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(Image Credit: Amber Bracken | The Canadian Press)
By Jack Farrell | The Canadian Press
Service Minister defends decision

Alberta to accept recently expired passports for licence renewals amid summer surge

Sep 8, 2026 | 8:55 PM

Alberta’s government says it’s making it easier to renew driver’s licences after the province saw a summer surge when its controversial new cards became available.

Service Alberta Minister Dale Nally said in an interview Tuesday that registries will now accept passports that have been expired for less than one year as a valid proof of citizenship.

Registries will also start accepting all citizenship certificates recognized by Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada, rather than a select list of certificates that were being accepted before.

In July, Alberta began issuing driver’s licences and identification cards that also feature a citizenship marker and an individual’s health-care number.   

The move has drawn plenty of criticism, including from the Opposition NDP and the provincial privacy watchdog. But Nally said Albertans have been eager to adopt the new cards.

He said there was a 33 per cent increase in July of people renewing their licences compared to the same month last year, followed by a 23 per cent increase for August. For July, it meant almost 127,000 people renewed their licences compared to about 95,000 in July 2025.

The minister also said 82 per cent of those who attended a registry for something that didn’t require a new licence opted to renew their licence early anyway.

Population growth could explain some of the demand, Nally said, but Albertans also want to ditch their paper health cards.

“We had a lot of Albertans that were telling us they liked this and they wanted to get the new driver’s licence, but we were surprised by the uptick,” he said.

“In fact, it was so substantial that our contractor had to put a second production line in place to keep up with demand.”

Nally is also the minister in charge of red tape reduction for the United Conservative Party government. 

He said it changed the rules to make renewals easier, because it had heard from Albertans who were having difficulty proving their citizenship.

The NDP has been calling for Nally to be fired, citing a flurry of reports from Albertans frustrated by the new process — including having to track down or replace decades-old documents.

NDP legislature member David Shepherd repeated that call Tuesday, saying the latest changes are an admission that Nally has failed to manage his file.

“The UCP government created this mess by introducing unnecessary requirements for driver’s licences without thinking through the consequences for Albertans,” said Shepherd.

Nally said only about one per cent of Albertans opted for a 60-day interim licence because they had trouble producing the right documents. 

“The vast majority of Albertans were able to bring in their birth certificate, a passport, and were able to have a seamless experience getting the new driver’s licence.

“But we know that wasn’t everyone, and so we heard that loud and clear.”

by Jack Farrell | The Canadian Press