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What Albertans need to know about voting in the referendum
Alberta referendum: What voters need to know
THE CANADIAN PRESS/James Maclennan
Referendum day in Alberta is on Monday.
The provincial referendum has 10 questions about immigration policy, constitutional reform, and whether Alberta should remain in Canada or hold a binding, second referendum on quitting the country.
Advance voting locations opened Tuesday and close Saturday night.
Over 1,400 polling stations will be open Monday from 9 a.m. to 8 p.m.
Here's what to expect when you go to vote:
How long will it take?
Get familiar with the ballot questions ahead of time, which are on the Elections Alberta website. Officials say it will help avoid confusion and delays.
They say they're expecting a record turnout of between 80 and 85 per cent of Alberta's nearly three million electors.
You have as much time as you want to fill in the 10 ballots, but officials estimate it will take most people about two minutes.
What identification is needed?
You should get a "where to vote" card in the mail ahead of time if you're registered. Otherwise, visit Elections Alberta’s website to find out where to vote.
You must vote in your electoral division during advance voting or at your assigned location on Monday.
You’ll need one government-issued ID with your correct name, current address and photo, such as a driver's licence. You can use two pieces of ID that both have your full name, with one showing your current address.
There are 50 forms of acceptable ID listed on Elections Alberta’s website that can be one of those two pieces, from a library card or a hunting licence to a bank statement or vehicle registration.
Elections Alberta says it will accept expired forms of ID, including a certificate of Indian Status Card, provided it still has the correct name.
Another option, in special circumstances, is to bring an attestation form signed by an authorized person such as a First Nation band manager or a student housing staffer.
What if I’m not registered to vote?
A voting officer will ask you to sign a declaration that confirms your eligibility — including that you are a Canadian citizen, at least 18 years old and that you normally reside in Alberta.
How many ballots are there?
There are 10 ballots, in different colours for easy identification. You can mark some of them, all of them or none. Your choice.
The ballots go into separate boxes to make it easier to count them and to lessen the chances of a mistake spoiling one long ballot.
What if I’m still in line when the polls close at 8 p.m.?
Stay in line. Don’t leave. You will be allowed to vote.
How long before I know the results?
By law, the votes need to be counted by hand within 48 hours.
Question 10 — about separation — is to be counted first. Officials say early results are to be released after 8 p.m. Monday, with the final count announced in the early hours Tuesday.
The results of the other nine questions should be completed and announced by Wednesday.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 16, 2026.
Copyright 2026, The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.
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National Ballet School, divinity college students among those affected by OSAP pause
OSAP pause affecting ballet, divinity schools
THE CANADIAN PRESS/Chris Young
A recent pause on financial assistance payments to private post-secondary institutions in Ontario is affecting divinity schools, Canada's National Ballet School and many others, with students feeling unfairly swept up in what they describe as a trawling net-like policy.
Colleges and Universities Minister Nolan Quinn announced last week that the province had tasked KPMG with auditing Ontario Student Assistance Program usage at career colleges, and that preliminary findings were of such concern that he referred the matter to the Ontario Provincial Police.
While the audit is ongoing, Quinn said, OSAP payments to private post-secondary institutions would be paused. Quinn said he is "working on" securing low-interest loans for affected students at financial institutions, but he has not indicated a timeline.
Many career college students have said they are worried about the pause, with no clear end in sight and with some students relying on that financial aid to cover not just tuition but living expenses while they study.
The broad nature of the pause affects all private post-secondary institutions, including private universities, chiropractic and naturopathic medicine colleges, and performing arts schools such as Canada's National Ballet School.
Alessia Di Palma is in her last year of the ballet school's five-year joint teacher training program with York University, and said she does not want to have to leave school when she is so close to finishing, but at the moment doesn't know how she will pay her rent, even though she works two jobs while going to school.
"I'm heartbroken," she said. "My heart sunk when I found out because it's unfair that I've had this funding for four years and then the fifth year it's just gone now because of something that didn't even have anything to do with me."
Initial concerns stemmed from activity at a few schools, Quinn's office says, but evidence of "systemic issues" has come up in recent weeks.
“At this time, we do not have assurances from the audit team that the issues are not more widespread, leaving us with no choice but to pause OSAP payments to all private institutions to protect taxpayer dollars and hold bad actors accountable," spokesperson Bianca Giacoboni wrote in a statement.
"We understand this is creating uncertainty for students and are working quickly to develop options for low-interest, third-party loans facilitated by financial institutions to help students through this period of transition.”
At the ballet school, programs are mostly at the secondary level, but it does have a post-secondary teacher training program that is affected by the OSAP pause. About half of those students rely on that aid to pay their tuition, said executive director John Dalrymple.
The government has chosen the bluntest and most harmful way of dealing with the root of the problem, he said, and it is especially disappointing that Quinn enacted the pause before securing those third-party loans.
"The fact that now all of these students who are working multiple jobs to make ends meet, who are at the very beginning of their career, are now left holding the bag to figure out how to finance something that the government had already assured them they qualified for and they were going to receive, I think is unconscionable," he said.
Theological schools like McMaster Divinity College, affiliated with McMaster University, are also affected by the pause. Ambrose Thomson, the school's registrar and director of student services, said students are beside themselves.
