Provincial and Territorial Update – April 3, 2026
An overview on Provincial and Territorial updates for the week of April 3 2026. Written by Wes McLean.
New Brunswick
- In an unexpectedly swift decision, the New Brunswick Energy and Utilities Board has approved most of N.B. Power’s application to raise rates above four per cent this year. This decision includes approval of new fees on residential customers who do not accept the installation of a smart meter by September.
- The province announced on Thursday that it has signed a contract with Foundever to provide virtual health-care services in New Brunswick. The contract is a two-year term with an option to renew and an annual budget of $12.9 million. It’s “based on 250,000 services per year and is only paid as services are delivered,” the release said. Last Tuesday, the province said it would extend eVisitNB’s contract, the current service provider, by 90 days beyond March 31.
- Canada’s immigration policy is not working for New Brunswick, according to business and community leaders who gathered recently in Saint John. The federal government has drastically reduced immigration numbers in the past couple of years to alleviate pressure on housing, infrastructure and social services.
- Two weeks ago, the New Brunswick government gave reporters a memo, alongside the provincial new budget, that announced provincial veterinary services would be phased out over the next two years. Horse owners Vanessa Leclair and Meaghan Hudson then started organizing opposition to the decision, launching a petition on Change.org that received over 31,000 verified signatures, with, according to the site, at least 60 percent from New Brunswickers.
Nova Scotia
- RCMP say six of their vehicles that were left at the Potlotek First Nation Thursday after officers left the scene on foot suffered damage that includes broken windows, flat tires, “urine-soaked interior surfaces” and dents. In a news release issued Friday, RCMP said seven vehicles, including the six damaged ones, were removed from the Cape Breton community this morning. Some vehicles even had their tires removed, police said. Police were on the scene Thursday to execute a search warrant. They seized cannabis products and arrested two people.
- Nova Scotia will soon begin recruiting for a new five-person team dedicated to incorporating artificial intelligence into provincial government operations. Jennifer LaPlante, deputy minister of cybersecurity and digital solutions, says the team will establish protocol for staff across all departments. “It’s identifying tools that can be adopted by civil servants within government that will increase productivity and efficiency in the way that they do their work,” said LaPlante.
- Nova Scotia Premier Tim Houston says expanding the availability of alcohol in private retail sites is not a priority for his government. Last spring, the provincial government conducted a public survey on the idea of making alcohol available in convenience stores and other sites beyond Nova Scotia Liquor Corporation locations, agency stores and a handful of private retailers currently authorized to sell beer, wine and spirits.
- The contract for the interim CEO of Nova Scotia Health will be extended on an interim basis while a search for her replacement is conducted. Karen Oldfield has been on a combination of vacation and unpaid leave since last month. On Tuesday, the day her contract was set to end, Health Minister Michelle Thompson confirmed to reporters that Oldfield would stick around “for the next foreseeable bit” while a search for a new CEO is conducted.
Prince Edward Island
- An MLA in Prince Edward Island is still working to find a way to keep his lobster fleet while serving in the provincial cabinet. Transportation, Infrastructure and Energy Minister Sidney MacEwen told CBC News: Compass host Louise Martin on Tuesday that he is in the process of placing his business interests into a trust. He said he’s applied to Fisheries and Oceans Canada to name a substitute operator for his lobster fleet, and intends to seek advice from the province’s conflict of interest commissioner, whom he said he’s spoken with “at length.”
- P.E.I. Premier Rob Lantz addressed the media Monday morning after the surprise announcement that Gilles Arsenault had been removed from cabinet over the weekend. Arsenault was removed as minister of economic development, trade and artificial intelligence and minister responsible for Acadian and francophone affairs on Saturday. Arsenault’s removal from the cabinet post follows a legal opinion detailing how a $100,000 donation from a private developer was allegedly made to a community group in the MLA’s Evangeline-Miscouche district.
- The P.E.I. Watershed Alliance says it’s had no conversations with a community group at the heart of a scandal involving a golf course developer and a member of the provincial legislature. The non-profit co-operative said in a news release Thursday that the Comité Diversité et Equité is not a member of the alliance, and none of its members have had conversations with the committee about projects related to watersheds or education.
- The Prince Edward Island government is finalizing its review of wetland policy in the province, which the environment minister says will add more clarity around what a wetland actually is. The work started before the controversy around wetland work at the golf course portion of P.E.I. Ocean View Resort in Summerside, which later resulted in the premier removing former environment minister Gilles Arsenault from cabinet. Darlene Compton, the current environment minister, took questions in the legislature on Wednesday related to that controversy and to the wetland policy review expected soon.
