Provincial And Territorial Update – December 12, 2025

This week in government

Across provinces and territories this week, governments are using regulation, leadership change, and court decisions to manage affordability pressures, strained public services, and Indigenous and environmental files. For the private sector, the immediate signal is more policy volatility in energy, land, and public procurement, plus growing demand for workforce capacity, compliance support, and risk management.

Practical takeaway for the private sector

Plan for faster regulatory pivots, higher documentation and compliance expectations (especially in government contracting), and more rigorous land, environmental, and Indigenous engagement risk management. Businesses that can offer measurable outcomes (cost savings, workforce capacity, transparent reporting) will be better positioned in the next quarter.

What changed, and why it matters to business

Energy and affordability levers are being pulled (NB, NL, MB): New Brunswick is adjusting gas price-setting rules to push pump prices down; Newfoundland and Labrador continues major electricity rate mitigation tied to Muskrat Falls; Manitoba is planning significant capacity and demand-side measures for future winter shortages. Impact: Fuel and power price shifts can change operating costs, bid assumptions, and consumer demand, especially for transportation, manufacturing, and energy-intensive sectors.
Land and Indigenous rights risk is front and centre (NB, BC, NS): New Brunswick’s appeal court narrowed a major Wolastoqey title claim to exclude certain private forestry lands (while keeping potential damages against the Crown). British Columbia is offering financial protection after a court recognition of Aboriginal title over private land created mortgage and resale concerns. Nova Scotia politics is focused on repairing relationships with Mi’kmaw leadership. Impact: Forestry, real estate, infrastructure, and lenders face heightened due diligence, project timelines risk, and potentially new compensation or insurance considerations.
Public sector governance and accountability pressures are rising (ON, NS): Ontario is in court over a transparency ruling involving the premier’s cellphone records, and the province faces scrutiny over continued funding to a vendor now under OPP investigation. In Nova Scotia, a national museum CEO departed following a workplace conduct report. Impact: Expect tougher procurement scrutiny, stronger audit trails, and higher expectations for vendor governance, ethics, and documentation when selling to government.
Workforce shortages and service delivery reforms continue (NB, QC): New Brunswick is expanding collaborative care clinics and rolling out a teacher recruitment and retention strategy. Quebec is revising its health access framework (Law 2) with major metric and incentive changes and ambitious patient targets. Impact: Private providers, staffing firms, training organizations, and digital health/HR tech vendors may see opportunities, but performance metrics, reporting, and contract terms can change quickly.
Political churn and institutional capacity constraints (PEI, ON, NL, AB, SK): PEI has a new premier and a looming leadership convention. Ontario’s legislature is recessed until March 23, 2026, compressing timelines for policy decisions and procurement. Newfoundland court operations are suspended in several areas. Alberta is seeing recall petition drives and active debate on referendum rules. Saskatchewan reshuffled public safety structures. Impact: Decision cycles can slow or lurch, increasing uncertainty for permitting, enforcement, litigation timelines, and government buying.
Biosecurity and climate pressures (MB, YT, SK, NWT): Manitoba is dealing with a notable avian influenza die-off; Yukon’s surplus is down due to wildfire and service costs; Saskatchewan faces peatland protection calls; NWT is pushing for more support for Indigenous participation in assessments. Impact: Agriculture, tourism, resource, and logistics operators should anticipate tighter biosecurity practices, more climate-related cost volatility, and evolving environmental assessment requirements.

New Brunswick

The Holt Liberals have found a way to keep their promise of lower gas prices just days before Christmas. Cabinet ministers adopted an order Thursday that changes how the Energy and Utilities Board calculates the maximum price of gasoline – a change that the government says should reduce prices by as much as seven cents a litre next week. The change to regulations under the Petroleum Products Pricing Act should lower the per-litre price at the EUB’s next scheduled price-setting at midnight next Thursday, Dec. 18.
As Health Minister John Dornan announced the 10th collaborative care clinic of the year Monday morning in Bathurst, he scrawled 14,000 on a Bristol board at the front of the room. That’s the number of people the government is hoping to match with permanent primary care providers through the clinics.
Educators say safety and challenging behaviour in classrooms is a key issue for teachers, but the province’s new plan to grow the workforce doesn’t mention it. Education Minister Claire Johnson released a teacher recruitment and retention strategy on Thursday, which is meant to address the current shortage, projected to grow in the coming years as more teachers retire. It sets out short- and medium-term goals, to be completed within one and three years, respectively, and long-term goals, which don’t have timelines attached.
New Brunswick’s top court has narrowed the scope of a major title claim by the Wolastoqey Nation, excluding private lands belonging to three large forestry companies from any ownership claim. The New Brunswick Court of Appeal says, however, that the Wolastoqey can continue their case against the Crown — but only for damages and compensation they deserve for the loss of those same now-private lands. In the ruling released Thursday, former chief justice Ernest Drapeau said he was seeking “to open a clearer path to peaceful and respectful reconciliation between Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal Canadians in this province.”

