Provincial and Territorial Update – April 12, 2026
An overview on Provincial and Territorial updates for the week of April 12, 2026. Written by Wes McLean.
New Brunswick
- With nominations for the May 11 municipal elections now closed, there are some potentially lively contests in some areas, and acclaimed mayors and councillors in others. Voters across New Brunswick will elect mayors and councillors in municipalities or members of rural district advisory committees. District education councils are up for elections on the same day. In total, 1,102 people put their names forward for council positions.
- When the province abruptly changed a policy to prevent mechanics from replacing broken-down school buses on their routes, a minister promised that no schoolchildren would be left behind. “We’re certainly not going to leave any children stranded on the side of the road,” Transportation Minister Chuck Chiasson told reporters in November as the school bus saga unravelled. Documents uncovered by CBC News reveal officials saying that’s exactly what happened, and Chiasson has since admitted communication could have been better.
- New Brunswick’s aging population has a lot of workers ready for retirement without a sufficient number of young people to fill their roles, according to a new labour force report. David Campbell’s report shows at least 20 per cent of the workforce is over 55 and set to retire in around 10 years. That percentage gets higher in rural areas. “We don’t have enough young people to replace them and so that’s sort of the big overarching challenge is where do we get the workforce we need for the future?” Campbell said.
- A leading credit rating agency has downgraded New Brunswick’s fiscal outlook from stable to negative in light of the provincial government’s grim deficit and debt projections. Moody’s Ratings said Friday it was moving the province’s baseline credit assessment from Aa2 to Aa3, though Finance Minister René Legacy said this was not a lowering of the rating. “Moody’s has not changed the province’s credit rating but has adjusted the outlook from stable to negative,” he said in a statement.
Nova Scotia
- The latest assessment of northern shrimp stocks in waters off Nova Scotia is giving some in the industry hope after more than a decade of struggle. Allan MacLean, senior operations manager at Louisbourg Seafoods, said the company hires 70 to 80 people in Cape Breton to process shrimp. But declining shrimp numbers in the eastern Scotian Shelf and subsequent quota reductions have made it tough on business. Nova Scotia had landings of more than 24 million kilograms of shrimp in 2014, compared to only 15 million kilograms in 2024, according to open data at DFO.
- Mi’kmaw chiefs in Nova Scotia are demanding a moratorium on RCMP raids on cannabis stores in their communities. The call from Maw-lukutijik Saqmaq, also known as the Assembly of Nova Scotia Mi’kmaw Chiefs, comes after First Nations communities blocked a number of provincial highways last week in protest of increased police raids in their communities in recent months. First Nations leaders say they have a treaty right to sell cannabis, which the provincial government denies.
- Thousands of long-term care workers in Nova Scotia are preparing to take job action after reaching an impasse in collective bargaining with the provincial government. More than 2,200 workers represented by the Canadian Union of Public Employees gave notice Friday morning that they’ll hit the picket lines Monday at 7 a.m. The strike will initially impact 25 homes across the province. CUPE represents more than 5,000 long-term care workers across 56 homes, and more workers could give strike notice in the days ahead, a union spokesperson said.
- A former chief Crown attorney is suing the Nova Scotia government and the province’s Public Prosecution Service, alleging she was bullied, sidelined without explanation and ultimately forced out of her leadership role. The lawsuit was filed this week in the Supreme Court of Nova Scotia by Kathryn Pentz, who has practiced law for more than 40 years and worked as a Crown attorney since 1993.
Prince Edward Island
- The P.E.I. government says it is working with New Brunswick and Nova Scotia to reduce reliance on travel nurses. Health Minister Cory Deagle said deputy ministers and health authorities across the Maritimes are developing a plan for a regional public travel-nurse agency, aimed at moving away from costly private contracts.
- A provincial policy that requires Prince Edward Island seniors to produce three months of bank statements in order to access some government support programs will be changed, and the social development and seniors minister says that work is already underway. Barb Ramsay fielded questions from Green Party MLA Karla Bernard on Thursday, who told the P.E.I. Legislature is concerned about calls from seniors to the party’s office over the last few months.
- Two diseases have been added to a list of conditions that Prince Edward Island health-care providers are required to report. Alveolar echinococcosis, or AE, and anaplasmosis are now listed as communicable diseases under P.E.I.’s Public Health Act, effective March 21. There are no outbreaks in the province, but officials say both diseases can cause negative health effects. Dr. Heather Morrison, P.E.I.’s chief public health officer, described AE — also known as fox tapeworm — as “a rare but severe disease” caused by bacteria from a parasitic tapeworm that lives in foxes, coyotes, and rodents. It can also impact family pets.