Newfoundland and Labrador
- Memorial University has cut the number of seats at the School of Social Work by 20 per cent at a time when there’s a major need for these professionals, says the public sector union. Jerry Earle, president of the Newfoundland and Labrador Association of Public and Private Employers (NAPE), said the move comes as there has been an increase year-over year for social workers, and fewer seats will inhibit any remedies to the problem.
- This season’s price for snow crab has been decided ahead of a Friday deadline. The price for the upcoming season is $5.30 per pound. That’s according to a decision issued by the Standing Fish Price Setting Panel, which was shared by the Association of Seafood Producers (ASP) late Thursday afternoon. The panel sets a price when producers and the union representing workers can’t come to a deal ahead of the start of the season. It comes after threats from the Fish, Food & Allied Workers union to stop snow crab from being processed in the province until they get a deal for a “fair” price.
- Ottawa has earmarked billions of dollars for investments at Labrador’s 5 Wing Goose Bay, but so far, MPs are shying away from sharing specifics on what it will go toward and a timeline for it to happen. In March Prime Minister Mark Carney announced 5 Wing Goose Bay was getting an unspecified piece of new $32 billion in investments toward airfields, hangars and other facilities in Yellowknife, Inuvik and Iqaluit, along with Goose Bay. At the time, details were sparse on what that funding could entail for Labrador.
- A new study carried out by First Light indicates Indigenous people in Newfoundland and Labrador are incarcerated at a rate eight times higher than their non-Indigenous counterparts. The St. John’s-based non-profit conducted a survey in November 2025 that informed the findings laid out in the report Overrepresented and Undercounted, published on Monday. Interviewers met with 305 inmates at all five of the province’s adult correctional institutions, which First Light said constituted about 72 percent of the total inmate population at the time.
Quebec
- Groups that oppose Bill 9, which strengthens and expands the Quebec government’s secularism law, vowed to use all legal means to continue their fight against it despite its adoption on Thursday in the National Assembly. The bill expands the scope of state secularism beyond the provisions of Bill 21, extending the ban on wearing religious symbols to employees of daycares, subsidized private schools and services related to immigration, for example.
- The president of the Quebec Federation of Medical Specialists (FMSQ), Vincent Oliva, announced to his members that negotiations will resume with the Legault government. After meeting with Treasury Board President France-Élaine Duranceau, he wrote to his colleagues on Wednesday, in a letter obtained by The Canadian Press, that “it was agreed to formally resume negotiations with a view to reaching an agreement in principle satisfactory to both parties.”
- François Legault bid a tearful farewell to the legislature Thursday, urging Quebecers to not surrender to cynicism and fear but to look to the future. In his final speech to the National Assembly as premier — he remains the MNA for L’Assomption — Legault said serving as Quebec’s 32nd premier in history has been the honour of his life, and he is proud of what he accomplished in two mandates in government.
- Quebec’s bill on union governance, which establishes the concept of voluntary contributions, was adopted on Thursday by 70 votes in favour and 34 against. This bill establishes the principle of optional union dues, in addition to the main dues. These optional dues are intended to fund activities that go beyond strictly defending the rights of union members, such as advertising campaigns or challenging legislation in court. The bill also sets out obligations for unions to submit audited financial statements, which are adjusted according to their revenues, no longer according to the number of members, as was planned when the bill was tabled.
Ontario
- Ontario Premier Doug Ford said Thursday that he believes a majority government would bring certainty to trade talks with the United States, as he expressed optimism that the trilateral free-trade deal between Canada, the U.S. and Mexico will survive the Donald Trump era. Speaking with The Globe and Mail in Austin, Tex., at the end of a three-day visit to meet with business leaders and U.S. officials, Mr. Ford said the economic partnership between Ontario and the U.S. remains strong despite the punishing tariffs imposed on Canada by Mr. Trump’s administration.
- The Ford government is moving to take direct control at the top of some local governments in Ontario, offering its appointees enhanced powers and shrinking the size of two councils. The new Better Regional Governance Act, tabled by Minister of Municipal Affairs and Housing Rob Flack on Thursday, will allow him to appoint regional chairs, give those appointees additional powers and streamline both Niagara and Simcoe.
