Provincial and Territorial Update – January 9, 2026
An overview on Provincial and Territorial updates for the week of January 9, 2026. Written by Wes McLean.
New Brunswick
- New Brunswick’s premier says treating hospital patients in an ambulance bay is not acceptable, but the alternative is no care at all. A makeshift unit in an ambulance bay of the Dr. Everett Chalmers Regional Hospital in Fredericton has been in use for at least a year, Health Minister John Dornan confirmed on Thursday. But conditions on the unit came into the public eye on Wednesday, when Katarina Lekborg, a registered nurse who lives and works in Fredericton, posted an open letter to the premier on Facebook.
- Atlantic study found highest number of domestic-violence-related homicides in N.B. Minister says domestic violence is ‘systemic crisis,’ as study author calls for greater accountability. Women in violent relationships reported having hidden vehicle keys, prepared supplies and signals to their children as part of plans to escape the home, according to New Brunswick researchers. University of New Brunswick professor Cathy Holtmann and her team interviewed women from rural areas in potentially lethal situations as part of a national study on how these women keep themselves safe.
- Premier Susan Holt says she’d still like to find a different site for a controversial natural gas power plant now planned for a rural area in Tantramar. Holt told CBC News in a year-end interview on Dec. 16 that she’d like the plant to be built somewhere where it’s acceptable to the local community. “We’ve been having the conversation about alternate locations because it’s clear that there is a lot of resistance to this location from this community, and I can understand why,” Holt said.
- The ouster of Nicolás Maduro as the president of Venezuela has elated Venezuelans living in New Brunswick. Moncton’s Maria Ortega said she has not visited her home in Venezuela in more than 10 years. But the Venezuelan leader’s capture by the U.S. over the weekend after a military operation has filled Ortega with hope for a positive future of the country, she said. “My family is there … they are happy, but they can not demonstrate, they can not post, they can not talk.” she said. “It’s not possible in Venezuela because the criminal structure is still there. You know, they have the power, they have the arms, you can not even imagine.”
Nova Scotia
- Publicly funded home-care providers in Nova Scotia will all move to the same software platform and be linked to the provincial health authority by 2027, a move the province’s seniors and long-term care minister says will result in better service for clients and their families and improved working conditions for people in the sector. Last month, the province announced a five-year, $19-million contract with AlayaCare Inc. to design and implement the platform.
- Nova Scotia’s deputy minister of education says her department is reviewing a policy that promised jobs to new graduates of teaching programs because it could inadvertently remove job security during a person’s second year in the profession. Tracey Barbrick made the comments Tuesday during a meeting of the legislature’s human resources committee. Speaking to reporters following the meeting, she said the policy was brought in almost three years ago because the province was “in dire need of additional teachers.”
- In a break from recent tradition, Nova Scotia Power’s most senior officials are not participating in the public hearing that will determine whether many of their customers see rates jump this year and next. A lawyer for the energy board highlighted the absence as the hearing opened Wednesday, noting that Nova Scotia Power typically sends its top brass when general rate applications, or GRAs, come under the board’s scrutiny.
- The Nova Scotia government has announced a new plan it says will improve equity and community safety for 2SLGBTQ+ people. It includes a commitment to boost funding and improve the application process for transgender and non-binary people seeking gender-affirming care. The government is also promising to advance training for police and for corrections and victim services staff in order to reduce bias and improve the safety of 2SLGBTQ+ Nova Scotians.
Prince Edward Island
- Prince Edward Island reduced its greenhouse gas emissions three straight years, according to a new report — but as the province strives towards its goal to reach net-zero by 2040, it must hone in on transportation, says Gilles Arsenault, P.E.I.’s minister of environment, energy and climate action. “Transportation is a weak point all throughout the country, so we’re not alone in this,” he said. “We have way more traffic in P.E.I. than we had even four years ago.”
