Provincial and Territorial Update – December 8, 2024
Provincial and Territorial Update: An overview of the Provincial Legislative and Territories Legislative Updates for the week of December 8, 2024. Written by Wes McLean.
New Brunswick
- New Brunswick Premier Susan Holt has clarified who will receive upcoming bonus payments for nurses. About 10,000 of the approximately 11,000 nurses working in the province are due to receive the $10,000 payments in December or January. Those excluded from the retention initiative include some who are represented by the Canadian Union of Public Employees and are in the middle of a dispute over pension changes, some whose job status is casual and some who work for special care homes.
- N.B. Power is turning back to carbon-emitting fossil fuels as it scrambles to find new ways to generate electricity to meet record-breaking demands. The utility plans to buy power generated by a new natural-gas plant to be built by a private company outside Moncton — a move at odds with the current push to achieve a net-zero-emissions power grid a decade from now.
- New Brunswick’s housing minister says major amendments to his rent-cap legislation probably won’t be possible before it is adopted next week, despite criticisms from both supporters and opponents of the bill. David Hickey said after two days of hearings by a legislative committee that he’s in a hurry to get the cap passed and into effect by Feb. 1 – even after warnings that it has loopholes and that it could deter developers from building more units.
- New Brunswick’s child and youth advocate has delivered a mostly failing grade to the provincial government’s work on recommendations in 2021 to address mental health issues among First Nations youth. In a report released Monday morning, Kelly Lamrock calls the government’s efforts “lacklustre,” concluding that it took no action on 12 of the 20 recommendations and only “somewhat implemented” the eight others.
Nova Scotia
- The federal Department of Fisheries and Oceans is poised to impose a major shakeup on the lucrative but problem-plagued Maritime fishery for juvenile eels, stripping most commercial operations of nearly all their quota and handing it to individual fishermen and First Nations. In a letter Thursday, the department proposes that six license holders, many of which pioneered the industry and slogged through years of low prices before the recent boom, will lose 80 to 90 per cent of the quota they fished before 2022. The remaining three will see cuts of about 60 per cent.
- One year after its launch, a streamlined licensing program aimed at attracting foreign-trained pharmacists to Nova Scotia has drawn more than 100 applicants to the province. The Nova Scotia College of Pharmacists launched the program last December. The governing body reached out to pharmacists in the United States, Great Britain, Ireland, Australia and New Zealand.
- Early next week, Tim Houston, fresh off his landslide Progressive Conservative party election victory, is expected to unveil his cabinet, along with the swearing-in of all 55 elected MLAs. The PCs elected 43 caucus members in the Oct. 27 election, 17 of whom, including Houston, were cabinet ministers in the party’s first majority government, so some familiar faces should be returning to the cabinet table.
- Premier Tim Houston is spending the bulk of the first full week of his new mandate attending business meetings and the annual Christmas tree lighting in Boston. The premier, whose Progressive Conservative Party earned a resounding 43-seat majority in last month’s provincial election, met with Bernadette Jordan, Canada’s consul general in Boston, during the trip. A statement from his office said the meeting was about “how to leverage and strengthen partnerships in the U.S.”
Prince Edward Island
- Belfast-Murray River MLA Darlene Compton says she doesn’t think the issues concerning the ferry service between Prince Edward Island and Nova Scotia are a priority for the federal government. “When you look at Ottawa, there are a lot of issues happening. And, you know, where does the ferry sit in all of this? I’m not sure,” Compton told Island Morning’s Laura Chapin on Thursday. On Wednesday, the MV Confederation made its first crossing since Sept. 15 after the ship collided with the wharf in Wood Islands and damaged its bow visor, a type of raisable door.
- Opposition politicians had more questions for P.E.I.’s premier and Department of Tourism Friday at a legislature committee on education and economic growth. MLAs requested a long list of documents and information related to the province’s marketing deal with the National Hockey League, first revealed back in February. The contract has been controversial — in fact, it was brought up by opposition members every day of the fall sitting of the legislature that wrapped up on Nov. 29 — because the cost to taxpayers has been shrouded in secrecy and the return on investment for the province is unclear.
- Health P.E.I. is planning to expand free virtual health care to everyone on the Island, not just the 35,000 people without a family doctor or nurse practitioner. But those who do have a primary care provider will be able to access the online service only twice a year. Andrew MacDougall, executive director of community health and seniors care at Health P.E.I., said the current wait time for free virtual care delivered through the platform Maple is about an hour.
