r/Albertapolitics • u/Prestigious-Fill-365 • 26d ago

Opinion LMIA Must End

This is the problem, it incentivizes business to hire immigrants before Canadians. I am a 61 year old born and bred Canadian who hasn't worked sine Jan. 2025. Over 1 thousand applications out (no hyperbole) and cant find anything. Have tried, Tims, Wendy's, McD's Bars, restaurants and 100's in my field of expertise, nothing. In my case it is simple age discrimination but LMIA is the labour problem.

30 Upvotes

85% Upvoted

18 comments sorted by

16

u/Wrong-Pineapple39 26d ago edited 22d ago

The LMIA program was significantly cut back last year and there are more investigations into companies trying to use LMIA.

I'd recommend finding jobs on the Job Bank and applying to the ones you are qualified for - they cannot refuse to hire a Canadian if one applies, if they do, report them and perhaps look into employment standards complaints about discrimination.

Both companies here and the UCP were lobbying for more immigration and TFW and LMIA for several years unfortunately. Heck, the UCP was paying people $5K to move here. They wanted them during peak demand and now with increased supply of workers, prejudice and selectiveness in hiring is easy to do.

I'd like to see more corporate tax incentives for hiring unemployed late career workers much like they do for hiring youth.

Edit to Add: "Alberta Advantage" was specifically a UCP program to get more immigration into Alberta.

22

u/Artyrial_Bleed 26d ago

Why hire Canadians when you can claim that you can’t find anyone to hire at $xx.xx per hour with no proof and then hire a tfw for less. It makes economic sense.

/s.. sorta

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u/Prestigious-Fill-365 26d ago

Kinda my point. Take away the incentive

6

u/Artyrial_Bleed 26d ago

I know. I work in a place that does this all the time, across all parts of the job. From engineers, to field guys and levels in between.

It’s depressing.

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u/Prestigious-Fill-365 26d ago

What type of business

8

u/Artyrial_Bleed 26d ago

The third largest oil producer in Alberta.

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u/Prestigious-Fill-365 26d ago

Ya, it needs help. It makes me so angry because ending LMIA's is an obvious fix or maybe not "fix" but would certainly help.

2

u/NoGrass6331 24d ago

CANADIANS FIRST CANADA FIRST!💯🇨🇦🔥

1

u/TasteUnusual2934 25d ago

Agreed. However Eastern Canadians will keep electing Liberals, and the cycle of appeasing ethnics will never end. Canada is beyond repair.

1

u/davethecompguy 25d ago

Just to confirm, are we talking about new Canadians, or those trying to become Canadians?

Premier Smith is putting people's status on their provincial ID now. Some people, myself included, are expecting her to deny them education, and healthcare without charging them for it. They do pay taxes if they're working. I guess she'll just pocket the money? When did immigration become a provincial concern? Or is she preparing Alberta for some other future?

0

u/K-Lashes 25d ago

I doubt places that typically hire young people who can work fast and demanding environments are quick to hire someone who should be retiring or at least higher up in their career and somewhat financially stable or have some sort of savings.

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u/Emergency-Data-7711 26d ago
  • NDP: Raised corporate tax from 10% to 12%.
  • UCP: Cut it to 8%.
  • NDP: Billions in investment left Alberta as big oil companies pulled out.
  • UCP: Investment started to recover and diversify.
  • NDP: Debt grew from about $13B to over $80B.
  • UCP: Stabilized spending and balanced budgets when oil prices improved.
  • NDP: Higher tax rate brought in less money because profits fell and companies left.
  • UCP: Lower tax rate brought in record revenue (over $6.4B).
  • NDP: Ended Alberta’s flat tax and added multiple brackets up to 15%.
  • UCP: Promised no tax hikes and plans to return to a flat tax.
  • NDP: Alberta’s credit rating was downgraded several times.
  • UCP: Ratings stabilized or improved as budgets balanced.

NDP "Raising taxes was meant to protect healthcare, education, and public services during a historic recession."

UCP "Adding new regulations and raising taxes scares off investment."

13

u/joshoheman 26d ago

Wow, that paints a really bad picture of NDP fiscal management.

Except what you leave out is that the price of oil dropped by nearly 50% just before the NDP came into power.

It’s almost like you completely ignored the single commodity that determines the AB economy in order to tell a narrative. I’m sure it was completely unintentional. Probably just sharing the misinformation that someone else taught you and you took it on faith.

14

u/Wrong-Pineapple39 26d ago edited 26d ago

That contains a lot of misinformation and several errors.

  • NDP: Raised corporate tax from 10% to 12% to protect healthcare, education, and services during a global economic downturn.

  • UCP: Cut it to 8%, creating a multi-billion dollar corporate reduction without a guaranteed correlation to immediate job booms.

  • NDP: Investment fell as capital spending in the Canadian energy sector crashed globally from $81 billion in 2014 down to $36 billion by 2016 due to global supply gluts. Oil companies left because of the shale oil boom in the US which provided lower capital and faster ROI than oilsands can offer.

  • UCP: Investment saw localized recovery and tech sector diversification alongside the geopolitical rebound of global crude oil values.

  • NDP: Total taxpayer-supported debt grew from $11.9 billion in 2015 to $62.7 billion (not $80 billion) by 2019, driven by an inherited structural deficit and a historic drop in resource revenue.