- Opposition MLAs raised questions Tuesday in the P.E.I. Legislation about the state of the province’s health-care system, including the loss of another family physician and the Progressive Conservative government’s pledge to reduce the patient registry. Liberal MLA and Opposition health critic Gord McNeilly called access to primary care in the province “one of the most urgent issues facing Islanders,” and said the governing Progressive Conservatives are without a plan to address it.
Newfoundland and Labrador
- After N.L. doctors raised concerns, Newfoundland and Labrador Health Services (NLHS) is backtracking on some aspects of an agreement that previously made a new health information system mandatory for all physicians. “We’ve listened to those concerns. We’ve made adjustments on the contract,” interim NLHS CEO Ron Johnson told CBC Radio’s On The Go. The new system, called CorCare, aimed at replacing multiple outdated systems with a single province-wide digital record, will launch on April 25.
- The findings of a new study into the overrepresentation of Indigenous people in Newfoundland and Labrador’s correctional facilities are not a surprise, says a representative of the Nunatsiavut Government. Last month St. John’s-based non-profit First Light released a new report that indicates Indigenous people in Newfoundland and Labrador are incarcerated at a rate eight times higher than their non-Indigenous counterparts. “I find it’s very concerning, but it’s also not new news to us,” Nunatsiavut Government regional justice services manager Erin Broomfield told CBC Radio’s Labrador Morning.
- Former Newfoundland and Labrador Premier Danny Williams donated more than $46,000 to the Progressive Conservatives ahead of last year’s election in a province where corporations and individuals can make political contributions as large as they want. Williams was a vocal opponent of the former Liberal government’s draft energy deal with Hydro-Quebec, which the victorious Progressive Conservatives — led by Tony Wakeham — promised to review and subject to a public referendum.
- A first-degree murder trial was temporarily delayed last week on Newfoundland’s west coast over a lack of sheriff’s officers, and one lawyer says she wasn’t surprised, given the state of the province’s criminal justice system. On Thursday Justice Vikas Khaladkar blasted the “deplorable state of affairs” when there weren’t enough sheriff’s officers to bring the accused, Dean Penney, to court. Penney is accused of killing his estranged wife, Jennifer Hillier-Penney. He has pleaded not guilty. “I thought it was entirely predictable given the state of crisis that we’re in,” Lynn Moore, a partner at Morris Moore law firm and a former Crown attorney, told CBC Radio’s The St. John’s Morning Show.
Quebec
- Christine Fréchette is Quebec’s incoming premier. The 55-year-old won the leadership race to replace François Legault as head of the Coalition Avenir Québec (CAQ), beating out Bernard Drainville with 58 per cent of the vote. She has a challenging task ahead, with the governing CAQ slumping in the polls just months before a general election. “It’s spring. Spring is a time of renewal,” she told party members in Drummondville, Que., on Sunday, shortly after her victory was announced.
- Prime Minister Mark Carney was in Montreal this week for the Liberal party convention and is riding a wave of momentum after a string of floor crossings to his party in recent months have brought the Liberals to the cusp of a majority in Parliament. But he is not the only Liberal making gains. In Quebec, Charles Milliard’s provincial Liberals are leading for the first time in years ahead of a fall election, according to a new poll. A recent Léger survey, as first reported by TVA, puts the Quebec Liberal Party at 33 per cent, just ahead of the Parti Québécois at 32 per cent, which had led polling since late 2023.
- Voters in the Quebec riding of Terrebonne are preparing to head to the polls Monday for a federal byelection — one that will see the Liberals and the Bloc Québécois fight over a seat that could belong to a new majority government. The riding, located about 45 minutes north of Montreal, is one of three across the country holding votes, as the Liberals sit just one seat shy of having the most seats in the House of Commons. On the ground, opinions among voters remain mixed.
- New numbers released by the Quebec government are showing that homelessness has increased across the province, with the sharpest rises outside Montreal. The survey conducted April 15, 2025, counted more than 12,000 people who were visibly homeless, representing an increase of about 20 per cent from the last count in October 2022. The Abitibi-Temiscamingue, Laurentians, Côte-Nord, Laval and Saguenay-Lac-Saint-Jean regions all recorded increases of over 50 per cent.
Ontario
- Ontario Premier Doug Ford insisted he isn’t concerned about Liberal Prime Minister Mark Carney securing a majority, even if he does so through controversial floor crossings. Carney is within touching distance of a coveted majority government after several Conservatives and one New Democratic Party MP joined the Liberal caucus. The latest defection, former Conservative MP Marilyn Gladu, gives the Liberals 171 seats, just one shy of a majority government, with three byelections slated for April 13.
- The length of teachers’ college in Ontario will soon be cut in half, from two years to one, the Ford government announced Friday. The change, announced by Minister of Colleges and Universities Nolan Quinn and Minister of Education Paul Calandra, will also establish a minimum practicum length as a way to emphasize real, in-class experience. Currently, most teacher education programs last 4 semesters, spread over 2 years. The proposed change to cut teachers’ college in half would mean those programs would be condensed into 12 months, with three consecutive semesters instead.