- Prince Edward Island now has a law on the books to regulate service dogs, but it could be two more years before it comes into effect. The law was brought forward as a private member’s bill by Progressive Conservative MLA Brad Trivers, and received royal assent when the fall sitting of the legislature closed last Friday. The lack of a law stipulating which dogs can be designated as service animals was creating confusion for people who use them, as well as for businesses those people patronize, Trivers said.
Newfoundland and Labrador
- Memorial University moved Friday to curb hiring professors, researchers and other staff to deal with a loss of more than $9.5 million in tuition fees. In a statement, university president Neil Bose said the Board of Regents on Thursday approved a “limited hiring program” that is aimed at vacant and new positions, including both permanent and contractual jobs. Bose said the hiring moves apply to all campuses, including the Marine Institute. Tuition fees will not increase, Bose told reporters Friday afternoon.
- For the last eight months, a Newfoundland family has been drinking bottled water after being informed the water from their well was contaminated with a toxic chemical. They’re now leading a proposed class-action lawsuit taking aim at the federal government. According to a statement filed by McInnes Cooper partner J. Alex Templeton last week with the Federal Court, the problem stretches from the early 1980s all the way to 2004, when firefighting training at St. John’s International Airport used a foam that contained a toxic substances called perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl (PFAS).
- More than 200 Mount Pearl residents attended a public meeting Tuesday night to address violent crime in the city, following a string of random attacks that resulted in seven teenagers in the community being arrested. Around two dozen people walked up to a microphone in the middle of the packed Reid Community Centre gymnasium to speak candidly with city politicians, Royal Newfoundland Constabulary officers and others.
- Newfoundland and Labrador’s seniors’ advocate is joining her colleagues across the country in urging the federal government to expand on the promised $250 rebate cheques to include seniors. Susan Walsh says seniors are a demographic who are struggling, especially in Newfoundland and Labrador. Last month the federal government proposed a plan to issue $250 cheques to the 18.7 million people in Canada who worked in 2023 and earned $150,000 or less.
Quebec
- Premier François Legault says he’s uncomfortable seeing people praying in public and places such as parks and his government is examining ways to ban it — even if it requires use of the notwithstanding clause to override fundamental rights. On the same day Education Minister Bernard Drainville announced Quebec will table new legislation reinforcing the rules of secularism in schools that will go beyond Bill 21, Legault used his news conference wrapping up the sitting of the legislature to again dip into the theme of identity politics.
- Quebec Premier François Legault is in France for the reopening of Notre-Dame Cathedral in Paris. Legault was one of the dignitaries invited to the ceremony, which began Saturday evening at around 1 p.m. Quebec time. Hundreds of celebrities, heads of state, bishops and priests were invited, including newly-elected U.S. President Donald Trump, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and Prince William of the British royal family.
- Quebec Liberal Party (QLP) leadership candidate Pablo Rodriguez received several new endorsements on Sunday, including La Pinière MNA Linda Caron and Mont-Royal-Outremont MNA Michelle Setlakwe. Accompanied by his campaign co-chair and Philippe Couillard government minister Luc Fortin, and Notre-Dame-de-Grâce MNA Désirée McGraw, Pablo Rodriguez announced these new endorsements for his ascension to the PLQ leadership.
- Braving a biting winter wind, dignitaries gathered in front of Polytechnique Montréal’s main campus on Friday to pay tribute to the 14 women killed at the engineering school in an anti-feminist attack 35 years ago. Among those silently laying white flowers at the foot of a commemorative plaque in Montreal’s Côte-des-Neiges neighbourhood was Louis Courville, who was the interim director of the school in 1989. “I am glad that there are many people who did not forget what has happened,” Courville, 90, said afterwards. “At the same time, it’s the memory of a very sad, horrible thing.”
Ontario
- As Premier Doug Ford mulls gambling on an early election, a new poll suggests that might be a safe bet. The latest Abacus Data monthly tracking survey for the Star found Ford’s Tories at 43 per cent — well ahead of Bonnie Crombie’s Liberals at 25 per cent, Marit Stiles’ New Democrats at 21 per cent and Mike Schreiner’s Greens at six per cent. “Now is as good a time as any to go (to voters). I don’t see how their numbers get better,” said Abacus president David Coletto.
- Ontario Premier Doug Ford is promising new legislation to target homeless encampments around the province and is threatening to use the notwithstanding clause to get it done. In a letter, Ford has responded to a dozen big city mayors who asked him for tougher laws on encampments, saying the province will provide the tools to help municipalities clear them and that “enough is enough.” Ford says new legislation will “explicitly and unequivocally” prohibit the use of illicit drugs in public, adding that there will be new tools and authorities to help police enforce it. He also promised enhanced penalties for people who break the law “deliberately and continually.”
