Provincial and Territorial Update – July 12, 2024
The Provincial and Territorial Updates: An overview of the Provincial Legislative and Territories Legislative Updates for the week of July 12, 2024. Written by Wes McLean.
New Brunswick
- An unexpected issue at New Brunswick’s nuclear power plant could mean it will be offline longer than scheduled, potentially driving up costs for the province’s Crown utility company. N.B. Power says it has already completed planned maintenance work that was expected to take the Point Lepreau Nuclear Generating Station out of operation for 100 days. But just as crews were bringing the plant back online, an “issue” was identified in the plant’s main electrical generator, N.B. Power spokesperson Dominique Couture said in an email.
- New Brunswick’s francophone health authority has been ordered to pay $40,000 to a nurse it fired in the aftermath of a brutal workplace assault. Arbitrator Michel Doucet upheld a grievance filed by the New Brunswick Nurses Union against Vitalité Health Network over the November 2021 dismissal of Natasha Poirier. The nurse manager at the Dr. Georges-L.-Dumont University Hospital Centre in Moncton was assaulted by a patient’s husband on March 11, 2019, leaving her unable to return to her job.
- The federal government has confirmed it’s pressing ahead with plans to replace Via Rail’s entire fleet of trains, but a New Brunswick advocacy group says new tracks are needed in the province first. Ted Bartlett, former president of Transport Action Atlantic — a public transport advocacy group — said the tracks in New Brunswick are deteriorating.
- The Anglophone East District Education Council says it will challenge the New Brunswick government’s request to dissolve the elected body over an allegation it is misusing funds on a lawsuit over a gender identity policy. The provincial government filed an application Friday in Moncton court asking a judge to approve the dissolution of the council overseeing schools in the Moncton region.
Nova Scotia
- Nova Scotia RCMP say a Wolfville, N.S., youth died in Thursday night’s flash flood. In a news release issued Friday morning, RCMP spokesperson Cpl. Carlie McCann said the youth was playing with friends at a park on Highland Avenue when a flash flood happened. Wolfville is located around 100 kilometres northwest of Halifax. RCMP say the youth was pulled into a water-filled ditch around 7:40 p.m. AT and disappeared under the rushing water. They did not disclose the victim’s name, age or gender.
- Staffing levels for ultrasound technologists are “critically low” in Nova Scotia, according to the union that represents them, creating challenging working conditions and delays in care for patients. Sandra Mullen, president of the Nova Scotia Government Employees Union, said healthcare facilities across the province are struggling to recruit and retain ultrasound technologists, and she points to pay as the number one reason.
- Nova Scotia Premier Tim Houston said he nearly “fell off his chair” after learning that Halifax’s council was planning to establish designated homeless encampments in historic parks such as the Halifax Common and Point Pleasant Park. During a media availability following a cabinet meeting on Thursday, Houston said his provincial government had previously proposed about “40 sites” to the Halifax Regional Municipality (HRM).
- After months of silence, the Nova Scotia government finally revealed the total figure spent on a wine subsidy program that caused many of the province’s winemakers to feel sour. Finance Minister Allan MacMaster told reporters Thursday the province allocated $1.2 million to two wine bottling companies in Nova Scotia between January and March. When this dispute was in full swing this past winter, Premier Tim Houston claimed the program would not cost millions of dollars a year. Until now, the province shared minimal details of the support provided to Nova Scotia’s two wine bottling companies.
Prince Edward Island
- The P.E.I. Coroner’s Office will hold an inquest into the death of a woman who died while a patient at Prince County Hospital early in 2023. According to a news release from the province, Mary Angela Arsenault died while involuntarily admitted in the hospital on Feb. 17, 2023. The inquest is scheduled for Sept. 16 to 18, and will be held at provincial court in Summerside with Dr. Cyril Moyse presiding. The news release did not contain any further information about the death.