- A new provincial poll shows a continuing decline in support for the Ford government. The survey conducted by Liaison Strategies during the last week of March finds the gap between the governing Conservatives and the Liberals is down to just three percent. “It would be a minority PC government with these numbers,” David Valentin, principal at Liaison Strategies, tells 680 NewsRadio, who notes that the trend has been negative for “a very long time now.” “It was November that things began to shift significantly. For a long time, we’ve been doing issues polling here in Ontario, and people will tell us, ‘I hate this policy from Doug Ford, but I’m voting for him.’ Now it seems that these policy changes are catching up to them.”
- Amid Liberal infighting and NDP disarray, Premier Doug Ford is hoping to win Scarborough Southwest for the Progressive Conservatives in a byelection expected this summer. With the stunning departure two months ago of New Democratic MPP Doly Begum to run for Prime Minister Mark Carney’s federal Liberals, Ford has been closely watching developments in the riding. The premier, who pores over public-opinion polls, will wait until after the April 13 federal byelection before he calls a provincial contest there in July or August.
Manitoba
- A report from a major credit-rating agency is raising questions about the Manitoba government’s plan to reduce the deficit this year and balance the budget next year. Moody’s, in a report issued last week, said the province’s plan to slash annual deficits, last estimated at more than $1.6 billion for the fiscal year that ended in March, does not appear to line up with the government’s own economic growth projections. Economic growth leads to more tax revenue.
- The Manitoba government is paying a U.S. firm to help find emergency room physicians south of the border for temporary posts, largely in rural and northern communities. Shared Health, the province’s central health planning body, has teamed up with Utah-based Global Medical Staffing, which has put up five job postings as a start in recent days. The postings tout Manitoba’s natural beauty, including polar bears, beluga whales and the northern lights.
- More of the sickest patients in Westman will be able to receive critical care locally when they might have otherwise been transferred to a hospital hours away in Winnipeg. The Brandon Regional Health Centre’s new critical care centre is expected to begin accepting patients in May, when the first 12 of 16 planned intensive care unit beds come online. The other four will open once enough staff members have been hired, the province says. “Our current ICU is dated. It’s small. It’s cramped. There’s very little privacy,” said Dr. Adrian Fung, chief medical officer for the Prairie Mountain Health region in western Manitoba.
- A First Nation is appealing a judge’s decision over how the Manitoba government regulates moose hunting on its traditional territory. Jamie Moses, Manitoba’s minister of natural resources at the time, drew criticism after he cut the number of moose draw hunting licences for residents by 75 per cent — from 400 to 100 — across four of the province’s 62 game-hunting areas in July 2024. The move sparked legal challenges from Pimicikamak Cree Nation and the Manitoba Wildlife Federation, who asked for a judicial review of the decision.
Saskatchewan
- A former Speaker of the Saskatchewan legislature says he did not give Advanced Education Minister Ken Cheveldayoff approval for an agreement that violated the legislature’s rules, as Cheveldayoff has claimed. Earlier this week, CBC reported that between from 2017 to 2024, nearly eight years, Cheveldayoff sublet his Saskatoon constituency office. The arrangement was in direct violation of a 2016 legislative rule that a lease for a constituency office “must not contain a provision that allows for subletting of the premise,” according to a letter the Legislative Assembly Service sent to Cheveldayoff.
- Avi Lewis’s victory in the federal NDP leadership race drew swift rebuke from Saskatchewan NDP Leader Carla Beck, but contribution data suggests party supporters in the province have a different opinion of Lewis. In an open letter to Lewis, Beck criticized his opposition to new fossil fuel developments, writing that the policy positions he advocated during his campaign “are antithetical to the values of a party built with and for working people.”
- The agency taking over the responsibilities of the Animal Protective Services of Saskatchewan will have to do the job with less money than last year. The Saskatchewan Animal Enforcement Agency (SAEA) will deliver animal welfare enforcement services for the entire province after it was selected by the provincial government through a competitive public procurement process. SAEA CEO Lavan Thirukketheesawaranathan said at a government announcement on Monday that a key change will be the presence of a board of governance, intended to provide oversight from industry members.
- Groups that represent doctors in Saskatchewan say they’re worried a bill that proposes to force treatment on people with drug addictions could put additional pressure on squeezed emergency rooms. “The Saskatchewan Medical Association isn’t able to support the Compassionate Intervention Act in its current draft,” Dr. Pamela Arnold, the association’s president, said in an interview on Wednesday. “We agree that urgent action is needed to save lives, but we do have serious concerns.”
Alberta
- Alberta Premier Danielle Smith and her United Conservative government spoke of their unwavering love for Canada on Monday as the Opposition NDP accused them of harbouring a separatist. “It’s rich to have them [the NDP] questioning [our] patriotism when we just recently sang the national anthem in this chamber together,” Municipal Affairs Minister Dan Williams told the house amidst noisy heckling in question period session. “On this side of the house, we love our country.”
