Provincial and Territorial Update – August 9, 2024
Provincial and Territorial Update: An overview of the Provincial Legislative and Territories Legislative Updates for the week of August 9, 2024. Written by Wes McLean.
New Brunswick
- Hospitals are struggling to reduce the number of people using hospital beds while awaiting long-term care, according to a regional health authority report. Alternate level of care (ALC) patients represent one of the biggest barriers to improving New Brunswick’s healthcare system, Horizon Health Network CEO Margaret Melanson said at a press conference Thursday.
- The Higgs government has won a major concession from Ottawa that is allowing it to subsidize more child-care spaces in for-profit centres around the province. The province asked the federal government last year to give it more flexibility under the five-year, $544-million agreement but was turned down at the time.
- Crown prosecutors in New Brunswick have ratified a new collective agreement with the provincial government, but it doesn’t completely address current problems with the justice system, a spokesperson says. “There’s a lot of things we were hoping to see and hoping to accomplish with the new agreement, most of them tied to the current issues with the system, so things like backlogs, workloads, vacancy rates,” said Shara Munn, the president of the New Brunswick Crown Prosecutors Association.
- For eight years, New Brunswick farmer Trevor Welch pushed for a change that would give cattle producers in the province more financial stability in the beef market. Now, his efforts are paying off. A beef cattle market price insurance program started in New Brunswick in June as a two-year trial. It initially covers younger beef cattle but by fall, it will be available for older animals as well. Under the pilot program, producers are assured their cattle will have the same value they had when the insurance was purchased.
Nova Scotia
- Emera, the parent company to Nova Scotia Power, has sold one of its American utilities for $1.25 billion US. In a news release this week, Emera announced the sale of New Mexico Gas Company to Bernhard Capital Partners, a private equity firm based in Baton Rouge, La. The sale is pending regulatory approval in New Mexico. Emera president Scott Balfour is quoted in the news release saying the sale strengthens Emera’s balance sheet and supports its “ambitious capital plan.”
- Nova Scotia government employees who have been allowed to work from home, some for almost a decade, are being told they must return to the office full-time starting Oct. 15. The news has sent shock waves through the bureaucracy, especially among the 3,500 non-union employees who have reworked their lives around the flexible work conditions. Some were working as many as three days a week from home.
- People who list Nova Scotia properties on short-term rental platforms such as Airbnb and VRBO will need to register those rentals and pay an annual fee starting Sept. 30, but those fees won’t be the same as the ones unveiled last fall. The change will see homeowners who rent space inside their primary residence pay $50 a year, up from the $10 annual fee proposed last October.
- There might be a sales tax cut coming for New Brunswickers, but Nova Scotia’s Progressive Conservative government is leaving no room for doubt — it’s not planning to follow suit. In the run-up to a New Brunswick general election, Premier Blaine Higgs has promised to cut the HST by two percentage points over two years if he’s re-elected. Nova Scotia Finance Minister Allan MacMaster told reporters Thursday after a cabinet meeting that such a cut isn’t in the best interest of all Nova Scotians right now.
Prince Edward Island
- The P.E.I. government, Health P.E.I. and the Medical Society of P.E.I. stood together Thursday morning to announce a new agreement covering how doctors are treated and compensated for their work. The province said that over five years, the new contract will result in an extra $188.3 million in spending on physician services compared to the previous contract.
- The P.E.I. Humane Society wants people to sign a petition calling on Ottawa to create a national renters’ bill of rights that would void any no-pet clauses in tenancy agreements. Ashley Travis, communications coordinator with the P.E.I. Humane Society, says more than a third of all animals being dropped off at the shelter are being surrendered because their owners can’t find pet-friendly housing. She said it’s one of the main reasons why the society has a waiting list of pets to accept.
- The Nova Scotia Supreme Court has approved Postmedia’s $1-million bid to acquire Atlantic Canada’s largest newspaper chain. Justice John Keith ruled Thursday afternoon that the proposal is “reasonable and fair,” clearing the way for the Toronto-based media company to buy the insolvent SaltWire Network Inc. and the Halifax Herald Ltd.
