pressure. Rapid population growth contributed to a damaging teacher strike in October 2025. The government invoked the notwithstanding clause to restore services and announced major new funding for complexity support teams in affected schools. A classroom audit revealed that 91,000 students in Alberta's public systems do not speak English at a level that supports reasonable expectations of academic success.
To address this, the province has raised its share of residential property taxes and borrowed to build and renovate schools. Forcibly adding more students who require intensive language and integration supports will inflame existing tensions and slow the integration of those already here.
Quebec, by contrast, has taken a different approach. In its 2025 budget process, the province implemented education cuts, including an initial $200-million reduction affecting the language and support programs, while school construction lagged. If Quebec's systems are truly at a breaking point and are requiring redistribution, why has there been so little domestic pressure on Quebec governments to expand capacity first?
My question for proponents of redistribution is straightforward: How can it be reasonable to ask Alberta and Calgary to absorb a greater share of asylum seekers when Quebec, at both provincial and municipal levels, has not matched the levels of investment and support that we provide to our own residents and newcomers?
Alberta has done and will continue to do its fair share for those already in our communities. Our clear ask is that other provinces meet the same standard. Build the schools, fund the transit subsidies, invest in language training and support integration at home. Do not expect Alberta to absorb the consequences of choices made elsewhere.
Thank you. I welcome your questions.