- Maritime Electric was grilled by politicians during two standing committees on Thursday, as MLAs questioned the power utility about Prince Edward Island’s need for more power generation, a growing potential for blackouts, and the rate increases Islanders may face this year. Maritime Electric said it’s been talking about the problems for years — and needs the government to help. “As we are navigating the rapid pace of the energy transition, we must now address the Island’s growing capacity deficit,” Maritime Electric CEO Jason Roberts said during his presentation.
- The race to become the next leader of the P.E.I. Progressive Conservative Party is down to two men. Rob Lantz and Mark Ledwell were the only applicants for the vacant leadership position prior to Saturday’s deadline, the party announced on social media. Lantz served as interim PC leader and premier after Dennis King resigned in February of 2025. Before entering politics, Lantz worked in the private sector as a consultant in the information technology sector and was involved in business startups.
- After more than a decade, two women who lodged complaints of sexual harassment against the University of Prince Edward Island’s former president can finally speak about what happened to them. Former UPEI staff members Wendy Carroll and Erin Casey have been fully released from their non-disclosure agreements, or NDAs, which had prevented them from speaking publicly about the complaints they made against Alaa Abd-El-Aziz. “This is very liberating for us,” Carroll told CBC News in one of the first instances of the women speaking publicly about their experience.
Newfoundland and Labrador
- An ambitious and expensive plan to upgrade docking facilities at the Port of Argentia is now in doubt following the cancellation of a multi-billion-dollar hydrogen project, and a tax dispute between the port and the nearby Town of Placentia. The much-hyped hydrogen market never materialized, and projects like Pattern Energy’s proposed Argentia project have been cancelled. That’s created some big problems for the people who run the port, including CEO Scott Penney.
- Memorial University political scientist Kelly Blidook pulled no punches when asked what cost the Liberals the 2025 provincial election in Newfoundland and Labrador. Blidook, an associate professor, cited a CBC story from last July that exposed how the Liberal cabinet quietly approved a new cash benefit for departing ministers, ranging from $12,000 to $48,664. Blidook believes the story haunted the Liberals throughout the election campaign last fall and was a key reason they lost to Tony Wakeham’s Progressive Conservatives.
- The cost of road construction projects paid for by the Newfoundland and Labrador government has nearly doubled in just six years. “The average cost per kilometre for paving projects (excluding the TCH) has risen from approximately $330,000 in 2019 to over $610,000 in 2025 and continues to climb,” reads a Department of Transportation and Works presentation from October. According to the department, overall paving investments rose 93 per cent between 2019-20 and the current fiscal year, with the province’s annual road plans budget growing from $166 million to $320 million.
- The Progressive Conservatives could have trouble filling the 50 new positions needed for the promised 24-hour snow-clearing service on some of Newfoundland and Labrador’s most travelled highways. Transportation Minister Barry Petten expects the service to start in one or two weeks. However, Jerry Earle, president of the Newfoundland and Labrador Association of Public and Private Employees (NAPE), says there were already dozens of vacancies before the promise was made. “It’s going to be a challenge to get those positions filled,” Earle told CBC News.
Quebec
- Quebec’s largest federation of unionized workers, FTQ, denounced the François Legault government for “total failure” in addressing housing, cost of living and other crises in the province. At a press conference on Thursday, FTQ president Magali Picard said the CAQ government had lost the trust of Quebecers. “They’re trying to divide us by bills that are very, but very dangerous against the workers, against the middle class, and the FTQ will continue its work,” Picard said. In a statement, she had also accused the government of targeting immigrants, doctors and workers, instead of taking care of those in need.
- The Centrale des syndicats du Québec (CSQ) is asking François Legault’s government to call an election if it truly believes that the public supports its various bills on labour disputes, union organization, the Quebec constitution and other issues. During his New Year’s press conference on Tuesday in Montreal, CSQ President Éric Gingras asked the government to “take responsibility” and test popular support for its policies. “Let it go to the polls on this issue, and then we’ll see,” he said. The president of the 225,000-member union federation said he believes all the bills aim to weaken countervailing powers, preventing them from criticizing or challenging government actions.