- After nearly two decades of boats scraping sand bars at the bottom of Malpeque Bay, some people who fish out of that area may finally be getting a safer option. Malpeque MP Heath MacDonald said Thursday that funding has been secured to move the harbour’s working wharf to nearby Kier Shore. “This has been an ongoing issue for the past, I believe, around 19 years. The aquaculture sector, the harvesters were asking for help in moving,” MacDonald said in an interview with CBC News. The current Malpeque wharf is used by mussel and lobster fishing boats, but tides fill the bay with silt and sand that can cause boats to be damaged or worse.
- The owner of a Charlottetown apartment complex is still planning to convert the units to condos, but the housing minister is suggesting some buyers might rent the suites back to the long-time tenants. Norray Properties owns the 16 units of row housing called Belvedere Terrace, on Belvedere Avenue near the Atlantic Superstore. Back in late May, renters received a letter telling them their units would soon be going up for sale as condominium units. The same letter offered them the option to buy their units for $329,000 each, saying they had until June 30 to decide to do that before the suites would be listed for sale.
- Summerside City Council has approved land use at 25 Frank Mellish St. for the P.E.I. government to set up a 10-bed overnight emergency shelter, with some conditions. The city wants a 12-month review and for the province to provide funding for more Summerside police officers to ensure the area is properly monitored. “We’re happy to see the shelter coming to our community. There is no question we have a growing unhoused population with people living in parks and woods and places people shouldn’t be living in,” said Mayor Dan Kutcher.
Newfoundland and Labrador
- Following a warning from the Newfoundland and Labrador Centre on Substance Abuse that cocaine in central and western Newfoundland has been tainted, a St. John’s drug safety advocacy group says alerts should be in place all the time. Emily Wadden, program manager of the Safe Works Access Program at St. John’s, says the province’s drug supply is getting more toxic. “This is the reality now 24/7. They can choose to put out a drug alert after they hear of a couple of deaths — however, this needs to be the assumption in the future,” Wadden told CBC News on Wednesday.
- Marine Atlantic’s newest ferry — the Ala’suinu — will officially be in service Wednesday evening after weeks of cancellations, but there are more cancelled trips on the horizon. Darrell Mercer, spokesperson for the federal Crown corporation, says crossings will be cancelled on two dates next week due to crewing issues. The cancelled trips will affect 439 passengers on the July 17 service and 501 passengers on the July 18 service.
- Following the discovery of asbestos at the Labrador Correctional Centre, halting construction work being done on an expansion and renovations, an inmate at the Happy Valley-Goose Bay facility is calling for more communication and testing. David Millie said Thursday it was “very scary” for him and the other inmates to learn that asbestos had been found.
- Newfoundland and Labrador Hydro has a plan to meet the province’s energy demands for the next decade in its latest report to the Public Utilities Board. And it took almost 700 pages to lay it all out. N.L. Hydro’s Reliability and Resource Adequacy review mostly details what the Crown corporation has already said: new projects are needed to keep up with increasing power demand. Driven by population growth and electrification, the Crown corporation expects Newfoundland’s energy needs to increase to 9.2 terrawatt hours by 2034 — a 16 percent increase over current levels.
Quebec
- The RCMP in Quebec launched a new community policing program on Wednesday to counter a surge in complaints by Chinese-Canadians in the Montreal area who say they are being harassed, threatened, and intimidated by hostile actors linked to the People’s Republic of China. RCMP Sgt. Charles Poirier said in the past few weeks, the RCMP’s C Division in Quebec has received more than a half dozen complaints from Chinese Canadians fearful for their or their relatives’ safety after being threatened.
- Supreme Court Justice Mahmud Jamal has decided to recuse himself from hearing a challenge to Quebec’s secularism law after the provincial government and two advocacy groups argued his partiality in the appeal. The Justice, however, says there is no legal basis for his recusal and that he’s removing himself so his participation does not become a distraction during the hearing, according to a letter written by court registrar Chantal Carbonneau.