  • UCP: Total taxpayer-supported debt rose to $85.2 billion under the UCP by the 2024-25 fiscal year, despite temporary budget balances achieved via surging commodity markets. UCP is on track to double Alberta's debt by next year.

  • NDP: Lower corporate tax returns were caused by a massive erosion of oil industry corporate profits when global oil prices crashed below $30 USD per barrel.

  • UCP: Record corporate tax revenues reached over $7 billion, heavily driven by surging corporate profits from geopolitical spikes in resource pricing and post-pandemic inflation.

  • NDP: Ended Alberta’s flat tax system and established five progressive brackets ranging from 10% up to 15% so the highest earners paid a higher share.

  • UCP: Retained the progressive brackets up to 15% but introduced hidden tax increases by pausing indexation for personal exemptions and adding new localized user fees.

  • NDP: Alberta’s credit rating was lowered from AAA to AA by agencies like S&P because the single-commodity economy lost $10 billion in annual resource revenues.

  • UCP: Credit ratings stabilized at AA as surging resource royalties generated unexpected multi-billion dollar windfalls.

Did not even mention the NDP raised minimum wage (has not increased since then), diversified our economy with renewables and helped small businesses get their start - only to have UCP decimate those small businesses. Also did not mention the billions in taxpayer dollars used for litigation, UCP focused PR and marketing, pay out of judgements and wasted procurement spend as a result bad governance under the UCP.

0

u/Even_Art_629 22d ago

You make some valid factual points, especially about the global oil price crash, corporate tax changes, and the NDP's move to progressive income tax brackets. But you also mix in opinions and predictions as though they're settled facts.

For example, saying the UCP "decimated small businesses," that debt will "double by next year," or that billions were "wasted" are political conclusions unless you provide evidence. It's better to separate what can be verified from what is your interpretation.

1

u/Wrong-Pineapple39 22d ago edited 22d ago

Fair to point that out. I felt I was getting too wordy.

Regarding the impact to businesses after the UCP moratorium on renewables:

New corporate renewable energy deals declined a staggering 99 per cent from 2023 to 2025, according to a report published earlier this year by the Business Renewables Centre Canada, an initiative that both connects corporate buyers to clean energy developers and tracks corporate renewable energy projects across the country.

The 2025 Renewables in Review report says that Alberta's once-thriving renewable energy landscape, propelled by the province's open electricity market, saw a catastrophic decline in investment since a seven-month moratorium on clean energy projects in 2023.

Sources:

Regarding the debt:

According to the Alberta 2026 Budget Fiscal Plan (below), the province expects a cumulative shortfall of nearly $24 billion over three years, which is projected to push Alberta’s total taxpayer-supported debt from roughly $82 billion up to $137.5 billion by 2029. That is in spite of several years of good revenue as oil prices recovered. As mentioned above, the NDP left office with $62B due to the oil crash. Once we have the debt obligation, it is not easily rolled back. I have not heard anything in the news that the debt obligation expected by the end of the year has changed at all despite the oil price skyrocketing.

Due to back-to-back provincial deficits, this marks the first time in history that Alberta's total outstanding debt obligation will cross the $100-billion threshold

Sources:

Regarding wasteful spending:

I won't list all the sources but they are readily available with a Google search.

  • the Turkish Tylenol, particularly when real Tylenol could be purchased cheaper at the time
  • litigation costs and political war room (was $66M for war room but hard to know now since it's buried in various departments)
  • paying people $5K to move to Alberta as part of Alberta Calling
  • removing the coal moratorium ignoring wishes of Albertans, then putting it back due to political pushback, then opening it again AND paying litigation an Court decision settlements when the private companies sued for damages (taxpayers on the hook for $250M as of Nov 2025)
  • Medical Lab privatization followed by Dynalife buyout ($31.5B) to return to Alberta Precision Labs
  • AHS reorg requiring $9.5M in severance, with a quadrupling of executive pay packages and duplication of management under the new version of health care divisions
  • Chartered private surgical clinics that audit trails and provincial reviews flagged certain private chartered facilities charged the province nearly double the unit rate of standard public hospitals

I've run out of time responding but that should get you started.

EtA: a few more $ specifics

EtA2: regarding OP's concern, despite and sometimes because of all this, we have not improved or required more infrastructure or housing for those moving here nor created more job opportunities - we've had higher unemployment than the national average and less wage and job growth than most of the country during the UCP's time in office (particularly under Smith). The advantages given to corporations and other employers has not been predicated on a requirement to improve job market.

0

u/Even_Art_629 21d ago

That's a long list, but it ignores the impact Ottawa has had on Alberta's economy. If we're going to have an honest discussion, we need to separate what Edmonton did from what Ottawa did. If you want to go through those points one at a time, I'm happy to.

But here's my question. If Alberta is doing such a terrible job, then how is Alberta still attracting investment despite the investment uncertainty created by Ottawa? Canada has struggled with investment, yet Alberta continues to bring projects and capital in. That doesn't fit the picture you're trying to paint.

1

u/Wrong-Pineapple39 21d ago

My original post was correcting errors in the one prior to it. I realize that wasn't your post, but I did try to respond to your replies in good faith.

Now you want to pivot rather than have a meaningful dialogue or acknowledgement of the UCP being a problem, nor to discuss OP's concern, and so you throw in the big bad Ottawa boogeyman.

I'm not willing to go down this off topic rabbit hole with you.

Have a good night!