- Several environmental groups have launched a constitutional challenge seeking to kill an Ontario law that allows the cabinet to suspend other laws, arguing the Doug Ford government has abdicated the role of the legislature. Wildlands League, Environmental Defence Canada, Friends of the Earth Canada and Democracy Watch allege Ontario’s special economic zone law delegates powers reserved for the legislature and wrongly puts them in the hands of the cabinet. The groups filed the lawsuit on Tuesday.
- Ontario’s Premier made a stop in North Bay, indicating that the Northlander passenger rail service is one step closer to reality. “For the first time in 14 years, the Northlander is back in Northern Ontario,” said Premier Doug Ford on Friday. “When it returns to service later this year, the Northlander will connect people across Northern Ontario to life-changing opportunities, school, vital medical appointments and more, while strengthening local towns and industries along the entire route, creating good jobs and economic growth across the north for years to come.”
Manitoba
- NDP MP Leah Gazan is standing by her use of the initialism MMIWG2SLGBTQQIA+ and denouncing those who are mocking her online for using the term. A clip of the Winnipeg Centre MP saying “the ongoing genocide of MMIWG2SLGBTQQIA+” during a news conference in Ottawa went viral this week and sparked backlash, including insults from Elon Musk and U.S. Republican Sen. Ted Cruz. “Bigots are bigots,” Gazan told CBC News in response.
- Peguis First Nation residents are piling thousands of sandbags around homes and buildings as the community braces for flooding that could reach levels similar to two severe floods that overflowed the area in recent years. The Manitoba government said in a spring flood outlook update on Saturday that tens of thousands of sandbags are being sent to the First Nation — located about 160 kilometres north of Winnipeg in the Interlake region — and surrounding communities. Provincial volunteers have been “mobilized” and are working with the community to prepare for protecting at-risk homes, the update said.
- Manitoba’s first appointee assigned to investigate inappropriate conduct by teachers has been let go for working out of province, the premier says. Bobbi Taillefer’s recent departure as Manitoba’s commissioner of teacher professional conduct was the result of a firing, not a resignation as originally reported by the Winnipeg Free Press on Thursday, Premier Wab Kinew said on Friday. The Free Press broke the news that Taillefer had been doing the job from Florida, and said the province had previously been unaware she was working remotely.
- Manitoba Premier Wab Kinew is planning to go to Ottawa next week for a meeting with Prime Minister Mark Carney. Kinew says it’s part of a plan the two men have to meet roughly every three months, primarily to discuss the possibility of a northern trade corridor through the Port of Churchill on Hudson Bay. The project recently made a list of projects being considered as “transformative” by the federal government. Studies are underway to gauge private-sector interest and examine the use of icebreakers to extend the port’s short shipping season.
Saskatchewan
- The Saskatchewan privacy watchdog is calling on the government to unredact documents pertaining to misconduct in the early stages of the Sask. Marshals Service, and time is running out to comply. Back in 2025, the Saskatchewan NDP submitted a Freedom of Information request (FOI) to learn about an incident under investigation within the service that led one marshal to quit. What they got back from the provincial government was 290 pages of heavily redacted and partially unrelated information.
- Flags are flying at half-mast in Saskatchewan after the death of Vaughn Schofield, who served as the province’s 21st lieutenant-governor from 2012 to 2018. Lt.-Gov. Bernadette McIntyre announced Schofield’s death after a short illness on Thursday. She was “a wonderful embodiment of the Saskatchewan spirit,” Premier Scott Moe said in a news release. “Her decades-long commitment to our Armed Forces was steadfast, and she will be missed by all who knew her.” Schofield was born in Regina in 1943 and pursued education at the University of Saskatchewan’s Regina campus and the Rae-Vogue School in Chicago, where she studied fashion merchandising.
- A former deputy minister of health is welcoming a decision by the provincial government to introduce legislation empowering the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Saskatchewan to investigate the “unlawful practice of medicine.” The Medical Profession Amendment Act, 2026, was among a list of bills referenced in the provincial budget. Details on the legislation are limited, but the budget described the act as expanding “the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Saskatchewan’s investigative capacity to formally investigate individuals engaged in the unlawful practice of medicine.”
- The Government of Saskatchewan’s first Crown oil and natural gas public offering of the new fiscal year generated nearly $13 million in revenue. The bidding took place online last week. In a recent news release, the government said companies bid on 87 land parcels in the Estevan, Lloydminster, Kindersley and Swift Current areas, spanning more than 20,000 hectares.
Alberta
- Alberta Premier Danielle Smith raised the prospect of Calgary or Edmonton making a bid to host a future Olympic Games during a speech to the Rotary Club of Downtown Calgary on Thursday. Billed as a “state of the province” address, Smith’s address was a wide-ranging defence of her government’s record on such issues as the economy, health care, immigration and her relationship with Prime Minister Mark Carney.