- The Quebec government and the association representing provincial police officers have reached a new agreement in principle on a six-year contract. Both sides were forced back to the negotiation table after 60 percent of members rejected an agreement in principle last September that would have given officers a 21 percent pay increase over five years. The Association des policières et policiers provinciaux du Québec says the new deal better recognizes the unique status of officers working for the provincial force.
- Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre called on the federal government to shut down Montreal’s first supervised drug inhalation centre while stopping in the city Friday, saying the site is a “drug den.” The Maison Benoît Labre drew criticism from residents before it opened in April and in the months following, with some parents saying they were blindsided by the decision to have the centre in a building less than 100 metres from the Victor-Rousselot elementary school. Located on Greene Avenue near Doré Street, Maison Benoît Labre also contains 36 studio apartments, a kitchen and a drop-in centre for people who are transitioning out of homelessness.
Ontario
- Premier Doug Ford’s highly touted plan to boost the number of places where Ontarians can buy booze is drawing little interest from grocery stores. Three weeks after applications opened, just 37 grocery stores have received approval from the Alcohol and Gaming Commission of Ontario for the new licence to start selling beer, wine and ready-to-drink cocktails, according to fresh figures provided by the Ministry of Finance. That’s about two percent of the roughly 2,000 grocery stores in Ontario that aren’t already licensed to sell beer and wine.
- Premier Doug Ford says no deal will be reached with striking LCBO workers if the union representing employees continues to push to keep Ready-To-Drink cocktails out of grocery and convenience stores. “If they want to negotiate over RTD (Ready-To-Drink beverages), the deal is off,” Ford told reporters at a news conference at a brewery in Etobicoke on Wednesday. “Let me be very clear. It is done, it is gone. That ship has sailed. It’s halfway across Lake Ontario.”
- Ontario Premier Doug Ford continues to hand out his personal cell number, claiming he’ll enlist the help of government ministers and municipal leaders to address callers’ issues, even as lawyers for the premier fight to keep his call records secret and argue they are not related to official government business. The Ford government has been locked in a transparency battle with Global News over the premier’s personal cellphone for more than a year, refusing to release government-related records from the device and arguing the request is a breach of privacy.
- Ontario’s premier pushed back against critics of his government’s controversial decision to shut down the Ontario Science Centre, calling the building “decrepit” and saying completely fixing it would cost upwards of half a billion dollars. Doug Ford said keeping it open would be unsafe and fixing the current building would be too expensive, promising a new engineering report to be publicly released on Friday would justify the dramatic move three weeks ago. “It’s not as simple as you just saying, ‘Go in there and throw some shingles down, and we’re all done,” Ford said when asked by reporters at an unrelated press conference.
Manitoba
- People pumped their fists in the air and a Winnipeg courtroom erupted into cheers as a judge convicted a serial killer who targeted Indigenous women of first-degree murder, in a case that sought justice for four women but reverberated far beyond that. Jeremy Skibicki sat staring straight ahead as Court of King’s Bench Chief Justice Glenn Joyal delivered his judgment Thursday morning, though no sign of emotion appeared on Skibicki’s face as he learned his fate.
- Lawyers for former Peguis First Nation chief Glenn Hudson and current Chief Stan Bird appeared before a federal court judge in Winnipeg on Thursday to make arguments in a judicial review of the band’s 2023 election. Hudson wants the Federal Court of Canada to set aside the results of that election, which he lost to Bird by 440 votes. During a special sitting of the Federal Court, Hudson lawyer, Jason Harvey, said Bird and his supporters, including Peguis Coun. Kelvin Wilson disrupted a March 20, 2023, public meeting in Peguis regarding the band’s finances and thus prevented Hudson from portraying those finances in a positive light.
- Manitoba Hydro has tapped a power engineer who has worked for private energy and forestry companies to serve as its new chief executive officer. Allan Danroth, who currently serves as the vice president of wood pulp producer Alberta-Pacific Forest Industries, will assume the reins of Hydro on Aug. 6, board chair Ben Graham announced Tuesday in Winnipeg. Danforth joins Manitoba Hydro at a time when the provincial Crown corporation faces multiple challenges.