- Charles Milliard, the former CEO of Quebec’s federation of chambers of commerce and a pharmacist by training, is running again for the leadership of the Quebec Liberals. Milliard announced the news in a video posted on social media early Tuesday. He said he would work to restore the Liberal Party’s standing in Quebec politics. “This leadership campaign will be about bringing a stronger Quebec, with a better economy, a transparent government and public services you can actually rely on,” he said in the video.
- The federal government says it will provide up to $12.4 million to cover costs incurred by Quebec to coordinate a buyback of banned firearms in the province. Since May 2020, Ottawa has outlawed approximately 2,500 types of guns on the basis that they belong on the battlefield, not in the hands of hunters or sport shooters. The federal government says a national buyback program will provide owners fair compensation for their outlawed firearms.
Ontario
- A federal Conservative member of Parliament from Manitoba says Ontario Premier Doug Ford didn’t have “all the facts in front of him” when he doubled down on threats to pull Crown Royal off shelves. MP James Bezan, who represents the Selkirk-Interlake-Eastman riding north of Winnipeg, where the whisky is distilled, posted a statement directed at Ford on X, formerly known as Twitter, after the premier once again said he would remove Crown Royal from Liquor Control Board of Ontario listings.
- Ontario Premier Doug Ford, whose province is home to much of the country’s auto industry, is warning Prime Minister Mark Carney against reducing Canada’s 100-per-cent tariffs on Chinese electric vehicles during Mr. Carney’s trip to Beijing next week. He said China should instead set up EV factories in Ontario. A Chinese EV-maker opened an electric-bus assembly plant in Newmarket in 2019, for instance. Canada triggered a trade war with China after imposing steep levies on Chinese EVs in 2024 in tandem with then-U.S. president Joe Biden’s administration.
- Ontario Premier Doug Ford says he will fight against an order to hand over government-related calls made on his personal cellphone, arguing it would make private citizen information public — something the court ruling explicitly protects against. The latest twist in a three-year-old transparency battle means the government has twice lost legal arguments that Ford should not have to disclose parts of his personal phone records. The premier said he will keep fighting.
- Premier Doug Ford says the long-delayed Eglinton Crosstown LRT could finally open in early February, offering the clearest public timeline yet for a project that is years behind schedule and more than $1 billion over budget. Ford made the comments while speaking to reporters at an unrelated press conference in Etobicoke on Thursday, despite there still being no official opening date from Metrolinx or the TTC. “Thank God we’re getting this thing going,” Ford said. “It’s been a nightmare. I’m the first to admit it.” The 19-kilometre line, which includes 25 stations and stops along Eglinton Avenue, was originally scheduled for completion in 2020 and has since become one of the most troubled transit projects in Ontario.
Manitoba
- More workers and heaters are on the way to a beleaguered First Nation in northern Manitoba, where thousands have been forced out due to frozen pipes and sewage backup. A day after politicians travelled to Pimicikamak Cree Nation to witness the devastation caused by a frozen-water catastrophe, the community announced that additional heaters are expected to arrive early next week, and 30 more tradespeople are to follow suit. “We have plumbers, we have electricians, and we also have carpenters that are being brought in,” Chief David Monias said in a Facebook video on Thursday.
- Manitoba’s Opposition leader is calling on Health Canada to reject an application to establish a drug consumption site on Henry Avenue in Winnipeg, citing “flaws in the selection process and consultation process” and opposition from area residents and businesses. Progressive Conservative Leader Obby Khan formally opposed the proposed site at 366 Henry Ave. in a letter to the federal health department, raising concerns about the “absence of baseline data” supporting the selection of the location—an industrial building south of the Canadian Pacific Kansas City railyard.