- The government of P.E.I. has begun accepting proposals from private-sector players looking to redevelop the former Confederation Bridge fabrication yard. Innovation P.E.I., which owns the land, is working in partnership with the Town of Borden-Carleton to develop the property — a process that Mayor Randy Ahearn calls “very important” to the town. “It’s going to shape our future, I think, one way or another,” Ahearn told CBC News.
Newfoundland and Labrador
- A correctional officer who extracted a central Newfoundland inmate’s tooth during oral surgery in October 2020 has been granted an absolute discharge. Ron McDonald had escorted an inmate to Louis Bourget’s dental clinic in Gander for a procedure. While the inmate was sedated, Bourget explained the procedure to McDonald and another officer and then suggested they perform the extraction of the four teeth. McDonald took him up on the offer. He was later charged with aggravated assault and assault with a weapon; the former charge was dropped, while the latter was downgraded to a single count of assault, to which McDonald pleaded guilty.
- Injured workers, family members, supporters and union officials packed a courtroom in Clarenville on Thursday morning, as two companies made their first court appearance related to a fatal explosion at the Come By Chance refinery in 2022. Braya Renewable Fuels (Newfoundland) GP Incorporated is facing 11 occupational health and safety charges. They include failure to provide and maintain the necessary equipment, systems and tools to ensure a safe workplace, and failure to ensure safe work procedures were followed.
- The Fish, Food & Allied Workers union is celebrating a ruling over last year’s payment dispute for snow crab that the union president estimates will net a collective $3.3-million payout for harvesters. FFAW filed the grievance against the Association of Seafood Producers on the removal of the 20 percent tolerance for snow crab in 2023. The tolerance had previously allowed harvesters to be paid the minimum price for their entire catch as long as the percentage of crab under four inches, but still of legal size, was less than 20 percent.
- A Swedish researcher says the European Union’s ban on the import and sale of all seal products has caused more harm than good, and now is the time to lift the 15-year-old ban. Sven-Gunnar Lunneryd, who researches aquatic resources at the Swedish University for Agricultural Sciences, says ending the ban would help seal hunters and restore depleted fish stocks. His research demonstrates that in the Baltic Sea, where the grey seal population has recently increased rapidly, having a negative impact on coastal fisheries in the region.
Quebec
- A former Coalition Avenir Québec political adviser has been charged with electoral fraud by the province’s elections authority. Élections Québec says Étienne Boulrice helped or incited someone to take $100 that didn’t belong to them and donate it to the ruling party. In Quebec, all political contributions must come from a contributor’s own funds. Boulerice was a political adviser to CAQ member Suzanne Tremblay, who represents the Western Quebec riding of Hull.
- The Quebec government appears to be backing away from a polarizing language directive that has sparked fears it could restrict access to health care in English and potentially violate the Canada Health Act. The 31-page directive, which came into effect July 18, has triggered anger and confusion in the province, a rebuke from at least two Liberal MPs from Montreal and a response from the federal health minister. “The reaction has been shock and disbelief and a sense of true betrayal,” McGill law professor Pearl Eliadis said in an interview with Global News Friday.
- Federal Transport Minister Pablo Rodriguez’s office is downplaying speculation that he’s seriously considering jumping into Quebec provincial politics, but sources told The Hill Times that, barring a major surprise, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s Quebec lieutenant will throw his hat in the ring in the coming weeks for the party’s top job in the province. “It just seems a matter of time when he’s announcing it, and he’s just trying to get his ducks in line,” said one senior Liberal source who spoke to The Hill Times on a not-for-attribution-based interview in order to speak candidly.
- At least two Quebec universities say recent changes to infrastructure funding rules by the provincial government are jeopardizing coming renovation and construction projects. McGill University and Laval University say they are both reviewing planned capital projects in light of what the former described as a new cap on infrastructure funding. Quebec universities were informed “a few days ago” by the province that it was imposing the limit, retroactive to May 1 of this year, according to a statement sent by McGill to students and staff Thursday.
