Provincial and Territorial Update – July 18, 2025
Provincial and Territorial Update: An overview of the Provincial Legislative and Territories Legislative Updates for the week of July 18, 2025. Written by Wes McLean.
New Brunswick
- Horizon’s four regional hospitals are in such a critical state of overcapacity, trying to cope with a record number of patients who really belong elsewhere, the CEO is calling on the province to bump those patients ahead of other New Brunswickers waiting for placements in nursing homes and other community care. Margaret Melanson says more than 650 people who have no medical reason to be in the hospital are nonetheless there, taking up acute care beds, and it’s having a profound impact throughout the hospital system.
- A day after the Department of Social Development agreed to let certain Horizon Health hospital patients jump the line to get into nursing homes, Vitalité is asking for the same for patients in Bathurst. Vitalité Health Network said Thursday it submitted a request to the department, asking that patients in Chaleur Regional Hospital get priority for nursing home beds, according to an email sent to Radio-Canada.
- N.B. Power has changed the location of a proposed natural gas plant it wants to see built in southeast New Brunswick, opting for a remote location in the Tantramar area instead of a site in Scoudouc. The plant would begin operating in 2028 and would be able to generate 500 megawatts of electricity, most of it to meet growing demand caused by population growth.
- New Brunswick’s biggest industrial carbon emitters pumped out lower amounts of greenhouse gases in 2023, but the reductions were not enough to keep pace with tightening emissions standards. The gap between the total emissions by the province’s 15 biggest industrial polluters and their regulated emissions limits grew larger, according to numbers from the provincial government. That left them paying more under the province’s credit-trading carbon pricing system.
Nova Scotia
- Citing safety concerns, Premier Tim Houston says his government will overturn Halifax council’s decision on a local bike lane, but some councillors and advocates say the move is likely about setting the stage for strong mayor powers. On Wednesday evening, Houston posted a letter to social media addressed to Halifax Mayor Andy Fillmore, regional councillors and chief administrative officer Cathie O’Toole.
- Days after Nova Scotia’s forestry sector was dealt a major blow, the province is promising to use more wood to heat and construct public buildings, although officials deny any connection between the two developments. Two cabinet ministers made the announcement Thursday at Ledwidge Lumber, a sawmill in Enfield, N.S.
- Municipal police chiefs in Nova Scotia say the province’s decision to expand the RCMP moves in a direction opposite the rest of Canada and could lead to less effective services for residents. A Deloitte review into the structure of policing in Nova Scotia released last month, suggested that Nova Scotia should create a provincial police force offering both special services and local policing to better serve the public. In response, the PC government is expanding the RCMP to operate as the provincial service, rather than creating an independent force like the Ontario Provincial Police or Quebec’s Sûreté.
- Cape Breton Regional Municipality plans to ask the province for help cleaning up derelict properties after fires destroyed two structures in Glace Bay last week, underscoring the danger of old, vacant buildings. Officials say the municipality simply can’t afford to tackle the large number of properties in CBRM that need attention.
Prince Edward Island
- Fourteen people and companies with ties to Canadian Nectar Products and Island Gold Honey are facing charges under the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act in P.E.I. provincial court, with some of them also facing criminal charges for money laundering. CBC News has been reporting on the companies since 2022, after the Canadian Border Services Agency executed search warrants at properties across Prince Edward Island.
- The province of Prince Edward Island will continue to require annual motor vehicle inspections, after ordering a review of its program and those in other provinces. Currently, all vehicles on the Island must be inspected by a licensed mechanic every year in order to qualify for an up-to-date inspection sticker. In some other provinces, like neighbouring Nova Scotia, inspections are required only every two years.
- Health P.E.I. has been overpaying by as much as 100 per cent for off-hours radiology services provided through an Ontario company, according to the province’s auditor general. In a report released Tuesday, the office of Auditor General Darren Noonan said the issue has been raised with the province’s health authority annually since the audit of its 2021 financial statement, yet it still has not been addressed. What’s more, the AG’s report says the single position designated within Health P.E.I. to audit medical claims has been mostly vacant since April 2022, with no one else given responsibility for analyzing claims or recovering overpayments for erroneous billings.
- Three of the biggest players in Prince Edward Island’s health-care system have agreed to begin a mediation process regarding how many patients family doctors can and should handle. In a joint news release late Tuesday, the Medical Society of P.E.I., along with the Department of Health and Wellness and Health P.E.I., said they’ve been having “meaningful and constructive conversations “over the past number of days” about a controversial side document to the latest Physician Services Agreement.