- A school division in Winnipeg is calling on the Manitoba government to increase funding, saying it faces “hard decisions” as it enters 2026 with a $2.4-million deficit. The Louis Riel School Division’s board of trustees chair urged parents and staff to press for more resources in an email sent out Sunday afternoon. Sandy Nemeth said in the email that provincial funding increases haven’t kept up with a 7.2 per cent increase in enrolment over the past three years. “This is the year were we dipped into all the reserves that we had,” she said in an interview with Up to Speed Tuesday.
- Manitoba Independent MLA Mark Wasyliw has filed a defamation lawsuit against Premier Wab Kinew and two other members of Kinew’s NDP government, claiming they associated the defence lawyer-turned-MLA with convicted criminal Peter Nygard as an excuse to kick him out of the party. In a statement of claim filed with Manitoba’s Court of King’s Bench two days before Christmas, the Fort Garry MLA is seeking a published apology and damages from Kinew, Seine River MLA Billie Cross and Keewatinook MLA Ian Bushie for comments they made “in or around” September 2024 about Wasyliw’s work as a defence lawyer.
Saskatchewan
- The police chiefs in Saskatchewan’s two major cities have shared their thoughts on new legislation that could bring involuntary addiction treatment to the province. Saskatoon Police Chief Cameron McBride and Regina Police Chief Lorilee Davies said in separate interviews that their officers are prepared for a role in administering the Compassionate Intervention Act if it becomes law. “Where the police play a role, I think, is likely going to be identifying, helping to identify people who are in crisis who need that level of assistance,” McBride said in a December interview.
- Pleasant Hill School in Saskatoon is expected to be resurrected as a wellness centre with an MRI machine this fall, according to the CEO of the First Nations corporation behind the redevelopment. Jay Funk, CEO of Ahtahkakoop Cree Developments Medical Holdings LP, appeared before the city council’s municipal planning commission on Tuesday to discuss the project and the rezoning required for it to move forward. Nearby, the provincial government is building Saskatoon’s first urgent care centre on the grounds of the former elementary school, on land now owned by Ahtahkakoop Cree Nation and leased long-term by the province.
- A Saskatoon woman who had a brain tumour treated in Edmonton wants the province to start covering travel-related costs when patients have to leave Saskatchewan for specialized health care. Tammy O’Brien, 54, had an acoustic neuroma — a rare, benign tumour inside the skull on the nerve between the ear and brain. Treating it requires gamma knife radiosurgery, which isn’t available in Saskatchewan. O’Brien travelled to Edmonton in November for the procedure and is awaiting an update on its success. The Saskatchewan government paid for the treatment, but its standard policy is to refuse to pay for any related travel costs.
- Despite repeated claims that Saskatchewan is the country’s first “carbon tax-free province,” the provincial government continues to pay hundreds of millions of dollars to cover its obligations on large emitters. Last year, Premier Scott Moe proudly proclaimed that Saskatchewan would eliminate the carbon tax rate under the province’s Output-Based Performance Standards (OBPS) program, which taxes large industrial emitters. “We’re going to defer the requirement for carbon tax payments, so what Saskatchewan families will notice is it won’t be on their SaskPower bill,” Moe said at a March 27 news conference.
Alberta
- A newly enacted provincial order on school literary materials prompted some Alberta school divisions to remove a couple of dozen books from school shelves, but the names of those titles are secret. In response to a government order to get any explicit, graphic material out of students’ reach, the Calgary Board of Education — the province’s largest school division — identified 44 titles to be pulled from shelves, CBE spokesperson Joanne Anderson said in a statement Tuesday. It’s a tiny proportion of the approximately 700,000 titles available in the school division’s libraries, she said.
- The situation in Alberta hospitals is so dire that the province needs to take drastic action, according to some physicians. Dr. Paul Parks, the president-elect of the section of emergency medicine with the Alberta Medical Association, is calling for the provincial government to declare a state of emergency at the urging of physicians from across the province and across hospital divisions. “It’s gotten to a crisis state where patients are dying in our waiting rooms and patients are having very bad outcomes because it’s unsafe,” he said in an interview on Thursday.