- During an appearance on Fox News, Ontario Premier Doug Ford joked that president-elect Donald Trump’s tariff threats were belated retribution for the War of 1812 as the province continued a coordinated attempt to appeal to the American public. On Wednesday afternoon, Ford appeared in an interview with Fox News host Neil Cavuto to promote Ontario’s relations with the United States and position the province as a key trading partner. The interview was the latest in a string of appearances — including on BBC and a CNN show — the premier has taken part in.
- A top aide to Ontario Premier Doug Ford is facing questions about how he manages sensitive government records after he traded in his cellphone without fully backing it up, Global News can reveal, meaning months of text messages related to official government business are now considered “missing.” The government has been engaged in a months-long freedom of information appeal with Global News over text conversations between Ford’s chief of staff Patrick Sackville and Metrolinx CEO Phil Verster.
Manitoba
- The Southern Chiefs’ Organization has quietly removed references to Jerry Daniels, who has been the organization’s grand chief since 2017, from its website after he was hospitalized following an altercation in Ottawa earlier this week. The development comes after a source, whom CBC has agreed not to name, confirmed Daniels was involved in an altercation early Tuesday morning in Ottawa, where he was attending the Assembly of First Nations special chiefs assembly.
- Winnipeg property owners are facing the largest municipal property tax hike in 34 years, CBC News has learned. The preliminary version of the 2025 budget for the Manitoba capital calls for a 5.95 per cent property tax hike, according to city hall sources CBC is not naming because they are not authorized to divulge details of the 2025 city budget. Winnipeg Mayor Scott Gillingham and city council finance chair Jeff Browaty (North Kildonan) are slated to present the first draft of that budget on Wednesday.
- First Nations leaders in Manitoba’s Interlake are pressing the federal government to address funding shortfalls due to a backlog in processing requests through Jordan’s Principle in their communities — funding requests intended to ensure First Nations kids get timely health-care services. “You created a program for our people to fail, and then failure is exactly what’s happening here today,” Lake Manitoba First Nation Chief Cornell McLean said at a Friday news conference hosted by the Interlake Reserves Tribal Council.
- A group advocating for consumers wants the Manitoba government to clamp down on the payday loan industry. The independent Public Utilities Board began hearing arguments Friday into a review of the charges and fees that consumers pay through payday loans. The week-long hearing will specifically review a new cap on how much lenders can charge. The fee will be lowered to $14 per $100 loan, instead of the current $17 limit in Manitoba. The new federal law will take effect on Jan. 1, 2025.
Saskatchewan
- Premier Scott Moe says his government is not interested in having ex-MLA Gary Grewal appear before a committee and answer questions about breaching conflict of interest rules. “I don’t know the last time, under any government, that a private citizen has been summoned to appear before a committee or the legislature,” Moe said. In October, conflict of interest commissioner Maurice Herauf found that Grewal violated rules with his ownership and interest in two Regina motels that received money from the government to house social services clients.
- A former CEO with the Wascana Centre Authority and Saskatchewan Sports Hall of Fame inductee will be the province’s next lieutenant-governor. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s office announced Friday Bernadette McIntyre will serve in the role, representing the King in the province. Her duties will include swearing in cabinet ministers, opening each session of the legislative assembly and providing royal assent to provincial bills.
- The Government of Saskatchewan is making changes to its Safer Communities and Neighbourhoods (SCAN) Act to try to tackle issues like abandoned buildings, squatters and graffiti. Under the revised SCAN Act, officers will have the ability to target nuisance properties without waiting for a complaint to be filed. A property could be considered a nuisance due to unsafe living conditions, squatters or excessive vandalism. SCAN officers still need to apply to the court for rehabilitation or forfeiture orders, and public complaints will still be required to trigger an investigation into illegal activity on private property.
- Kamila Jamili sits in her small Saskatoon apartment with a steaming mug of green tea, reminiscing over framed photos of her family. They show the last time her siblings and parents were together — three years ago, before they were forced to flee their home in Afghanistan. “I was talking with my parents. ‘I can’t leave you guys behind.’ But they said, ‘just go and keep your life,'” the 26-year-old said. “We are very worried about them. Still they are not safe.” Jamili eventually came to Canada in 2022 as a privately-sponsored refugee, with her brother Ali joining her last year. But the siblings now fear a longer wait to reunite with the parents, sister and two brothers they left behind.