Ontario
- The RCMP is interviewing current and former staffers in the office of Ontario Premier Doug Ford as potential witnesses for its criminal investigation into the government’s rescinded move to allow housing development on the province’s protected Greenbelt lands. Grace Lee, a spokesperson for Mr. Ford, confirmed in an e-mailed statement on Friday that interviews with aides and former staffers were “currently underway.” She said detectives had not asked to interview Mr. Ford. And she directed other questions to the RCMP, which did not respond to a request for comment.
- Anyone heading Wasaga Beach shouldn’t be “pooping on the beach,” Premier Doug Ford says as the Ontario town fights back against what it says are misleading social media posts. Those posts claim people are defecating in the sand at Wasaga Beach Provincial Park, and the town’s mayor says Wasaga Beach’s image is being “gravely harmed” by them. “It’s a very popular beach,” Ford said at an unrelated press conference on Wednesday. “They have no proof people are pooping in the park.”
- Provincial ministers capped a three-day tour of northern Ontario on Friday by joining Premier Doug Ford in Thunder Bay as he announced funding for skilled labour training in the region. The province says it is spending nearly $17 million through the Skilled Development Fund (SDF) to train 36,000 workers and support jobs in mining, construction, energy and forestry. The announcement was made at Ironworkers Local 759, which is receiving more than $644,000 to build a new training centre with welding facilities for 150 participants to undertake structural ironwork.
- Premier Doug Ford says he’s “happy as punch” U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris chose Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz as her Democratic running mate. “We share a lot in common,” Ford told reporters Wednesday in a campaign-style stop in Mississauga where he announced $35 million to expand the G.E. Booth water resource recovery facility. As the Star reported Tuesday, the premier hosted Walz at Queen’s Park two months ago and the pair developed a warm rapport.
Manitoba
- Manitoba New Democrats are accusing a member of the provincial Progressive Conservatives of violating ethics guidelines — a charge the Tories say is false. Mike Moyes, the NDP’s caucus chair, has filed a complaint with the provincial ethics commissioner. He says Tory legislature member Greg Nesbitt is a shareholder and officer in a company that owns a hotel and conference centre in Russell, Man., which signed a $50,000 contract last December to rent space to the government. Nesbitt’s shares in the company are listed in mandatory disclosure statements filed with the ethics commissioner, but the contract is not.
- Federal NDP leader Jagmeet Singh spent Friday in Winnipeg to campaign for Leila Dance, the party’s candidate in the Sept. 16 Elmwood-Transcona byelection. Singh attended a short rally for Dance at White Spruce Park in the Peguis neighbourhood of Transcona over the noon hour and was slated to visit the First Nations pavilion at Folklorama with Dance. The NDP have represented Elmwood-Transcona and its predecessor riding, Winnipeg-Transcona, during all but four years of the electoral district’s 36-year existence. Conservative Lawrence Toet sat in the eastern Winnipeg seat from 2011 to 2015.
- The union representing electrical workers at Manitoba Hydro is mourning the loss of one of its members while also raising concerns about working conditions. “I worked with him for about a year early on in my career and I had many many interactions with him,” said Michael Espenell, the business manager for International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 2034 on Friday. “He was a beauty.” Manitoba Hydro said in a news release Thursday that one of its employees died after performing work related to a power outage in the Interlake region. Espenell said the man, who isn’t being identified at this time out of respect for their privacy, was working alone when he died while responding to the call.
- As the tenth anniversary of Tina Fontaine’s death approaches, the province announced it will be releasing its strategy on missing and murdered Indigenous women, girls and two-spirit people in October. Part of the strategy includes a $15 million endowment fund to support MMIWG2S+ families which will be managed by The Winnipeg Foundation, the province previously announced on Red Dress Day earlier this year. “That endowment fund is going to be a game-changer,” Minister of Housing, Addictions and Homelessness Bernadette Smith said at a news conference on Thursday.