Newfoundland and Labrador
- Newfoundland and Labrador cabinet ministers are now eligible for extra money on their way out the door, CBC News has learned. The provincial cabinet has approved a new transitional allowance policy for ministers, which came into effect April 1, just months before a scheduled provincial election. There has been no public disclosure of the decision before now. Executive Council — which is responsible for the overall operations of the provincial government — confirmed the existence of the new policy in response to inquiries from CBC News. The decision could put tens of thousands of dollars in the pockets of some departing ministers.
- With Russia waging war to the west, threats to Canadian sovereignty to the south, and climate change threatening disaster, eyes are set on Canada’s arctic as a hub of national defence. “There’s a lot of focus on what is going to happen and protecting our sovereignty,” said Victoria Belbin, CEO of the Atlantic Canada Aerospace and Defence Association (ACADA). On July 17, companies from across Atlantic Canada involved in defence came together at the annual Maritime and Arctic Security and Safety conference in St. John’s.
- After 33 years in politics, veteran cabinet minister Gerry Byrne is the latest Liberal politician to bow out ahead of the provincial election. “I’ve never felt more on top of what I do, but maybe that’s the time that you allow fresh faces to move in behind you to become the next Gerry Byrne,” he told reporters on Thursday, adding that there may be a familiar name on the ballot some day. Byrne said the next Gerry Byrne in politics could be his son, also named Gerry Byrne.
- As prospective home buyers feel the squeeze of a hot housing market in Newfoundland and Labrador, some are skipping home inspections that are meant to protect them. Jerry Boyles, an agent with Royal LePage Property Consultants, said home inspections are an “essential component” to the real estate sector, which lets the buyers know the pros and cons of the property they are interested in. But in the current hot market, which is geared toward the seller, Boyles said he is seeing more cases of people going without.
Quebec
- Quebec Senator Pierre Moreau is now the government’s representative in the Senate, replacing Marc Gold who retired last month. Moreau will be tasked with guiding government legislation through the Senate in this new job. Moreau has more than four decades of legal and political experience as a former member of Quebec’s national assembly. He served in multiple cabinet roles during his nearly decade-long tenure in provincial politics. Moreau was appointed to the Senate in September 2024 by former Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.
- The Coalition Avenir Québec (CAQ) government is releasing $275 million for the third link project between Québec City and Lévis, according to Radio-Canada. Members of Quebec’s cabinet accepted Transport Minister Geneviève Guilbault’s arguments for releasing the money during their meeting Wednesday, before breaking for the summer. She had requested the funds to launch the project.
- Weeks after mounting pressure from unions and opposition parties for making cuts to education, François Legault’s Coalition Avenir Québec (CAQ) government has announced more than half a billion dollars for student services. Education Minister Bernard Drainville announced on social media Wednesday that the provincial government will invest “up to $540 million” for the school network and that all funds “must be used to finance direct services to students, not for anything else.” Quebec’s education ministry had come under fire after announcing at the end of the last school year that the network would have to reduce its spending by nearly $570 million by the fall.
- The Quebec government is being urged to show leniency toward a Montreal college facing a $30-million fine for enrolling too many students in its English-language programs. An association representing private subsidized colleges says LaSalle College risks “irreversible consequences” if the provincial government doesn’t change its position. Association des collèges privés du Québec is calling on the province to negotiate with the school to avoid its closure, calling the fine unjustified and counterproductive.
Ontario
- The group of Ontario First Nations taking the federal and provincial governments to court over fast-track legislation, which will sidestep or suspend a range of legal protections, says the Crown is failing in its duties. A lawyer representing the coalition of nine First Nations filed a legal application against both the Ford and Carney governments on Monday evening. The action looks to have a court rule the entirety of Ontario’s Bill 5 unconstitutional, as well as large parts of the federal government’s Bill C-5. At Queen’s Park on Wednesday, four of the First Nations leaders involved spoke about their concerns with Ontario Premier Doug Ford and Prime Minister Mark Carney’s approach.
- Progressive Conservative Ontario Premier Doug Ford has expressed some advice to Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre — don’t romance the “extreme” right. Ford, speaking to Rick Bell of the Calgary Herald, weighed in on how he thought the federal Conservative leader could rack up more votes. “It can’t be one extreme or the other extreme,” said Ford. “You can’t be far left or hardcore right.” “Sometimes the truth hurts.”
- Ontario NDP Leader Marit Stiles said it is “unforgivable” that the province’s environment minister asked the federal government to scrap a bill that would support First Nations’ rights to clean drinking water. Speaking to reporters at an unrelated event in Toronto on Thursday, the official Opposition leader referred to communities in Ontario that have been under a boil water advisory for 30 years. “I’ve met young women in their late 20s, 30 years old, never been able to drink from a sink in their communities. Imagine that,” Stiles said.