- A former director on the board of Alberta’s health authority alleges he was singled out in a campaign of harassment and intimidation because he pushed back against Premier Danielle Smith’s government and its decision to fire the agency’s chief executive officer. In a recently unsealed affidavit, Sandy Edmonstone, who served on the board of Alberta Health Services until January of 2025, details how someone surveilled him and took surreptitious photos they threatened to distribute to his partner, as well as multiple reputational attacks he has faced online from David Wallace, who has described himself in the past as a political dirty tricks operator.
- The Alberta government has launched a website for the bitumen pipeline it wants to see built to the northwest B.C. coast. It says the website will act as a central hub for project information and updates, to ensure transparency and open dialogue. It includes a section dedicated to debunking myths, such as statements that construction has begun, the province is paying for the project and that a route has been decided.
British Columbia
- The B.C. Supreme Court has set aside a Forests Ministry decision to approve a forest licence transfer in Gitanyow First Nation territory, finding that the province had breached its duty to consult with the nation. The Gitanyow First Nation, whose territories encompass around 6,200 kilometres in northwest B.C., had attempted to buy a forestry licence in its traditional territory after a company that previously held it went bankrupt in 2023.
- As Premier David Eby continues to reject the idea of a new pipeline to B.C.’s northern coast, he’s now suggesting that building a Canadian refinery would be a better use of taxpayer dollars — but some experts doubt the proposal’s merits. While Eby dismissed Alberta Premier Danielle Smith’s calls for an expedited pipeline in the wake of U.S. military intervention in Venezuela, he said the conversation should turn toward increasing Canadian refining capabilities.
- First Nations on northern Vancouver Island are criticizing the Department of Fisheries and Oceans (DFO) for a lack of consultation prior to opening commercial krill fishing in what they say are “fragile coast inlet waters.” Hereditary Chief T̕łaḵwagila David Mungo Knox of the Fort Rupert First Nation, also known as the Kwakiutl First Nation, says he wants DFO to discuss fisheries management with coastal First Nations before allowing commercial fishing. “I’m advocating for us smaller nations that don’t have a voice,” Knox said.
- A businessman from West Vancouver, Yuri Fulmer jokes that he’s no stuffed shirt. “When I started in business, I was behind the counter at an A&W with eight other employees wearing a very polyester uniform, making a lot of teen burgers all day long,” he said. Born in Perth, Australia, Fulmer ended up owning dozens of A&W franchises across Western Canada, along with a number of other businesses. On Tuesday, he announced his prospective candidacy for the B.C. Conservative Party leadership, using his own backstory and his focus on affordability as key parts of his message.
Northwest Territories
- While many Indigenous people and newcomers to the Northwest Territories say they’ve experienced discrimination, a recent study suggests that few know they can turn to the N.W.T. Human Rights Commission for help. In a 12-page summary, the organization explains that its study had three main goals: to get a sense of whether Indigenous and newcomer communities in the territory were aware of the commission, to better understand experiences of discrimination, and to identify how the commission can better support these communities.
Yukon
- The Yukon’s population is booming. Interest in its territorial elections, not so much. Chief Electoral Officer Maxwell Harvey wants to know why, so he’s launched a review into the decline in voter turnout in recent territorial elections. “Elections Yukon isn’t responsible for turnout,” Harvey said Wednesday. “Obviously, there are many stakeholders that are involved in it, the political parties, the issues, the political environment, the media, obviously, and the individual electors.
Nunavut
- Nunavut’s MP says she has no plans right now to join the federal Liberal Party. “I have decided at this point that I can’t,” Lori Idlout told CBC News in an interview on Monday. “I’ve definitely been asked to consider it.” The NDP MP would not say who specifically has asked her to consider crossing the floor, but said they include both Liberal Party members and some of her own constituents. “It’s definitely weighed heavily on me, and I’ve had so many conversations with people and I just appreciate everyone who I’ve talked with,” she said. “What they’ve all said is that whatever I decide, it will be what I think is best for Nunavummiut.”