Saskatchewan
- The largest police union in Canada and nearly 90 municipalities across Saskatchewan are calling on the province to pause its funding to the Saskatchewan Marshals Service (SMS), citing concerns about a lack of transparency and accountability. The SMS is meant to focus on rural crime, gangs and guns, arresting people with outstanding warrants, and assisting RCMP and municipal police when called, according to the province. The marshals service has received $14 million so far and is expected to cost $20 million per year once fully operational.
- As Saskatchewan heads into election season, a new poll suggests that the margin between the Saskatchewan Party and the NDP has narrowed among decided voters. Insightrix, a Saskatoon-based market research firm, asked an 860-person sample from July 23 to 26 which party they would vote for if an election were held immediately. Among people who said they are decided voters, 48 percent chose the NDP and 47 percent were in favour of the Sask. Party. A similar poll in September 2023 was 53-39 in favour of the Sask. Party.
- A former inmate at Saskatchewan’s only jail for women says she’s hopeful an investigation by the province’s ombudsman will lead to change. “It’s an opportunity for us to come together and have a voice together because together we’re stronger as women,” Chantel Huel said in an interview Wednesday. “It’s an opportunity to start some changes.” Huel has had several stints at Pine Grove Correctional Centre in Prince Albert, located approximately 140 kilometres northeast of Saskatoon. Pine Grove is being investigated by Saskatchewan’s ombudsman Sharon Pratchler, who has taken the rare step of publicly calling for testimony from those who’ve spent time inside the jail.
- Saskatchewan saw an uptick in employment last month, according to the latest Statistics Canada job numbers. According to the data, employment increased by 1.1 percent or 6,700 jobs in July — the second increase in the last three months. The province added 22,900 jobs compared to July 2023, according to the province. Meanwhile, employment declined in provinces such as Manitoba by 5,400 jobs, and also in Nova Scotia by 4,800.
Alberta
- Alberta’s governing UCP contradicted itself Friday regarding past comments made by both Premier Danielle Smith and Calgary-Lougheed MLA Eric Bouchard. The backing away followed heavy criticism, including from conservatives, over a pair of podcast videos regarding COVID-19 vaccines and doubling Alberta’s population to 10 million people by 2050. “Let’s have an aggressive target to double our population,” Smith told the Shaun Newman Podcast in January. “People are going to want to come here, and we have to embrace them, and we want to build this place out.” The video of that interview was clipped and posted Thursday and became widely shared and commented on by Friday afternoon.
- Alberta Premier Danielle Smith said the government will be instituting an accelerated initiative for tax cuts. From what the Alberta government was seeing, Smith said it wanted to be sure any tax cut it does would not put it into a deficit position. “With the uncertainty we saw in oil and gas prices, some of the uncertainty on how other sources of revenue would grow with the growth in the province and the growth in revenue, we wanted to be absolutely certain this $1.4 billion tax cut wouldn’t put us into deficit,” said Smith.
- There will be less money flowing to Alberta to support jobs this year. The province’s Minister of Jobs, Economy and Trade Matt Jones is calling out what he says is “Ottawa’s unexpected and unreasonable decision to cut $70.8 million in Labour Market Transfer Agreement (LMTA) funding for Alberta.” As a result, the Government of Alberta is putting the Canada-Alberta Job Grant on hold for the remainder of the 2024-25 fiscal year.
- Residents of Jasper, Alta., who lost their homes in last month’s wildfire face unique rebuilding challenges tied to leasing provisions nearly as old as Canada. Lawyer Jessica Reed said property owners in the townsite in Jasper National Park own their buildings but, unlike other municipalities, don’t own the land they sit on. “The actual owner of the land, even if you looked at the land title, is the King himself,” said Reed, a partner with a firm that has offices in four Rocky Mountain municipalities, including Jasper. This means that each property owner in Jasper, like those in other communities located within a national park, is a leaseholder with the Crown and must make annual payments tied to property values, Reed said.