Nova Scotia

Members of Nova Scotia’s forest industry and a prominent environmentalist are welcoming news that the winning bidder for the Northern Pulp timberlands is a local company whose owner they say has a track record of doing right by rural communities. The Bragg family announced on Thursday that it was the successful bidder, through its Tidnish Holdings Ltd., for the 173,000 hectares of forest and other assets at a price of $235 million. Billionaire blueberry mogul John Bragg, whose interests also include Oxford Frozen Foods and Eastlink, is founder and CEO of the Bragg Group.
Opposition politicians say it is up to Nova Scotia Premier Tim Houston to find a way to lower tensions between his government and Mi’kmaw leadership in the province. “The premier has to pick up the phone, he has to reach out to the chiefs,” Liberal MLA Derek Mombourquette told reporters Thursday. “He has to get around the table, and they need to start repairing that relationship.”
The CEO of one of Canada’s national museums retired Thursday after a damning report accused her of mistreating staff over the course of a decade and using inappropriate language, including calling a senior leadership team ‘sluts.’ A letter sent to stakeholders and staff at the Canadian Museum of Immigration at Pier 21 in Halifax said Marie Chapman was leaving her role immediately.
An investigator found the mayor of Halifax did not breach the municipal code of conduct with comments he made earlier this year about the role of a chief administrative officer. This summer, Andy Fillmore spoke out multiple times about the need to change the municipal structure and said he would welcome strong mayor powers from the provincial government to better deliver on his campaign promises. Fillmore has said the power in the municipal organization is “concentrated with an unelected CAO,” and in July, he said, “I report to the CAO” in the Halifax organizational chart.

Prince Edward Island

Former P.E.I. deputy premier Bloyce Thompson was sworn in as the province’s 35th premier on Friday, one day after Rob Lantz announced his resignation from the role so he could run for the permanent leadership of the province’s Progressive Conservative Party. Thompson was sworn in during a ceremony on Friday afternoon at Government House in Charlottetown. He becomes P.E.I.’s third premier in a single year.
Rob Lantz officially resigned as Prince Edward Island’s 34th premier Thursday night and announced his bid for the permanent leadership of the province’s Progressive Conservative Party. “It’s been the honour of my life to serve Islanders as premier,” Lantz said during the announcement in Charlottetown. “This province has given me every opportunity I’ve ever had. That’s why I care so much about its future.”
P.E.I. Liberal Party officials say they have no intention of changing leadership, despite a byelection loss this week. Liberal Leader Robert Mitchell lost the District 2, Georgetown-Pownal, vote to the Progressive Conservatives’ Brendan Curran on Monday. In an interview with CBC News that night, Mitchell said he “hoped” to remain Liberal leader. On Wednesday, party president Katie Morello confirmed to CBC News that it would be the case. Despite the byelection loss, she said the party still considers the evening a success.
P.E.I.’s Progressive Conservative Party has picked Feb. 7 as the date for its upcoming leadership convention. In a news release Wednesday morning, party president Sydney Gallant said it’s a pivotal moment for the governing PCs, who hold 20 of the 27 seats in the legislature. “Momentum continues to build, engagement is high,” Gallant said in the release. “We are eager to welcome a leader who will help shape the future of Prince Edward Island.” The leadership convention will take place at the Eastlink Centre in Charlottetown.