- The Assembly of First Nations wants Manitoba to hold an independent inquiry into the killings of three First Nations women in Winnipeg, and a fourth unidentified woman who is also believed to have been Indigenous. War Lake First Nation Chief Betsy Kennedy put forward a resolution at the AFN’s annual general assembly in Montreal on Wednesday calling on Manitoba’s lieutenant governor to establish a commission of inquiry to assess the police and provincial response to the case.
Saskatchewan
- Saskatchewan and the government of Canada are negotiating a potential resolution to their dispute over the federal carbon tax. A federal court in Vancouver was scheduled to hear the arguments on an injunction being sought by Saskatchewan on Friday morning, but the hearing was abruptly cancelled just moments before it was scheduled to begin. An update on the court record indicates the two sides are “currently negotiating terms which could resolve the current dispute.” A statement issued by the government of Saskatchewan failed to mention the ongoing negotiations, only saying that the hearing on the injunction was adjourned so lawyers for the two sides “could avoid the need for a further injunction hearing.”
- Saskatchewan is putting a moratorium on wild boar farms starting next year, in a bid to regulate the growing population of feral swine in the province. But a University of Saskatchewan expert says the moratorium and the related regulations come at least 20 years too late. The province says existing farms have until Jan. 1, 2025, to apply for a licence. Jason Pollock, CEO of Livestock Services of Saskatchewan (LSS), said the new rules will help them streamline the process of regulating boars.
- Saskatchewan is touting the success of its Crown corporations during the latest fiscal year. Crown Investments Corporation (CIC) released its annual report Thursday, highlighting record levels of spending across the province in the 2023-24 fiscal year. CIC functions as a holding company for the various Crown corporations in the province, such as SaskTel and Lotteries and Gaming Saskatchewan. Many of those Crown corporations already released their annual reports this week, including Saskatchewan General Insurance (SGI) and SaskPower. Taken together, the Crowns made record levels of capital spending across the province, according to CIC’s annual report, including $1.9 billion on infrastructure.
- The Assembly of First Nations (AFN) is considering a resolution at its assembly this week to help a group of Saskatchewan First Nations in their efforts to get federal funding for natural gas infrastructure. More than 20 First Nations in the province lack full natural gas service, so many homes have to use more expensive forms of heating such as electricity or propane. Chief Melissa Tavita of Muscowpetung Saulteaux Nation is one of the leaders at the AFN 45th general assembly in Montreal, which began Tuesday.
Alberta
- The Alberta Teachers’ Association (ATA) said students should be getting more support, not more tests, amid changes the province is making to its early years assessment framework. In a letter to provincial school boards dated July 5, provided to Global News by the ATA, Education Minister Demetrios Nicolaides outlined changes to the mandatory literacy and numeracy screening for elementary students. Kindergarten students will be required to do literacy and numeracy screening in January of each year, starting in 2025. This is the first time kindergarten students will do such assessments.
- Alberta’s government says it is investing $44 million in an effort to help 21 small and medium businesses reduce emissions and lower energy costs. Government officials say the funding is designed to help these businesses get projects off the ground, including new technology to help power generation, agriculture, forestry, oil and gas, fertilizer, construction, electricity and other sectors. It will be delivered through the Emissions Reduction Alberta’s Emerging Innovators Challenge.
- Hot and dry conditions have contributed to 137 new wildfire starts since July 1, as well as increasing wildfire danger throughout the province. The forest protection area encompasses the foothills and Rocky Mountains, as well as all of northern Alberta’s boreal forest. All fire permits issued by the province of Alberta have been suspended or cancelled, and according to the province, no new permits will be issued while the ban is in place. The ban includes all outdoor wood fires, including wood campfires on public land, private land, designated campgrounds and backyard firepits, fireworks and charcoal briquette BBQs are all prohibited in the forest protection area.
