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National Post

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. Article content '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. Article content 'The federal government is choosing to disregard this number and that's a real problem.' Article content Article content 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. Article content '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. Article content 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. Article content Prime Minister Mark Carney has also promised to cap Canada's non-permanent resident numbers at below five per cent of the population. Article content 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. Article content 'If they're leaving out this huge chunk of data, how can they set real targets?' said Schow. Article content 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. Article content Some 114,373 irregular border crossers petitioned to stay in Canada between February 2017 and June 2025, according to the federal government. Article content 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. Article content '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.