Newfoundland and Labrador

Newfoundland and Labrador’s acting child and youth advocate has completed a report commissioned by then-premier Andrew Furey more than a year ago about policies and procedures in the child protection system. Furey ordered the review after revelations in a CBC Investigates report about two men accused of preying on youth in government care. The new Tory government posted the 108-page report online late Thursday afternoon. In a statement, Social Supports and Well-Being Minister Joedy Wall said the report was presented to the premier and ministers earlier that day.
A retired Crown prosecutor in Newfoundland and Labrador says suspensions at provincial court will make life harder for those seeking justice, and will have an impact far beyond the walls of the courtroom. “People are using small claims [court] all the time, and to have that avenue cut off, especially when all the work was done to establish it in the first place, is a big issue,” Mike Murray told CBC Radio’s On The Go. Several operations inside the provincial court system, including civil hearings, traffic hearings and some circuit courts have been suspended since Nov. 28.
Newfoundland and Labrador’s consumer insolvency rate saw slowed growth in the latest updates published by the Office of the Superintendent of Bankruptcy on Tuesday, but still far outpaced the national average. The province saw a 5.9 per cent increase in bankruptcies and proposals for the 12-month period ending Oct. 31. That’s down from 8.9 per cent the month before, but still well above the national average of 0.7 per cent in the latest update.
Newfoundland and Labrador Hydro’s quarterly report is revealing the high cost of keeping electricity rates stable in the Muskrat Falls era, with nearly $600 million committed in the first nine months of 2025 to subsidize rates and pay the mortgage on the controversial hydroelectric project. Up to the end of September, $591 million was allocated to rate mitigation, with $441 of that being paid by N.L. Hydro from its own funds, and $150 million coming from the federal government as part of a rate mitigation plan that was finalized in April 2024. In the same nine-month period in 2024, $240 million was committed to rate mitigation.

Quebec

The PQ leader, Paul St-Pierre Plamondon, “strongly invites” François Legault to consider calling early elections in the spring, stating that they would “benefit from settling things as soon as possible. We are ready for this. If the CAQ is going to give us another session of division and unnecessary polarization, which does not correspond to any reflection on public policies, well, why not follow up on their thinking in the snow and go and submit all this to the Quebecers?”, he stated at a press conference on Friday during his party’s end-of-session review.
Premier François Legault intends to remain in office despite some of his MNAs urging him to step down. CAQ politicians who spoke anonymously to Le Journal de Québec called on their leader to consider his future, less than a year before the elections, due to a string of poor poll results. During a brief news scrum on Wednesday morning before question period, Legault wanted to make himself crystal clear. He reiterated that he would remain in office, as he has said several times in recent months.
Quebec Liberal Leader Pablo Rodriguez is facing increasing pressure from prominent Liberals to step down amid an ongoing crisis within the party. But the former federal cabinet minister insists he will remain in office and that he can still win the next provincial election. “I was elected by the party members because they know I have the experience to beat the (governing Coalition Avenir Québec) and beat the Parti Québécois,” the embattled leader told reporters Thursday morning on the sidelines of his party’s caucus meeting in Quebec City. “I’m not going anywhere.”
The removal of colour-coded performance labels, volume-based performance indicators, and a new target of 500,000 new patients are some of the main changes that will be made in the new version of Law 2, which is due to come into effect on Feb. 28. “Hundreds of thousands more Quebecers will have access to a Family Medicine Group if the agreement is ratified. So, it would be another extraordinary gain if we succeeded,” said Premier François Legault. Under the revised proposal, physicians would no longer face a 13 per cent penalty for failing to meet patient-access targets, a provision that had sparked strong pushback from the medical community.

Ontario

Lawyers for the Ontario government and Doug Ford say a landmark decision from the province’s transparency watchdog ordering the premier to potentially release calls on his personal cellphone is a “make-work project” that entertained irrelevant and unreliable evidence. On Wednesday, a panel of three Ontario judges heard a request by the provincial government for a judicial review of an Information and Privacy Commission decision handed down last year.
Ontario’s Liberals are pushing Doug Ford’s government to sell the province’s stockpile of U.S. booze that is sitting in storage. Liberal parliamentary Leader John Fraser says Ford should tell the Liquor Control Board of Ontario to sell the booze and donate the proceeds to charity. Ford pulled American alcohol off LCBO shelves in March in response to U.S. President Donald Trump imposing tariffs on Canadian goods. “Why don’t we just sell it off and use those profits and give it to food banks on behalf of all Ontarians?” Fraser said on Wednesday.
Premier Doug Ford says a company now under investigation by the Ontario Provincial Police continued to receive government funding even after it was flagged for a forensic audit two years ago, because the results had not yet been received. Mr. Ford spoke at the Ontario Legislature on Tuesday, a day after the OPP confirmed they are investigating Keel Digital Solutions. The company received more than $40-million from the province, including from a skills training fund that the Auditor-General found was granting money in ways that were unfair and unaccountable. Labour Minister David Piccini’s ties to the company have also come under scrutiny.
The Ontario government is taking more than three months away from the legislature after rising from the fall session at Queen’s Park on Thursday. MPPs voted to form their winter break on March 23 after sitting for just a few weeks in the latest session. Government House Leader Steve Clark said the government has had a “very, very productive session” and MPPs need time to consult with their communities. “We passed 12 government bills, six private members’ bills, seven private members’ motions, 15 private bills, and 55 committee hearings. But now it’s time we have to implement,” Clark said. “We’re getting ready for a budget next year. We need to consult our communities.”