- A judge has granted a month-long stay preventing Alberta’s chief electoral officer from certifying the results of a petition to force a referendum on a proposal for Alberta to separate from Canada. Justice Shaina Leonard’s ruling on Friday afternoon also prevents Stay Free Alberta, the group behind the petition, from referring the matter to Justice Minister Mickey Amery once signatures are submitted. The decision follows an application from two of three First Nations groups who say they believe the petition process threatens treaty rights. The Athabasca Chipewyan First Nation (ACFN) and the Blackfoot Confederacy have been seeking a stay on the petition campaign pending a final ruling.
- Alberta’s government says it will not be conducting an environmental impact assessment for a data centre park being proposed by celebrity investor Kevin O’Leary at a location about 40 kilometres south of Grande Prairie, Alta. The Ministry of Environment and Protected Areas says the Wonder Valley AI Data Centre Park project was reviewed by an independent approvals officer who deemed it exempt from the assessment due to its proposed use of standard power and water systems. Permits, however, are still required before construction can begin.
- Canada’s new NDP leader has announced the critic roles for his six-person caucus in Ottawa — naming his former opponent Heather McPherson as House leader. In a news release, Avi Lewis called the MPs a “progressive beacon in the House” and said the New Democrats are “united and laser-focused on the everyday emergency facing Canadians.” Lewis won the leadership handedly last month, beating McPherson, the only MP in the race, with 56 per cent of the vote.
British Columbia
- The Métis Nation British Columbia (MNBC) says its board of directors have voted to remove president Walter Mineault, alleging he breached his fiduciary duty. In an April 9 press release, MNBC said an election will be held to replace Mineault, with vice president Melanie Allard appointed as its interim president. “We reached this decision after careful consideration of an independent review into President Mineault’s conduct and advice and counsel given to us by our Métis Nation Governing Assembly,” the press release said.
- Peter Milobar will be without his longtime campaign manager during the final stretch of the race to become the new leader of the Conservative Party of B.C. Milobar’s campaign says in a statement released Saturday on social media that Mark Werner is “stepping back” from his role to “focus on his family business.” The announcement comes after Milobar issued a statement on April 9 that says “preliminary discussions” with Werner confirmed that he had no knowledge of a mail-out and website that targeted former Conservative leader John Rustad and Richmond MLA Teresa Wat.
- British Columbia’s wood manufacturing sector says Canada’s softwood lumber dispute mechanism with the United States is a “broken process.” The complaint by the Independent Wood Processors Association comes after the U.S. Department of Commerce posted its preliminary tariff determination for the sector, estimated at just short of 25 per cent, lower than the current duty rate of more than 35 per cent. The association said Friday that while it appears tariffs may be lowered, it cautions that there is still uncertainty on whether the final rate — expected in August — will actually represent a reduction of the current duty.
- First Nations leaders in B.C. are urging B.C. NDP MLAs to reject Premier David Eby’s plan to suspend some sections of the province’s Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples Act (DRIPA), as the government prepares to bring the proposal forward as a confidence vote. At a news conference in Vancouver on Friday, members of the First Nations Leadership Council said the move would undermine Indigenous rights, calling it a “unilateral betrayal” of reconciliation commitments. The premier has described the proposed suspension as a temporary measure to address, he says, growing legal uncertainty following a recent B.C. Court of Appeal ruling involving DRIPA.
Northwest Territories
- The chief of Łutsel K’e Dene First Nation says the N.W.T. premier’s apology to his community on Tuesday is not good enough. The First Nation has been asking for an apology for what it calls a “forceful invasion” of a cultural camp on Artillery Lake four years ago. At the time, the territory said wildlife officers were executing a search warrant for illegally harvested caribou. That search warrant was later quashed by the N.W.T. Supreme Court. On Tuesday, Premier R.J. Simpson issued a written statement saying he was sorry for the “difficult and upsetting experience.”
Yukon
- A review from the Yukon Child and Youth Advocate’s Office of the government’s sexual orientation and gender identity (SOGI) policy paints a bleak picture of how it feels to be a gay or transgender student in the Yukon. The 122-page report, released last week, drew on data from the territory’s Department of Education as well as feedback from 781 participants through online surveys, focus groups and interviews.
Nunavut
- Nunavut Tunngavik Inc. (NTI) says its voucher program to incentivize voting in its elections is here to stay. The organization representing Inuit in Nunavut gave out $100 vouchers to Inuit beneficiaries who voted in NTI’s 2024 presidential elections, as part of a trial that’s now permanent. NTI’s chief executive officer, Kilikvak Kabloona, said the vouchers helped bump up voter turnout to 66 per cent – up from 18 per cent in the 2022 vice-president elections.