British Columbia
- The New Democrats are scrambling to explain why their $2-billion program for affordable housing is delivering rental units that are not really affordable. Case in point: A five-storey, 64-unit project at 1807 Larch St. in Vancouver’s Kitsilano neighbourhood, is scheduled to open next month with rents priced at the high end of the market, from $2,650 to $4,300 a month. When the project was announced three years ago, then-Housing Minister David Eby touted it as a groundbreaking example of the NDP government’s commitment to “affordable” housing.
- The biggest development in provincial politics this year is the way the B.C. Conservatives have steadily closed ground on the B.C. NDP, a trend documented in a succession of opinion polls from Research Co. Back in January, the Conservatives were already in second place in a Research poll, but 21 points behind the NDP. By April, the gap was reduced to 18 points, then 10 in May and seven in June. The NDP lead over the Conservatives was trimmed to three points — 41 percent versus 38 percent among decided voters — in the most recent Research survey, reported at the end of July.
- This week, the B.C. government announced an additional $20 million in funding for the Canadian Cancer Society to support travel and lodging for cancer patients further. The announcement is welcome news for those battling cancer in rural and remote parts of the province, but it has also sparked calls for similar support for patients with other illnesses. Last year, Hope Air received $10 million from the B.C. government to assist cancer patients with their travel costs. However, the non-profit says it also serves patients with other medical conditions, who make up about two-thirds of the approximately 3,000 people it helped in the past year. For those patients, Hope Air says it relies on private donations.
- Some wildfire evacuees near British Columbia’s Slocan Lake are able to return home after the Regional District of Central Kootenay rescinded an evacuation order for an area south of Lemon Creek. An evacuation alert remains in place for 65 addresses and 20 parcels of land near the Ponderosa FSR wildfire, which is burning around 150 kilometres east of Kelowna, B.C. Evacuation orders still apply for more than 400 properties to the north, including the Village of Slocan, as the Slocan Lake wildfire complex continues to burn. There are almost 360 wildfires burning across the province as of Thursday morning, according to the B.C. Wildfire Service (BCWS), up from about 330 last week. The majority of active wildfires were caused by lightning.
Northwest Territories
- Workers at the Fort Simpson Housing Authority have voted unanimously in favour of striking after a tentative deal wasn’t reached with their employer. In a news release Friday, the Public Service Alliance of Canada said they and the Union of Northern Workers Local 13 met on Tuesday to review the latest collective bargaining updates. The strike vote doesn’t mean a strike will happen, but it does help clear the way for one if the unions exhaust other efforts to reach an agreement with the housing authority. The unions are set to begin mediation on Aug. 20 with the housing authority to try to avoid a strike.
Yukon
- The Yukon’s environment minister remains in hospital in Vancouver following a crash south of Whitehorse last week, as an outpouring of grief continues for his deputy minister who was killed in the collision. Minister Nils Clarke is “hopeful for a full recovery,” according to a statement issued by Yukon Premier Ranj Pillai Monday, “and he and his wife Janet thank the community for their well wishes.” Pillai also announced that Minister John Streicker will be taking over Clarke’s environment portfolio until Clarke can return to work, while Minister Richard Mostyn will take over Clarke’s other portfolio of highways and public works. Clarke and Deputy Environment Minister Michael Prochazka were leaving a salmon celebration held at McClintock Bay Resort late Friday afternoon when their truck was hit by another vehicle.
Nunavut
- Bringing Inuit art back to Nunavut more urgent than ever, says advocate. William Beveridge has been working with the federal government and Nunavut to build a heritage centre. Beveridge started advocating for a heritage centre in Nunavut back in 2002, hoping to achieve the goal outlined in the Nunavut Land Claims Agreement of 1993, which said there was a need for a heritage centre in the territory. But it’s been a challenge, he says, primarily because of a lack of funding. Based on the size of the potential collection available in places such as Quebec and Manitoba, Beveridge says it would cost about $100 million to $150 million to construct a building big enough, equipped with the proper protections for the art and artifacts.