Licence change a solution in search of a problem
By Lethbridge Herald on September 19, 2025.
Editor,
The Alberta government has announced it will add a citizenship marker to every driver’s licence and provincial ID card starting in 2026. The stated goal is to “streamline access to programs” and “protect election integrity.” On the surface, this might sound like a minor change. In reality, it is a dangerous and poorly planned idea that creates significant risks without solving any real problems.
Driver’s licences are the most commonly used form of identification in Alberta. We show them daily at the post office, airports, hotels, rental counters, and during police stops. Printing citizenship status on these cards changes every one of those interactions. It makes discrimination easier, exposes private information, and risks dividing Albertans into two classes.
Consider the everyday scenarios: a clerk refusing to release a package because an ID does not show “CAN,” an airline agent delaying boarding for a domestic flight, or a hotel demanding a passport or larger deposit. At a traffic stop, a visible marker could invite unnecessary questions when citizenship has nothing to do with the right to drive. These are not far-fetched hypotheticals—they are predictable risks when sensitive status information is displayed on the front of an ID card.
The risks extend to housing and employment. Landlords could deny applications after spotting the absence of a marker. Employers could screen out applicants before verifying their work permits. Permanent residents, refugees, and others who are legally entitled to live, work, and pay taxes in Alberta would face unfair barriers simply because of a label on their licence.
This change also raises serious privacy concerns. A driver’s licence is shown to people who have no need to know a person’s citizenship status—store clerks, security guards, event staff. If a wallet is lost or stolen, a card with this information exposes individuals to greater risks of targeting and fraud. Alberta’s own privacy laws emphasize limiting the collection of personal information to what is necessary. This proposal does the opposite.
The government insists this is about efficiency, but it actually creates more red tape. Every Albertan will now be required to show proof of citizenship or immigration status when renewing or replacing their licence. That means more paperwork, more delays, and more rejections for people who lack easy access to documents. The government itself will spend time and money updating systems and retraining staff, only to leave residents with greater inconvenience.
The argument about elections does not hold up either. Both Elections Alberta and Elections Canada already accept multiple forms of identification to verify eligibility to vote. A driver’s licence is just one option. Most importantly, Canada does not have an election integrity crisis. Our elections are already secure, trusted, and well administered. Adding a citizenship marker solves a problem that does not exist.
This was not an election promise. It does not reduce red tape. And no one asked for it. The government has suggested it might help clean up health card records, but that work should be done through proper audits and back-end corrections—not by publishing citizenship status on millions of ID cards.
The greatest danger of all is social. A visible citizenship marker creates two categories of Albertans: those with “CAN” and those without. That distinction undermines belonging for permanent residents and newcomers who already contribute fully to our communities. It signals that some people are “less” than others, even when the law says they are equal.
In the end, this is a solution in search of a problem. It introduces discrimination, privacy risks, added bureaucracy, and division—all without delivering a clear benefit. Alberta should step back before moving forward with this plan. Efficiency and integrity can be protected without branding residents by citizenship on the very ID we all rely on.
Clinton Bishop
Barons, Alberta
14-13
Unless you are still writing cheques and haven’t moved on from the Stone Age, you will be the only of a few asked to produce a DL for anything, unless you are under age in a bar. You are just looking to complain about a non existent problem. Why do we need twenty variable pieces of ID, especially when it comes to elections.
You may be surprised to hear, bucky, that not everyone has a driver’s licence that is entitled to vote.
Perhaps the UCP should have stuck with their first instinct: wearing some sort of colored triangles designating different identities, so we can be more targeted in our treatment of our fellow human beings?
The UCP makes backwards policies.
Is there not some irony that they wish to use ‘CAN’ as ‘belonging’ while they are actively inciting separation from Canada?