Manitoba

At least 500 bird carcasses, the majority Canadian geese, have been recovered near water streams in southern Manitoba over the last month — a die-off scientists say they haven’t witnessed in the province before and are attributing to avian influenza. “Anywhere there was open water, where birds were concentrated, now we’re seeing carcasses,” Frank Baldwin, a biologist with the Canadian Wildlife Service, told CBC News on Thursday. “We haven’t experienced this in Manitoba yet at this scale.”
A Progressive Conservative pamphlet before the 2023 Manitoba election campaign that detailed Premier Wab Kinew’s criminal past, along with related comments made by volunteers, did not violate the province’s Elections Act, elections commissioner Bill Bowles has ruled. A resident in the Riel constituency in Winnipeg filed a complaint about the focus on Kinew’s past, alleging it violated a provision of the law that prohibits knowingly making false statements about a candidate’s character or conduct. In a report issued this week, however, Bowles ruled there was a basis for the material and comments.
New figures from Ottawa show the Manitoba government is forecast to see its federal equalization payments jump by $355 million, or 7.5 per cent, in the next fiscal year. Equalization payments to the province have risen steadily for more than a decade, and next year’s forecast total of $5 billion is double what Manitoba received in 2020. Equalization is a federally funded program that provides funding to poorer provinces to help them maintain comparable levels of services and tax rates to those of wealthier provinces.
Manitoba Hydro plans to add 1,760 megawatts of electricity — more than a quarter of its existing generating capacity — within 10 years through a combination of energy-saving measures and new infrastructure. On Thursday, Hydro published some of the details of its forthcoming integrated resource plan, which lays out how the provincial Crown corporation plans to stave

Saskatchewan

Saskatchewan’s Ministry of Corrections, Policing and Public Safety got a new name in conjunction with Thursday’s cabinet shuffle. It is now called the Ministry of Community Safety, and has a new minister at its head: Michael Weger. He takes over that ministry, as well as responsibility for the Saskatchewan Public Safety Agency, from Tim McLeod, who will stay in cabinet as justice minister. The public safety agency has been criticized this year for its handling of the wildfire season, including by one of its own fire supervisors, who said he became so frustrated that he resigned.
Environmental advocates are seeking to protect peatlands in Saskatchewan’s north, saying they are a climate-critical ecosystem threatened by mining. The Wildlife Conservation Society recently released a proposal for a national peatland strategy that calls on federal and provincial governments to adopt urgent measures to safeguard the ecosystems. Peatlands, also known as muskegs, are characterized by carbon-rich soil formed when organic matter decomposes.
A group advocating for Saskatchewan’s separation from Canada reports that its public information sessions are drawing crowds. The Saskatchewan Prosperity Project (SPP) says its presentations are meant to teach people about the benefits of Saskatchewan becoming a sovereign nation. “Right now in Canada, it’s a sinking ship. And if we don’t take our lifeboat and throw it out and get off while we can, we’re going down with the ship, and we don’t have to,” SPP president Brad Williams said.
Mandla Mthembu arrived at a social housing complex in Regina’s North Central neighbourhood to find the unit surrounded by a metal fence and boarded-up windows. He says it’s a sight he is seeing more often — social housing units sitting empty for long periods before being torn down because they haven’t been maintained or repaired. While these units sit vacant, hundreds of unhoused people are left to live on the streets and endure cold temperatures because of how hard it has become to access affordable housing in Saskatchewan, according to Mthembu, a community activist.

