Provincial and Territorial Update – January 12, 2025
Provincial and Territorial Update: An overview of the Provincial Legislative and Territories Legislative Updates for the week of January 12, 2025. Written by Wes McLean.
New Brunswick
- New Brunswick Liquor and Cannabis N.B. locations are now accepting cash only for purchases, following a potential security threat. On Wednesday, N.B. Liquor announced on social media that all corporate stores were temporarily closed “due to point-of-sale system issues,” and suggested customers turn to agency stores and grocery store locations instead.
- Canadian manufacturers are left worrying as the inauguration of U.S. president-elect Donald Trump looms in less than two weeks. With a threat of 25-per-cent tariffs on Canadian and Mexican imports to the U.S., the country is also preoccupied with a prime minister set to step down and a prorogued parliament. Ron Marcolin, New Brunswick and Prince Edward Island divisional vice-president for Canadian Manufacturers & Exporters, said businesses around the country have been surveyed recently about their level of concern.
- Premier Susan Holt has taken a swipe at U.S. President-elect Donald Trump over his repeated comments about annexing Canada as the “51st state,” saying the American’s “disgusting and offensive” talk “makes my blood boil.” “It’s really hard to listen to … New Brunswick is the best place on Earth,” Holt told Brunswick News on Thursday. “It’s the best province in the most amazing country in the world, and to have the arrogance of the president of the United States and the disrespect that he’s demonstrated to our country, it makes me extremely angry, honestly.
- The Liberal government will keep a health council it previously slammed as a move to centralize decision-making power in the premier’s office. It’s a decision the opposition Progressive Conservatives are welcoming, while noting the government’s political flip-flop. The Greens, however, say the about-face shows that there isn’t much difference between the Liberals and PCs on many big files – despite what they say when they’re in opposition.
Nova Scotia
- The QEII emergency department at the Halifax Infirmary has resumed regular operations after a partial power outage on Friday night. Earlier on Friday, Nova Scotia Health said the emergency department was only accepting patients with life-threatening emergencies. In an update later on Friday night, Nova Scotia Health said normal operations had resumed.
- Work is set to begin on an expanded emergency department and a new renal dialysis unit at the Cumberland Regional Health Care Centre near Amherst, N.S., that are expected to be completed by the end of 2027. According to a news release from Communications Nova Scotia, the new emergency department will be almost double the size of the old one. The new department will be able to handle more than 23,000 patients annually, the release said.
- The California wildfires are a grim reminder to hundreds of Nova Scotians of what they endured when flames tore through areas of suburban Halifax and Shelburne County in 2023, destroying more than 200 homes and burning 25,000 hectares of forest. Scott Tingley, manager of forest protection at the Department of Natural Resources, said it’s been difficult to view the images from Los Angeles and neighbouring communities this week. But Tingley is confident Nova Scotia will be better prepared to face the next wildfire thanks to advice it received last March in a review of the province’s response to the 2023 fires.
- The union that represents 5,000 school support workers across Nova Scotia accused the Houston government Wednesday of standing in the way of contract negotiations. Nelson Scott, a lead negotiator with the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE), said the Progressive Conservative government has taken a hard line on wage increases and has refused to allow union locals to bargain at a single negotiating table.
Prince Edward Island
- As of August 2024, there were a total of 261 people waiting to be placed into long-term care, according to a presentation Health P.E.I. delivered to a legislative standing committee last fall. Many of those people are waiting in hospitals, which are over capacity all across the province. A shortage of long-term care beds is creating a “bottleneck,” said William McGuigan, chair of the Nursing Home Association of P.E.I. “It has to go somewhere,” McGuigan said. “Unfortunately it’s filling up the ER rooms, it’s filling up, potentially, the surgery rooms.”
- Hospitals across P.E.I. are over capacity, leading to hours-long wait times in the province’s emergency rooms and limited bed availability, Health P.E.I. said in a news release Thursday afternoon. Medical director of hospital services and patient flow Dr. Ken Farion said emergency departments across the Island — including the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Charlottetown, Prince County Hospital in Summerside, Kings County Memorial Hospital in Montague and Western Hospital in Alberton — are all feeling the strain.
- The P.E.I. government says it is concerned about the potential impacts of the devastating oyster parasite MSX and is developing a “roadmap” for dealing with it. MSX, or multinuclear sphere X, was first detected in Island waters in July 2024. While the parasite is harmless to humans, it is deadly to oysters. Initially, only a few areas were impacted, but MSX has since spread widely around the province’s coastlines.
