Alberta can require non-permanent residents to live in the province 12 months before qualifying for provincially-funded social support.
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Summary
Provinces have jurisdiction over social services and can attach residency conditions to their own programs, so a waiting period is not automatically out of bounds. Two limits make a flat twelve-month rule legally contestable. For anything counted as insured health services, the Canada Health Act caps any minimum residency or waiting period at three months, so a twelve-month bar could not apply there. And durational residency requirements for benefits have a history of equality challenges, since the Supreme Court has treated province of residence as capable of grounding a section 15 discrimination claim in some circumstances. Whether a twelve-month requirement aimed at non-permanent residents would hold up depends on how it is drawn and on these constraints, so its validity is genuinely disputed rather than settled.
Evidence
Social services fall under provincial jurisdiction, so a province sets the rules and conditions for its own social support programs.
Section 11(1)(a) of the Canada Health Act bars a province from imposing any minimum residence or waiting period in excess of three months before residents are eligible for insured health services.
The Supreme Court has recognized province of residence as capable of being an analogous ground under section 15 of the Charter, so durational residency requirements for benefits can face equality challenges.