- The Ontario government announced Thursday that it’s investing more than $180 million to increase capacity at correctional facilities across the province. The announcement was made from the Niagara Detention Centre in Thorold, nearly a month after Ontario’s ombudsman raised concerns about overcrowding in jails, leading to safety concerns for both staff and inmates. The government says that the Niagara Detention Centre, the Cecil Facer Youth Centre in Sudbury and the Vanier Centre for Women in Milton “will be expanded to create 150 new beds and give frontline staff the space they need to do their jobs safely.”
Manitoba
- As one landfill search ends and another is planned to begin, an MMIWG advocate says countrywide implementation of the Red Dress Alert and addressing “systemic racism” could prevent the agony of such searches ever needing to happen again. “We know when someone is missing, time is of the essence to locate them and to find them safely,” said Hilda Anderson-Pyrz, a member of Nisichawayasihk Cree Nation in Manitoba and chair of the National Family and Survivors Circle. Manitoba is in the process of launching the Red Dress Alert pilot project, which will provide a notification to people’s mobile phones when an Indigenous woman, girl, two-spirit or gender diverse person goes missing — similar to how an Amber Alert works.
- The extremely dry conditions in Manitoba, which have led to multiple wildfires in the north, are now pushing other areas toward an agricultural calamity. The rural municipality of St. Laurent has declared a state of emergency, while the RM of Coldwell has declared a state of agricultural disaster. “In the RM of Coldwell, there’s a huge cattle industry, and right now … I would say that on average, the hay’s maybe 25 per cent of what they got last year, which is not very good,” said Reeve Virgil Johnson.
- The city councillor for Winnipeg’s inner-city Daniel McIntyre ward wants to ban encampments in public places where children gather. Coun. Cindy Gilroy has authored a motion to prohibit encampments at playgrounds, spray pads, community gardens, pools and community centre spaces designed for kids and their families. Gilroy issued the motion Thursday at the final city council meeting before a six-week summer prorogation at City Hall.
- The province is going to need to shore up its force of wildfire fighters in the future if it hopes to save more remote communities from having to endure the worsening cycle of forced evacuations, destroyed property and destruction of forests, says a northern Manitoba grand chief. Grand Chief Alex McDougall of Anisininew Okimawin — a coalition of First Nations from northeastern Manitoba’s Island Lake area, which has been largely evacuated due to wildfires — says more boots on the ground would’ve been a game-changer for his region. “We wouldn’t have that fire threatening our communities,” said McDougall. “We wouldn’t have these thousands of our people, of our communities, displaced from their homes into large urban areas, where sometimes they’re not welcome.”
Saskatchewan
- As wildfires continue to tear through northern Saskatchewan, insurance companies are starting to feel the heat. Insurance companies expect the fire season to run from April to September. But while they often affect less-populated areas farther north, this year that has not entirely been the case, said Emily Proulx, branch manager for Hub International in Prince Albert. Proulx said she has noticed an uptick in claims made across the province from areas like Denare Beach, La Ronge and Flin Flon.
- Saskatchewan’s new information and privacy commissioner says a lifelong passion for serving as a check on government power will help her excel in the new role. Grace Hession David said in an interview Thursday that she always wanted to be a lawyer and has been privileged enough to serve as a Crown prosecutor and defence lawyer in Ontario. She’s even argued cases in front of the Supreme Court of Canada. David said her passion developed early. “I was fascinated as a young child by the Watergate hearings and by the fact that a judge could subpoena the president of the United States and say, ‘hand over the information,'” David said.
- The senior lead physician of a Saskatchewan Medical Association program that provides help for rural doctors is sharing his experience of the challenges they face, after a number of temporary rural emergency room closures forced by a shortage of medical professionals in the province. “We tend to get the feeling that from an emergency perspective … the importance is placed on just keeping the door open, not necessarily, you know, keeping the door open when we are adequately staffed,” Dr. Francois Reitz said in an interview Tuesday, as he was coming off a 24-hour emergency room shift.
- Saskatchewan Premier Scott Moe says the best way to break down trade barriers between provinces already exists, and the simplest thing for other premiers to do is to sign on. The New West Partnership Trade Agreement (NWPTA) was established in 2010 by Saskatchewan, Alberta and B.C., with Manitoba joining in 2017. With the agreement of the other western premiers, Moe has written letters to the rest of his counterparts inviting them to join the NWPTA, he said at a media event Thursday in Saskatoon.
Alberta
- Alberta Premier Danielle Smith is demanding that the fire-stricken town of Jasper apologize and retract a report criticizing her government for its role in last summer’s devastating blaze. Smith, speaking at an unrelated press conference in Edmonton, also blamed the federal government for failing in the fire response by not asking sooner for provincial help and for not clearing out dead trees that provided fuel for the flames. “I’m very disappointed that this report politicizes what actually should be a very successful example of unified command,” Smith said Friday.