- The personal data of past and present Prince Edward Island school staff and students may have been stolen in a cyberattack that affected educational institutions across the country. The province said it was notified on Jan. 7 that an unauthorized user gained access to PowerSchool, a data management software used by schools on the Island. Erin McGrath-Gaudet, P.E.I.’s deputy minister of education and early years, sent an email to students, staff, parents and guardians on Jan. 9 informing them of the privacy breach.
Newfoundland and Labrador
- Newfoundland and Labrador’s education department is looking at tailoring the school curriculum to adapt to different student learning styles, as it battles increasing violence in school, chronic absenteeism, and disengaged students. The government released the interim Education Accord N.L. report Friday morning — part of the province’s plan to revamp the education system.
- After more than 30 years as an established political figure in Newfoundland and Labrador, Yvonne Jones says she won’t seek re-election in the next federal election — but she says it’s not due to health concerns or to spend more time with her family. Jones, the current Liberal MP for Labrador, made the announcement Friday at Hotel North 2 in Happy Valley-Goose Bay.
- Four days of extraordinary debate in the Newfoundland and Labrador legislature concluded in dramatic fashion Thursday night with most politicians voting in favour of the Churchill Falls memorandum of understanding. In doing so, they also gave the green light for further negotiations with Hydro-Quebec in an effort to reach formal contracts for new long-term energy deals on the Churchill River.
- New rules giving Newfoundland and Labrador Health Services the power to dispose of unclaimed bodies — including by burial or cremation — are now in effect, but the NDP leader wants the government to answer questions about the process. According to the amended legislation, which was filed on Dec. 24 and came into effect on Jan. 1, the health authority will have 14 days to find a person able to claim an individual body, like a spouse or parent. If NLHS can’t find someone within those two weeks, they’ll post a notice on a new website for five days. After that, they’ll dispose of the body.
Quebec
- As President-elect Donald Trump multiplies threats against Canada, Premier of Quebec François Legault says to “keep a cool head.” “Trump will use every opportunity at his disposal to increase his leverage,” wrote the Premier of Quebec in a letter published on Facebook Wednesday afternoon before a meeting with his provincial counterparts. “All the more reason to keep a cool head and refuse to play the president-elect’s game.”
- Paul St-Pierre Plamondon is calling on Francois Legault to create a “Team Quebec” (Équipe Québec) comprising the opposition parties, academics and organizations to deal with the tariff threats made by U.S. President-elect Donald Trump. The Parti Québécois (PQ) leader argues that these players do not have “conflicting political interests” on issues that directly affect Quebec. “We all have an interest in defending the Quebec economy as best we can in this stormy context. This working committee could start work on Monday and submit its recommendations immediately,” he wrote in a long message on his Facebook page.
- Quebec relies on thousands of uncertified teachers. High demand for teachers gives little incentive for getting a licence, expert says. Traditionally, teachers in Quebec become certified after completing a bachelor’s degree in education and obtaining a teaching license. In response to the labour shortages in the education system, the province has lowered the bar to get that designation, but there is little incentive for unqualified teachers to become certified because they are in such demand that school boards are hiring regardless of a candidate’s educational background.
- As was the case during the COVID-19 pandemic, the Legault government is examining ways to assist Quebec companies should they be impacted by American trade tariffs, the minister for the economy said Friday. “There is a willingness, for sure, on the part of our government to be there, in support of companies,” Christine Fréchette said at a news conference in Jonquière in the Saguenay—Lac-Saint-Jean region Friday. “We were there in a big way during the pandemic. So if there are big issues that emerge, we would want to be there.
Ontario
- Premier Doug Ford has directed Metrolinx to study expanding GO Transit service along the Kitchener and Milton lines by diverting freight rails. The expansion, dubbed GO 2.0, could also create new GO lines and stations, Ford said in a letter to Metrolinx on Thursday. “By leveraging existing freight rail infrastructure, GO 2.0 could help alleviate congestion and reduce travel times for passengers,” Ford said in the letter, shared by a spokesperson with the premier’s office.
- The United States will “feel pain” if Donald Trump doesn’t back down from his threat to impose steep tariffs on its northern neighbour, the leader of Canada’s most populous province has warned. After a tumultuous week that left Canadian leaders flailing for a coherent national response to Trump’s provocations – including the suggestion that the US would annex its closest ally – the Ontario premier, Doug Ford, told the Guardian: “We will never be for sale.” Ford described the escalating rhetoric from the incoming US administration as “very concerning”, saying that it had already clouded a trade relationship worth hundreds of billions of dollars.