Alberta
- Alberta is looking to lure workers from the United Arab Emirates (U.A.E.) as part of a 2025 international recruitment mission, according to documents and emails shared with CBC News. It’s a move that’s raising concerns among labour leaders in the province. In a Nov. 5 email, obtained by the federal NDP and shared with CBC News, an immigration partnerships advisor with Alberta Immigration and Multiculturalism outlined steps for participating employers interested in joining the mission, advising of two employer information sessions scheduled for later in the month.
- Two years after the deal was announced, the Alberta government can’t yet say what value taxpayers will get in return for an outstanding $49-million credit with the Turkish company contracted to import children’s pain medication. On Dec. 6, 2022, then-health minister Jason Copping and Premier Danielle Smith held a news conference at an Edmonton pharmacy to announce the province was importing five million bottles of acetaminophen and ibuprofen to address a Canada-wide shortage in a deal worth more than $70 million.
- The Alberta government has released its first road map to attracting massive AI-focused data centres to the province — and Technology Minister Nate Glubish has aggressive targets to reach. Landing such developments in Alberta could lead to more than $100 billion of investment, while creating thousands of technology jobs and spurring new demand for natural gas that will be needed to generate electricity to power such facilities, Glubish said in an interview.
- Egale Canada, Skipping Stone and several families in Alberta have united to initiate litigation against the government of Alberta challenging the constitutionality of Bill 26. The controversial bill, which denies medically necessary care from being provided to gender diverse youth in the province, passed on Dec. 5, 2024. The decision to initiate litigation was announced Saturday morning in a press release.
British Columbia
- British Columbia Premier David Eby says his fellow premiers and the federal government have hatched a game plan to fight U.S. tariffs, with conservative premiers lobbying Republican counterparts, left-leaning provincial leaders courting the Democrats, and Ottawa focusing on president-elect Donald Trump. The premiers and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau talked about using their political diversity and connections to thwart the prospect of Trump’s proposed 25 per cent tariffs on imports from Canada and Mexico, Eby said Thursday in a year-end interview.
- The B.C. government says it will conduct an independent review of the province’s model for 911 services. Speaking at the Union of BC Municipalities annual convention in September, Premier David Eby announced his intention to initiate the review after the union and the BC Association of Chiefs of Police reportedly raised concerns about the financial transparency and performance of Emergency Communications for British Columbia Incorporated (E-Comm). E-Comm is the non-profit organization that maintains the emergency radio system for police, fire, and ambulance services.
- The B.C. minister of children and family development says she is stepping down from cabinet after receiving a cancer diagnosis last month. Grace Lore says she will stay on as the MLA for Victoria-Beacon Hill but will take a temporary leave from the ministry. “Late last month, I was diagnosed with colorectal cancer. This diagnosis was very sudden, and I am working with medical professionals to address this head-on, right away,” said Lore in a statement Thursday. “This file is so important and requires the full attention of someone to make the changes we need because kids need us to get it right. By stepping back, I will be able to focus solely on my treatment and recovery, so l can get back to doing this work as soon as possible.”
- The B.C. government has announced that a memorial service will be held on Dec. 15 for former premier John Horgan. In a statement on Tuesday, the province said the service would be held at the Q Centre in Colwood, B.C., just southeast of Horgan’s home community of Langford on southern Vancouver Island. Horgan died at the age of 65 on Nov. 12 after three bouts of cancer. The former premier led the B.C. government from 2017 to 2022.
Northwest Territories
- Yellowknife residents are looking at a potential six-per-cent property tax increase for 2025. That number was initially at eight per cent, but was reduced partially due to the N.W.T.’s carbon tax. Yellowknife city council has been discussing the city’s draft budget since Monday, finding ways to cut it down. At the start of a city committee meeting on Thursday, Kavi Pandoo, Yellowknife’s director of corporate services, said the city had managed to reduce the proposed property tax hike to 7.8 per cent with cuts.
Yukon
- The Yukon government has applied for an order under the Safer Communities and Neighbourhoods Act to temporarily evict the occupants of a house in Whitehorse’s Copper Ridge neighbourhood alleged to be harbouring drug activity. In a petition filed to the Yukon Supreme Court late last month, the territory’s director of public safety and investigations alleges that a more than year-long investigation “gave rise to the reasonable inference” that the home on Topaz Crescent “is being habitually used for drug trafficking.”
Nunavut
- Longtime northern lawyer and Nunavut judge Susan Cooper was acting as Nunavut’s chief justice for several months before she officially took on the role. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced Cooper’s appointment in a news release last Friday. The territory’s outgoing Chief Justice Neil Sharkey retired because he turned 75 — the mandatory retirement age for judges.