- Alberta is making changes to its online citizen survey following criticism that the original version was a slanted push poll designed to stir up discontent with the federal government. Smith’s office confirmed Thursday they are making changes to three of the six surveys launched three weeks ago to gauge public opinion on Alberta distancing itself from Ottawa oversight and control. They’re part of Smith’s touring town hall group, dubbed the Alberta Next panel, pitching strategies that could lead to possible referendums.
- Canada’s dairy and poultry supply management regime could face a major challenge from within, with Alberta Premier Danielle Smith saying she could consider the province exiting the quota system. Smith said at a town hall in Red Deer, Alta., that she found the idea of the province opting out of supply management intriguing. “Creating our own Alberta version of supply management, maybe as a pathway to a market system and maybe just because it would stick our finger in the eye of Quebec … might be (something) we want to do a little consultation on,” said Smith.
- The husband of a former Alberta premier is questioning why Premier Danielle Smith invited her husband to sit in on government meetings. Lou Arab, husband to former premier Rachel Notley, in a social media post took issue with Smith’s recent comments, saying there is nothing wrong with her husband, David Moretta, sitting in on meetings discussing government rail projects. “Danielle Smith is full of it,” wrote Arab, a longtime senior communications official with the Canadian Union of Public Employees.
British Columbia
- B.C. Premier David Eby has leaned on Ravi Kahlon from the moment Eby officially sought the government’s top job, with Kahlon co-chairing his leadership campaign. When Eby created the province’s stand-alone housing ministry in 2022, he asked Kahlon to head it, and when U.S. President Donald Trump launched his trade war on Canada this year, it was Kahlon who Eby picked to chair the cabinet committee on B.C.’s response. Kahlon remains at the centre of Eby’s NDP government after Thursday’s cabinet reshuffle, with Eby saying he “needed Ravi” back in the jobs and economic growth ministry, a portfolio he previously headed.
- The full list of the BC cabinet shuffle can be found at the following link: Recent BC News
- Premier David Eby said British Columbia should be shouldering a disproportionate economic burden from Canada’s trade war with the U.S., and he’ll be calling for “basic fairness” at next week’s First Minister’s meeting. Canada’s provincial and territorial leaders are set to meet in Huntsville, Ontario, July 21-23, with tariff threats from the U.S. at the top of the agenda. U.S. President Donald Trump recently threatened to bring a 35 per cent tariff on all goods not included in the Canada-US-Mexico trade agreement. “The tariff responses that have been imposed by the federal government on the U.S. in response to attacks by the president have fallen disproportionately on British Columbians,” said Eby Thursday.
- British Columbia’s public service union representing 34,000 members says it’s preparing for a strike vote after months-long negotiations fell apart. Paul Finch, president of the B.C. General Employees’ Union, says the impasse came over wages, work from home rules and modernizing the contract. Finch says their members face an affordability crisis, and if wages don’t keep up with inflation, skilled workers will be lost, including wildland firefighters, who “are among the lowest paid employees in the entire government.”
Northwest Territories
- As Indigenous leaders and northern workers absorb the shock of this week’s layoffs at Ekati Diamond Mine in the Northwest Territories, industry observers say the scaling back of operations at Ekati is indicative of challenges facing the diamond industry. Dene National Chief George Mackenzie said the job losses are going to affect Tłı̨chǫ communities “big time.” “Some of the workers there have worked there almost 30 years,” said Mackenzie, who is also a former Tłı̨chǫ grand chief. “They have bills, and they have to look after their family, and to be out of work is going to be a huge effect on our community, in our region.”
Yukon
- Sometime this year, Yukon voters will be asked whether they want to keep the existing first-past-the-post system or adopt a new one where voters can rank candidates by preference. They’ll cast ballots for the plebiscite at the same time they vote in the territorial election. But after months of planning, the Yukon’s chief electoral officer is still without a finalized question that will appear on the ballot. That’s because drafting the question is the responsibility of the Executive Council Office, which has legal authority over Election Yukon.
Nunavut
- The Government of Nunavut has entered into a 10-year agreement with Bradley Air Services — which operates as Canadian North — to cover various air transportation services, such as duty travel, medical travel and cargo. It also introduces “specific parameters” around family services travel that weren’t in place in prior contracts, according to the government. “In Nunavut, air travel is a lifeline – it’s our highway,” said Nunavut Premier P.J. Akeeagok in a statement. “It connects our families, delivers essential goods and services, and keeps our communities strong. Reliable air service is the backbone of our territory’s social and economic wellbeing, and it’s vital to ensuring equity and opportunity for all Nunavummiut.”