- Ontario Premier Doug Ford is sounding more confident about two major transportation proposals that could relieve congestion at a hefty cost to taxpayers. On Friday, the premier signalled that he wants to go forward with a proposed plan to build a tunnel under Highway 401. “We plan on building that infrastructure,” Ford told reporters. “These aren’t two-year projects, they’re 10 to 15-year projects … we need to be ready when all the 400 series highways are at capacity.” While nothing is set in stone, the premier says he wants to move ahead with an environmental assessment of the proposed project. A “market-sounding exercise” is also expected to take place in the coming weeks to assess the project’s feasibility.
- Ontario Premier Doug Ford was uninjured after an OPP vehicle he was travelling in was involved in a collision on Highway 401 Wednesday afternoon. OPP Sgt. Kerry Schmidt confirmed to CTV News Toronto that the collision in question occurred at around 12:40 p.m. in the westbound lanes of Highway 401 at Brock Road in Pickering. Police said the premier and the other occupants in the vehicle operated by the OPP Protective Services Section were not injured. Meanwhile, two people in the other vehicle were transported to the hospital with minor injuries and were later released.
Manitoba
- The death of a patient who’d waited hours to be seen at a Winnipeg emergency department has some people considering whether the province could innovate its way out of its health-care woes. Chad Christopher Giffin’s death in the city’s Health Sciences Centre earlier this week has been ruled a critical incident. An investigation is still ongoing, but the hospital says it was over capacity in the hours leading to the man’s death. The incident has rekindled concerns from Manitobans worried about the current state of health care in the province, with some saying it’s eroded trust in the system.
- More than 500 child and family support workers at three separate Manitoba agencies are prepared to strike if a new collective bargaining agreement can’t be reached, their union says. Workers under the Métis Child and Family Services Authority and the Michif Child and Family Services Authority, represented by the Manitoba Government and General Employees’ Union, rejected the latest offer from their employers last month, a Wednesday news release from the union said.
- Some Manitoba municipalities who rely on RCMP for policing services want more say in contract negotiations with the national police force. The federal government’s current collective agreement with the National Police Federation, the union that represents RCMP members, is set to expire at the end of March. Mounties got a 23.7 percent retroactive increase in 2022, under their first collective agreement after unionizing, which was retroactive to 2017. Last year, they were awarded an eight percent salary hike over two years after a second round of negotiations.
- A group representing Crown attorneys in Manitoba is calling on the provincial government to help reduce mounting workloads that it says are making it difficult for prosecutors to meet their professional responsibilities. The Manitoba Association of Crown Attorneys (MACA) said in a news release Friday that the grievance it filed with the provincial government in April 2023 to address what it called “dangerously heavy caseloads” won’t be heard by an arbitrator until October 2025.
Saskatchewan
- Saskatchewan’s Prairie Spirit School Division says it’s among the divisions affected by a North American-wide cyberattack. The division sent a letter to families Friday notifying them it had been targeted in a significant data breach connected to PowerSchool, a widely used outside provider that manages functions like students’ personal information and communication with parents. This week, multiple school divisions across Canada — including the country’s largest — informed families they were affected by the cyberattack involving PowerSchool, a California-based provider of cloud software to over 16,000 customers in more than 90 countries.
- The Saskatchewan government has agreed to a $40 million deal with Ottawa to improve access to medication for rare diseases. The federal government is also looking for the province’s participation in a national plan to improve screening and diagnostics for rare diseases. Saskatchewan Health Minister Jeremy Cockrill spoke alongside his federal counterpart at the Jim Pattison Children’s Hospital in Saskatoon on Friday. He said the bilateral agreement between the two will “enhance” coverage for two drugs to treat rare lymphoma cancers and another for a rare genetic kidney disease.
- A Saskatchewan man who once led the Canadian Nationalist Party is staying in jail after getting convicted of criminal harassment and impersonating a police officer. A jury convicted Travis Patron in December. He had been charged after a woman complained about a confrontation at a local hotel on July 29, 2023. At the time, police said they were called to a hotel in Saskatoon on Spadina Crescent East after a disturbance involving a man impersonating a peace officer. They said the man, later identified as Patron, had said he was a police officer and accused a woman of abducting her own child.
- The Saskatchewan NDP is criticizing the provincial government for allowing the number of educators in the province to fall while student numbers have shot up. On Tuesday, the NDP released documents, obtained through a freedom of information request, detailing the most recent staffing report for the province’s education sector. The report shows that — including distance learning teachers — there are about 24 fewer educators today than there were in 2020, while student enrolment has increased by 15,594 during the same period.