About 10 per cent of the non-profit institution's revenue is dependent on OSAP-paid tuition, he said. McMaster Divinity College is relatively well-positioned to weather that storm, Ambrose said, but not all schools are so lucky.
"The impression I get is that the government knows full well what the impacts are," he said.
"They're not stupid. All I can assume is that at the highest levels where these decisions were made, they're actually willing to allow career colleges and other schools to shut their doors ... I think they're trying to look like they're doing something in the face of 300-whatever million dollars that they were not smart enough to pay attention to."
Data obtained by The Canadian Press through a freedom-of-information request showed large increases in OSAP usage at a relatively small number of career colleges from 2020-21 to 2024-25.
The seven career colleges that had the highest OSAP usage in 2024-25 received $385 million in provincial grants – the same amount that went to students at all of Ontario's publicly funded colleges that year.
Career Colleges Ontario has raised concerns since 2023 about what it calls potentially "suspicious activity" with OSAP usage at a few schools.
Deanna Hutten, a second-year master's student in McMaster Divinity College's counselling and spiritual care program, is borrowing money from family and working 10 more hours per week at her marketing job to make up for her OSAP being on hold.
The single mother to a one-year-old daughter who hopes to work in hospital chaplaincy said it is frustrating to be lumped in with some suspected bad actors.
"It definitely feels very unfair," she said.
"They had known about this since 2023 that there were people kind of (allegedly) fudging the system, and now we as private career – not even career colleges, but private institutions – are kind of being swept into that field or that group of people, even though we're not a part of that."
At the Toronto Film School, there is also "tremendous uncertainty and anxiety" for many students, said president Andrew Barnsley. He is calling for prompt reinstatement of OSAP for eligible students, or at least a clear, expedited timeline to resolve the pause.
"The OSAP pause is deeply disappointing, and our greatest concern is the impact on our students who made significant commitments to their education with the reasonable expectation that financial assistance would be available," he wrote in a statement.
"Many students have rearranged their lives, reduced or left employment, made child-care arrangements and, in some cases, relocated to Toronto in order to pursue their studies. They need to know whether they can meet their financial obligations, including life essentials like rent or food, and continue the programs in which they have already invested time, money and effort."
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 16, 2026.
By Allison Jones | Copyright 2026, The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.
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'Goodbye to a good friend': Snowbirds' final show to be livestreamed today
Final Snowbirds air show to be livestreamed today
THE CANADIAN PRESS/Patrick Doyle
Members of the Royal Canadian Air Force Snowbirds aerial aerobatics team are set to perform their final air show Friday in Moose Jaw, Sask., before their decades-old Tutor jets head into retirement.
The RCAF is set to livestream the annual season home closer online at 2 p.m. ET on its Facebook page.
There will still be one more chance to see the CT-114 Tutors in action before they are sent to the airbase in Trenton, Ont., for disposal.
The Snowbirds are scheduled to perform a flyover at the Canadian Football League Grey Cup game in Calgary on Nov. 15.
Capt. Philip Rochon, public affairs officer for the Snowbirds, said it's a bittersweet time for the pilots who are saying farewell to the planes the team has flown for 55 years.
"It's like saying goodbye to a good friend," he said.
Rochon said the Snowbirds received an outpouring of support over the summer from Canadians across the country who shared memories of past shows and their encounters with an iconic "piece of Canadiana."
"At the same time, we're looking forward to the future with the new aircraft that was announced," he said. "That will come online hopefully in the next few years. We're looking forward to seeing what the next chapter of the Snowbirds will be."
Defence Minister David McGuinty announced in May that the old Tutors will be replaced eventually by the Swiss-made PC-21 Pilatus aircraft, known as the CT-157 Siskin II.
The RCAF is also acquiring those same aircraft for pilot training.
While the Snowbirds were formed in 1971, the air force obtained the Tutor jets in 1963.
The Snowbirds will go on a multi-year hiatus until the replacement aircraft are delivered and the team can be trained up on the new planes. That could take until the early 2030s but there's no set timeline.
The decision to ground the team came after planned upgrades to the Tutors' engines and escape systems meant to keep them in the air until 2030 encountered a range of problems, including parts obsolescence.
RCAF Commander Lt.-Gen. Jamie Speiser-Blanchet told reporters at the AERO Gatineau-Ottawa air show last month that it's been "heartwarming" to see how Canadians have responded over the last season.
"The Snowbirds are so much more than just an air demonstration team, obviously, and it evokes so much emotion and we all have such fond strong memories," she said.
"I really can't overstate just how significant they are to Canadians and specifically to the RCAF. The idea that we'd have to take a pause was definitely not an easy one. However, the Tutor aircraft is 63 years old and it is time to move into the future and make sure that we're doing things for the right reasons."
She said the demonstration team has been focused solely on finishing the current season. Once that's done, she said, the RCAF can "build the right kind of plan" to ensure the pilots don't get rusty in the meantime.
"We're looking at things like, can we send an exchange into some of our allied teams, or obviously instructing and working with the PC-21 in Moose Jaw as an option," she said.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 16, 2026.
By Kyle Duggan | Copyright 2026, The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.
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