Everyone lawfully in Alberta on Day 1 stays lawfully in Alberta. Every permit, permanent residence, study permit and work authorisation continues by deeming, and nobody re-applies for status they already hold. That is the first and largest thing this domain does, and it is done by statute rather than by administration.
Alberta already selects economic immigrants through its provincial nomination programme, so the selection function exists. What is new is everything downstream of selection that Canada does today: issuing status documents, deciding applications, running an independent appeal and refugee determination system, meeting Alberta's obligations to protected persons, and issuing travel documents that other states will accept. Passport issuance in particular is a machine and a supply chain rather than a policy — the document has to be accepted at a foreign border, which depends on standards Alberta must meet and recognition Alberta must obtain.
The domain does not reissue documents that already work. Canadian passports held by Albertans remain valid travel documents until they expire, and Alberta issues its own to people who need one, as they need one, rather than replacing three million documents on a deadline. A full reissue is carried as a contingency at zero recognition, because it becomes necessary only if Canadian documents cease to be honoured.
C$ millions, fiscal 2026-27 price base. A one-time cost, a recurring cost and a payment to a member of the public are different things and are never added together.
How the figure is built
C$59.8M a year of added running cost and C$196.7M one-time, of which C$72.0M is capital. Alberta already runs the Alberta Advantage Immigration Program, a working provincial selection capability that nominated 6,603 people in 2026 and holds a pool of about 36,255 expressions of interest at 25 August 2026. The immigration authority is built outward from it. What is genuinely new is visa and status determination at national scale, passport issuance, a protection claims tribunal, and international mobility arrangements.
The lines
| C$M | ||
|---|---|---|
| Alberta Immigration Authority (expanded AAIP) | 32.5 | 150-250 posts. Admission, status, permits, permanent residence |
| Immigration Enforcement unit | 22.5 | 80-150 posts. Delivered within the Alberta Sheriffs Police Service |
| Identity and travel document issuance | 4.3 | 30-60 posts. Years 1 to 3, rising to C$10-18M at equilibrium |
| Alberta Protection Claims Tribunal | 3.5 | 15-35 posts including part-time members |
| Full cost of the immigration function | 68.8 | |
| less already funded - AAIP administration | -9.0 | About 70 posts administering the existing nomination programme |
| ADDED RUNNING COST, a year | 59.8 | |
| Travel document production and verification | 40.0 | ICAO-compliant chip production and PKI; real procurement lead time |
| Immigration case management | 28.0 | Status and renewal for a stock of about 261,000 non-permanent residents at 1 April 2026 |
| Protection tribunal registry | 4.0 | Shared with other administrative tribunals |
| Capital | 72.0 | |
| Records acquisition and reconstruction | 45.0 | Status records, in-flight applications, biometrics and passport records held by Canada |
| Legal drafting and continuation legislation | 18.0 | Immigration statute, deeming provisions, commissioning of officers |
| Protection tribunal establishment | 6.0 | Standing chair, roster of part-time members |
| Programme management and assurance | 16.0 | 24-month stand-up |
| Contingency at 15% | 25.7 | |
| ONE-TIME TOTAL | 196.7 |
The people
| Posts | C$M | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| Cross-Border Mobility and Data-Sharing Office | 6 | 15-30 posts. Visa waivers, passport recognition, third-country agreements | |
| Recruitment and training | 14 | 408 permanent posts plus a 112-post conversion surge | |
| Complement carried | 408 permanent plus a 112-post conversion surge |
The complement for this domain is carried at domain level. A function-by-function split has not been established, and none is shown rather than one being constructed for presentation.
Comparators
| Figure | ||
|---|---|---|
| Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada, 2025-26 | 12,689 FTE and C$5,170M | At Alberta's population share that is about 1,549 posts. The build is a quarter of it |
| Immigration and Refugee Board | 2,450 FTE and C$345.4M for about 110,000 matters | Alberta receives 6.0% of national asylum claims, 92% of them made inland rather than at a port |
| Alberta Advantage Immigration Program | 6,603 nominations in 2026; a pool of about 36,255 at 25 August 2026 | A functioning provincial selection capability that most domains lack an equivalent of |
| Existing population to be converted | about 261,000 non-permanent residents at 1 April 2026, of whom 228,354 hold permits and 32,677 are asylum claimants, down from a 2025 peak near 296,000; plus an estimated 200,000 to 300,000 permanent residents who are not yet citizens, which is a population-share estimate rather than a published figure | The dominant Day 1 workload, handled by deeming permits to continue rather than adjudicating at once |
| Passport cost per document | a constructed C$30 to C$55 all-in, against a constructed Canadian equivalent of about C$170 | Built up from a reported 2025 e-passport contract at US$8.61 per unit over a 6.4 million run, which is a reported price rather than a verified one. The Canadian comparator is a fully loaded unit cost derived from a largely fee-recovered programme, not a published price. Both are constructed comparisons and indicate order of magnitude rather than price |
What these figures assume
- The costing assumes an intake ceiling for the transition window: while the authority is being stood up, new admission is limited to defined skills streams, family reunification from Canada, and exceptional hardship. It is an administrative capacity constraint rather than a policy on who may come, it ends when the authority reaches full capability, and comprehensive immigration policy is a decision for the first legislature. That constraint is what holds the immigration authority at 150 to 250 posts; an open system on the categories Canada uses today would need about 900, and the cost of the domain moves with the complement.
- Existing visas, permits and permanent-resident status are deemed valid. Nobody lawfully present on the day before Day 1 becomes unlawfully present on Day 1, and status converts on renewal rather than by adjudicating half a million files at once.
- For costing purposes, the planning assumption is that existing Canadian passports remain usable until expiry, subject to the citizenship settlement and decisions of the Government of Canada. Alberta issues its own document on demand and on renewal, converting a Day 1 surge into normal administrative flow over the ten-year passport cycle.
- Border control and customs require nothing new structurally: ASPS Division 3 already holds primacy for customs and law enforcement at the border, and execution is costed at Border and Customs.
- A safe third country arrangement with Canada, which is a negotiation ask rather than an existing instrument - Canada's current agreement is with the United States - together with restricted intake and visa control on air arrivals, would hold expected protection claims to roughly 100 to 500 a year against the 6,900 Alberta receives as a province. That is a design case following from those three choices rather than a forecast from present volumes. The tribunal is a capability requirement rather than a capacity one: non-refoulement binds Alberta as customary international law whatever its volume.
- Immigration status records, in-flight applications, biometrics and passport issuance records held by Canada are obtained or reconstructed. The paper names these a priority dependency.
Contingency, recognised at C$0
Full reissue of an estimated 3 million Canadian passports held by Albertans, on a population share of the national stock rather than a published provincial figure: C$96M to C$175M, a Scenario 3 contingency only, recognised at C$0
How this connects to other domains
Border control and customs are not costed here. The paper states that for that function 'nothing new structurally' is required because ASPS Division 3 already holds primacy, established in the Policing supporting analysis; execution is costed at Border and Customs. The immigration enforcement unit is an immigration function delivered within ASPS and is costed here. The Protection Claims Tribunal shares a registry with other administrative tribunals at Courts and Legal.
Sources
- Alberta Transition Plan supporting analysis, Immigration and Customs - Section 2 functional breakdown, Section 6 key decision on travel documents, Section 8 resource demand and staffing.
- Alberta Advantage Immigration Program - 2026 nomination allocation and processing data.
- Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada and Immigration and Refugee Board - published staffing and expenditure, as cited in the supporting analysis.