Alberta

Danielle Smith has become the second Alberta premier – and the first in almost 90 years – to face a citizen-led petition drive to get her removed from her seat in the legislature. Smith and two more of her United Conservative Party caucus members saw recall campaigns officially approved and launched on Wednesday by Elections Alberta. In total, 20 of the 47-member UCP caucus are facing recall petitions. A formal signature-gathering drive has also been launched against one Opposition NDP member, Amanda Chapman.
Alberta Premier Danielle Smith says she still supports Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre ahead of his high-stakes leadership review, despite her quibbles about his recent motion endorsing an oil pipeline to the West Coast. “Yes and yes,” said Smith when asked if she thought Poilievre should stay on as Conservative leader and whether she’d be around for the party’s upcoming national convention in Calgary, which is scheduled for Jan. 29 to 31.
Alberta Premier Danielle Smith confirmed today that her United Conservative Party government is keen to help provide provincial post-secondary accreditation for the Peterson Academy, the online school of controversial psychologist and bestselling author Jordan Peterson. On Wednesday, The Tyee published an investigation, based on documents obtained through a freedom of information request, that revealed Smith met with Peterson on Aug. 1, 2024, to discuss accreditation for his online school.
Alberta Premier Danielle Smith says anyone seeking an independence referendum should not have “gatekeepers,” like the courts, standing in their way. Smith was asked about the independence question on Saturday during her radio call-in show, weighing in for the first time after her government proposed legislation to halt an ongoing court case over a proposed provincial vote to leave Canada. She said that giving Justice Minister Mickey Amery the power to be “permissive” about referendum questions, as included in the new legislation, upholds democracy.

British Columbia

Premier David Eby says the province will provide financial protection to home and business owners caught up in the recent B.C. Supreme Court recognition of Aboriginal title over private land in Richmond. There are concerns that the 150 or so landowners in the area could face difficulties selling their property or renegotiating mortgages after the court’s recognition that Aboriginal title is “superior” to private fee-simple title. The province has been conducting its own research in the affected area as part of an application to stay the court decision until any appeals are resolved.
Premier David Eby gave an unequivocal “no” when asked whether he plans to call a snap election next year. “It’s certainly not what we want,” he said during a one-on-one interview with Black Press Media on Friday, Dec. 12. This does not mean he is ruling out the possibility that his government could still fall on a confidence motion. The NDP currently has a one-vote majority, and Vancouver-Strathcona MLA Joan Phillip has stepped away from her duties for health reasons. Eby has also threatened an election by turning major legislation into confidence motions. He drew a line in the sand at one point during the fall legislative session, saying he would “stake his government” on a bill advancing development of the North Coast Transmission Line, a planned electrical line across northern B.C.
Aaron Gunn, a Conservative MP first elected in April, says he is “seriously considering” a bid to seek the leadership of the British Columbia Conservatives. The job opened up last week when John Rustad, a former provincial cabinet minister, stepped down amidst intense pressure from members of his caucus. Mr. Gunn, who represents North Island-Powell River, said Wednesday he will decide whether or not to run before Christmas. In a posting on X, Mr. Gunn said community leaders, supporters, constituents and others have encouraged him to run to become the next B.C. premier.
A veteran federal politician in South Surrey/White Rock says she has not made a final decision yet on whether she’ll run for the BC Conservative leadership. While a new website launched Wednesday (Dec. 10) appears to signal the desire of former South Surrey-White Rock MP Kerry-Lynne Findlay to run for the provincial party’s top spot, Findlay herself said Thursday (Dec. 11) that she has yet to decide whether she’ll toss her hat in the ring of the yet-unlaunched leadership race. “For a long time, people had been talking to me about running as the leader of the BC Conservatives,” Findlay told Peace Arch News. “I honestly thought nothing of it, because there was already a leader. I’d known and been friends with John (Rustad) for a long time.”

Northwest Territories

Next week, the N.W.T. government will ask the federal government if its focus on development will be met with increased funds to a program intended to increase Indigenous communities’ participation in environmental assessments and the regulatory regime. At a committee meeting on Monday, the N.W.T.’s deputy environment minister, Robert Jenkins, said he was eager to find out how much of the $67 million in federal money earmarked to speed up regulatory processes will be spent here.

Yukon

Yukon Premier and Finance Minister Currie Dixon tabled a supplemental budget that pegs the territory’s surplus at $12.5 – significantly less than the $82 million initially projected back in March. The territorial government said its “largest cost drivers” since the spring have been wildfire response, highways and public works and health and social services. The previous Liberal government oversaw that spending. “We don’t feel that this is our budget,” Dixon told reporters Tuesday. The leader of the Yukon Party was sworn in as Yukon’s 12th premier and unveiled his cabinet a little over two weeks ago.

Nunavut

Nunavut has a new top cop. Chief Supt. Kenton Pike has officially taken over command of the territory’s RCMP division. He becomes the 10th officer to fill the role. The move was made official on Wednesday, as the RCMP held the traditional change of command ceremony at their hangar in Iqaluit’s airport. Pike, who also goes by Kent, has spent the majority of his career as an officer in remote, northern communities. “The most important and positive opportunity was when the RCMP first posted me in the big land of Labrador,” Pike said in prepared remarks during the ceremony. “And thus started my journey and love affair with northern policing.”