- Alberta Premier Danielle Smith says a deadline to reach two agreements tied to her landmark energy deal with Ottawa will be missed. The November memorandum of understanding outlined a number of commitments and steps both levels of government would take to eventually see a new bitumen pipeline built connecting Alberta to B.C. tidewater. It set an April 1 deadline for four key arrangements that would be needed before a pipeline gets the green light, and Smith and Prime Minister Mark Carney have announced “agreements in principle” on two of the items — methane emissions and project assessment processes.
- The Alberta government has introduced legislation to ensure children and young teens won’t be able to access sexually graphic images in books at public libraries. At a news conference on Friday, Municipal Affairs Minister Dan Williams emphasized that the government is not banning books before holding up a sexually explicit example of the graphic images they seek to restrict. “We will require that they are put behind a counter in a place that children cannot find them,” Williams said Thursday after tabling the bill in the house.
- Two Alberta separatists say their group has collected enough signatures from citizens to trigger a referendum on the province separating from Canada. Mitch Sylvestre said the group, named Stay Free Alberta, has collected more than the approximate 178,000 required signatures. He also said volunteers who have been keeping tally as the signatures come in are expecting that number to grow. “We [have] more than the buffer that’s required if [Elections Alberta] refuse signatures as well,” Sylvestre said in a phone interview Tuesday.
British Columbia
- The B.C. Court of Appeal has overturned a lower-court ruling after finding the judge used an “arbitrary boundary” to determine a First Nation’s Aboriginal title over a swath of Nootka Island off western Vancouver Island. A three-judge panel says the B.C. Supreme Court made three legal errors when limiting the Nuchatlaht Nation’s claim over a 201 square kilometre portion of the island, finding the nation had met the test for “sufficient occupation” when the British Crown asserted sovereignty.
- B.C. Premier David Eby says he shared plans to put a “temporary pause on a number of sections” of the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples Act, known as DRIPA, for up to three years in a meeting Thursday morning with First Nations leaders. The premier says this proposal comes in response to concerns voiced by First Nations leaders opposed to draft amendments to the landmark reconciliation legislation that the government originally shared with them in confidential documents viewed by CBC News.
- The B.C. government is moving to change its mandate on sales of zero-emission vehicles, reducing the 2035 target from 100 per cent to 75 per cent. The Ministry of Energy and Climate Solutions says the legislative changes would align the provincial mandate with the federal government’s goals. It also says 75 new public charging projects for EV users are being funded across the province. B.C. Energy Minister Adrian Dix says the measures would give the industry and consumers more choices.
- Changes to regulatory oversight for health-care professionals that come into effect on Wednesday could cause doctors to retire early or leave the province, a group representing medical professionals has warned. The new regulations, part of the Health Professions and Occupations Act passed in 2022, will create an independent oversight office and a discipline tribunal for health professionals accused of wrongdoing, both overseen by officials appointed by the province. It’s a change that will impact a wide range of previously self-regulated professions, including doctors, dentists, pharmacists and psychologists.
Northwest Territories
- The Dene Nation is calling for direct access to housing and infrastructure funding from Ottawa, rather than having to go through the N.W.T. government. In a news release this month, the Dene Nation says the territorial government cannot “position itself as a middleman” when it comes to federal funding. It follows Prime Minister Mark Carney’s comments in Yellowknife earlier this month about working with the territorial government to build more housing.
Yukon
- Yukoners can expect their residential power bills to go up again, starting April 1. The latest expected increase clocks in at about 33.8 per cent compared to a customer’s March bill, according to a breakdown by ATCO Electric Yukon. A home that uses around 1,000 kilowatt hours of electricity per month could see their bill rise by close to $80 in April compared to March. The increase comes as two Yukon government rebates that were lowering bills — the winter electrical affordability rebate and the affordability rate relief rebate — are ending.
Nunavut
- Devolution in Nunavut is set to take effect in one year’s time, and although there’s still a lot to do before the deadline, Premier John Main says he’s confident the territory is on track. The territory signed the devolution agreement with the government of Canada and Nunavut Tunngavik Incorporated in 2024, which outlined how the feds would transfer control of Nunavut’s land and resources to the territorial government. The agreement included a three-year transition period, with a transfer date set for April 1, 2027. That’s when the Nunavut Act, a federal law, will be amended or repealed and various legislative changes will come into effect.