- The Alberta government is aiming to soften new rules against greenwashing that led Canadian oil and gas groups to scrub their websites of climate pledges or add disclaimers. Alberta Environment Minister Rebecca Schulz, whose government has been critical of changes put into law last month, said Wednesday her government plans to take part in the upcoming consultations held by the Competition Bureau, which enforces the rules. Amendments to the Competition Act that became law last month under Bill C-59 require companies to be able to prove environmental claims made to promote a product or business interest. Schulz said the changes caused “a lot of concern for the industry.”
British Columbia
- Former BC Green Party leader Andrew Weaver is treading back into B.C. politics, slamming NDP Premier David Eby in an opinion piece in the Vancouver Sun, and showering praise on BC Conservative Leader John Rustad. He echoed those sentiments in an interview with CTV News Wednesday. “(Rustad) reminds me a lot of John Horgan in that he’s a listener. He’s somebody that will listen to you, will disagree with you, but is open to change his views,” said Weaver. Weaver is a climate scientist and one of the architects of the province’s climate plan: CleanBC. He forged an alliance – and famous bromance – with Horgan that propelled the NDP to power in 2017, but he’s critical of Horgan’s successor.
- British Columbia’s premier says the province worked with the federal government to change its bail rules, so he is not sure why a man with a long and violent criminal history was released from jail weeks before the stabbing death of a woman in her Surrey, B.C., home. David Eby called the murder “horrific,” saying the reformed federal rules should have prevented Adam Mann’s release.
- Premier David Eby says the province is providing millions more in funding for the new medical school at Simon Fraser University in Surrey, B.C., that aims to start classes in September 2026. Eby says $33.7 million will go toward the renovation of an interim space at an existing building on Simon Fraser’s Surrey campus, as well as at leased space to accommodate classrooms, laboratories and offices. He says that’s in addition to $27 million in operational funding granted through the 2024 budget and builds on $14 million the government has already given for startup costs.
- More needs to be done to address the toxic drug crisis, according to B.C.’s provincial health officer, and she has listed some recommendations for the province. Dr. Bonnie Henry said in a report that B.C. needs to expand on its non-prescribed alternatives to the toxic, unregulated drug supply to save more lives. She said more access is needed for a safer supply. “More than 14,000 people have died of drug poisoning in B.C. since the public-health emergency was declared almost a decade ago,” Dr. Bonnie Henry said.
Northwest Territories
- Non-profit leaders say recommendations from an after-action report on Yellowknife’s 2023 wildfire evacuation would go a long way toward fixing the problems they ran into last year — if the city and the N.W.T. government can work together to implement them. The 130-page review by KPMG, which the city commissioned, focuses on how Yellowknife could improve its response if it ever evacuates again. It includes 26 recommendations, several of which specifically focused on vulnerable populations. The city should be thinking about those populations at all stages of evacuation planning, the report said — which didn’t happen last year.
Yukon
- The company responsible for the Eagle gold mine near Mayo, Yukon says it might not have the money to remediate the impacts of its heap leach failure. In a statement from Victoria Gold Corp. issued Friday, the company also said it might never reopen. “There can be no assurance that the company will receive [the government] authorizations necessary to restart production or that the company will have the financial resources necessary to repair damage to equipment and facilities or remediate impacts caused by the incident or restart production.”
Nunavut
- The Supreme Court of Canada says a Nunavut judge “made no error of law” when she acquitted a man on trial for murder in Iqaluit in 2021. Daniel Hodgson was charged in connection with the death of Bradley Winsor at a house party in Apex, near Iqaluit, in 2017. At trial, Hodgson said he acted in self-defence when he choked Winsor, and only meant to restrain him, not kill him. In May 2021, Nunavut Justice Susan Charlesworth ruled there was not enough proof to say he intended to kill Winsor.