Alberta’s growing population has prompted the Canadian Radio-Television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) to approve a sixth area code for the province to keep up with demand for new phone numbers.
The CRTC said on Sept. 29 it had approved the creation of area code 568, which will accompany the existing prefixes in Alberta of 403, 780, 587, 368, and 825.
Albertans will start using the new telephone prefix by June 10, 2028, eight months earlier than the CRTC expected the province to require a new area code, in February 2029.
Recent Statistics Canada data showed that the province’s population grew by 1.5 percent, or 76,419 more people, between July 1, 2025, and July 1, 2026, a rate triple that of Canada as a whole. Also, from July 1, 2024, to July 1, 2025, Alberta’s population grew by 2.5 percent, or 120,316 more people, the largest growth rate in the country that year….