Alberta
- Alberta Premier Danielle Smith visited Mar-a-Lago, the Florida home of U.S. president-elect Donald Trump, on Saturday. Smith confirmed the visit in a social media post Sunday morning, in which she said she and Trump had a “friendly and constructive conversation.” “I emphasized the mutual importance of the U.S.-Canadian energy relationship, and specifically, how hundreds of thousands of American jobs are supported by energy exports from Alberta,” Smith’s post said.
- Alberta Premier Danielle Smith said she hopes lawmakers in Ottawa will force an election “at the first available opportunity” after Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced his plan to step down from his role once his Liberal party selects a new leader. Amid growing opposition to his leadership from within his own party, Trudeau announced Monday morning that he will step down as prime minister and as Liberal leader “after the party selects its next leader through a robust nationwide competitive process.”
- With a federal election on the horizon, Alberta and Saskatchewan’s premiers are again making noise about the country’s contentious equalization program. The federal equalization program is funded through general revenues, mostly sourced through federal taxes, and is used to ensure comparable services across the country. Last week, Alberta Premier Danielle Smith and Saskatchewan Premier Scott Moe took aim at the program, with Smith charging the current arrangement isn’t fair or sustainable.
- The Alberta government has signed an agreement with Enbridge that Premier Danielle Smith says will increase exports of the province’s heavy oil to the United States. The deal will establish a working group to “evaluate future egress, transport, storage, terminalling and market access opportunities” across the company’s expansive network. Smith said the objective of the team will be to double the amount of oil Alberta produces and fit with Enbridge’s goals.
British Columbia
- A group of lawyers challenging legislation that dissolves the Law Society of BC says Premier David Eby is dodging questions leading up to a trial in October. The Trial Lawyers Association of BC, led by criminal defence lawyer Kevin Westell, is contesting the new Legal Professions Act (LPA), which amalgamates lawyers, notaries and paralegals under one new regulator, strips the bar of independence and as such is unconstitutional. The act (Bill 21) passed in May 2024 and was immediately challenged in B.C. Supreme Court by the association and, in a separate claim, the society.
- Premier David Eby says crews from British Columbia are joining the fight against wildfires spreading in the Los Angeles area in California. On social media, Eby said the province had received a request from the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection for a senior management team to join the fight and that “they will be departing imminently.” “California has been there for us. We will be there for them. That’s what good neighbours do,” Eby wrote in a post on Bluesky and X (formerly Twitter).
- B.C. Premier David Eby said he will be heading to Washington D.C. with other Canadian premiers, not for President-elect Donald Trump’s inauguration, but with a focus on the continued threat of tariffs on Canadian-made goods. Trump continues to say he will impose a 25 percent tariff on all products coming into the United States from Canada and Mexico.
- Premier David Eby says the government is on track to open two secure “involuntary care” sites by the spring. The use of involuntary care to treat people with severe mental health, brain injury and addiction problems was among Eby’s key campaign promises to address growing concerns about repeat offenders and public safety. Speaking Tuesday, Eby said facilities at the Surrey Pretrial Centre and at the Alouette Correctional Facility in Maple Ridge will be the first such centres to come online.
Northwest Territories
- The N.W.T. Court of Appeal has dismissed a legal challenge by the territorial government on Tuesday, siding with Colville Lake on its land claim interpretation of caribou management. The court, consisting of three judges, found the N.W.T.’s tag and quota system — known as a total allowable harvest — isn’t the only option to prevent Bluenose West caribou numbers from dwindling. “Nothing in the Treaty indicates that the [total allowable harvest] is the only tool that can be used to manage harvesting,” the decision reads.
Yukon
- For at-risk populations, staying safe during flu season got harder when most people stopped caring about getting sick after the COVID-19 pandemic. “People are feeling alone, they’re feeling very isolated,” said Isla Rathlin, a clinical health navigator at Queer Yukon. Rathlin runs a support group in Whitehorse for “spoonies,” or people who are chronically ill or disabled. They meet monthly to share experiences and perspectives, including strategies for staying healthy during flu season.
Nunavut
- A Nunavut researcher says more money and research is needed to understand how the availability of country food in Inuit communities is changing because of the warming climate. “Country food is strongly associated with food security and with food sovereignty,” said Amy Caughey, a research associate with the University of Alberta who lives in Iqaluit. “Improved access to country food is a need for many communities that women have expressed.” Country food comes from the land and includes game meat, migratory birds, fish and foraged foods.