Provincial and Territorial Update – May 9, 2025
Provincial and Territorial Update: An overview of the Provincial Legislative and Territories Legislative Updates for the week of May 9, 2025. Written by Wes McLean.
New Brunswick
- According to its intergovernmental affairs minister, New Brunswick will look to negotiate an exemption to federal immigration targets as it looks to attract more newcomers from Africa. Intergovernmental Affairs Minister Jean-Claude D’Amours, who is also the minister responsible for immigration, unveiled a plan Thursday to increase the number of francophone immigrants from six African countries over the next five years.
- The New Brunswick government says it has a new strategy with the goal of developing partnerships with French-speaking countries in Africa. The strategy focuses on economic development, education and training, immigration and labour recruitment and diplomatic relations. The following countries have been identified as a priority for the strategy: Morocco, Ivory Coast, Benin, Cameroon, Senegal and Tunisia.
- New Brunswick Premier Susan Holt, who recently signed memoranda of understanding (MOU) on trade with Ontario and Newfoundland and Labrador, is hoping to sign similar agreements with Prince Edward Island and Saskatchewan in the near future. Holt hopes to discuss the possible MOU with Saskatchewan Premier Scott Moe during the First Ministers’ meeting in Saskatoon on June 2.
- New Brunswick Local Government Minister Aaron Kennedy says homeowners angry with their rising property tax bills persuaded the province to freeze property assessments in 2026. But a similar freeze in 2018 was partially nullified when 41 municipalities raised their property tax rates in response.
Nova Scotia
- New statistics released this week by Elections Nova Scotia show a continuing decline in voter turnout following last fall’s provincial election, with participation by the province’s youngest voters well below 20 per cent.In the two youngest cohorts, only 16.6 per cent of voters between the ages of 18 and 24 cast a ballot, while just 23.8 per cent of those between 25 and 34 voted.
- The Nova Scotia government is accelerating the environmental review process for a number of clean energy projects to meet its climate goals and get off coal by 2030. Under changes announced Thursday, large biomass, biogas and clean fuel projects have been changed to Class 1 from Class 2, meaning they can be approved within 50 days. The more rigorous Class 2 assessment, which can take more than two years, is now reserved for projects such as pulp mills, cement plants, incinerators and large energy plants. The government is also classifying small modular reactor projects, previously not covered by regulations, as Class 1, a designation that had previously been reserved for renewable projects involving wind, tidal and solar energy, as well as for biofuels, mines, quarries and alterations to large wetlands.
Prince Edward Island
- P.E.I.’s premier connected with Prime Minister Mark Carney this week for the first time since the federal election, as tensions around Alberta’s independence continue to simmer. Rob Lantz and Canada’s other first ministers spoke virtually with Carney, and P.E.I.’s Progressive Conservative premier said interprovincial trade and “nation building” were high on the agenda.
- For the sixth day of debate in a row, tensions continued to rise in the P.E.I. Legislation around the issue of safety in Island schools was introduced after a former substitute teacher pleaded guilty to sexually touching a primary student. The two opposition parties took different tacks Thursday when it came to questioning the Progressive Conservative government about the case of Matthew Alan Craswell. The Liberals focused on who knew what and when, while the Green Party wanted to know what’s been done to safeguard schools now. In the legislature, the government’s message hasn’t changed much over the course of six business days of intense scrutiny over its handling of the case, starting on the day Premier Rob Lantz stood to deliver an apology to Islanders over what had been reported in court about Craswell’s behaviour.
Newfoundland and Labrador
- John Hogan has been officially sworn in as Newfoundland and Labrador’s 15th premier. The Liberal premier announced the members of his new cabinet, who were also sworn in today during a ceremony at Government House in St. John’s. Hogan, a 47-year-old lawyer, was elected to lead the governing Liberals at a convention last weekend.
- In response to Alberta Premier Smith’s recent statement that equalizations should be re-tooled to prioritize the smaller provincial economies like those in Atlantic Canada. Greg Gill, a spokesperson for Newfoundland’s Liberal government, agreed, telling the National Post that, “(E)qualization is intended to ensure … fairness for all citizens. Currently, this fairness is not achieved for Newfoundland and Labrador.” Smith said in a livestreamed address that it was time for the ‘big four’ provinces of Ontario, Quebec, Alberta and British Columbia to fend for themselves, and stop siphoning equalization dollars from smaller provincial economies like those in Atlantic Canada.
- The Union of Taxation Employees sent out a release last week after the CRA informed the union that about 1,300 term workers at the agency’s contact centres won’t have their contracts renewed when they expire on May 16. Term employees are those hired for a defined and limited period of time. Marc Brière, the union’s national president, estimates around 125 jobs will be lost in New Brunswick, and roughly 250 in Newfoundland and Labrador.
- Residents of two small communities in eastern Newfoundland fled their homes Thursday as a wildfire raged along the shore of Conception Bay, burning houses and other buildings about 45 kilometres northwest of St. John’s.
Quebec
- Health Minister Christian Dubé tabled a bill on Thursday that would give the Quebec government the authority to regulate how health professionals are compensated, to get them to take on more patients. Bill 106, officially titled An Act mainly to establish the collective responsibility and the accountability of physicians with respect to improvement of access to medical services, would have family doctors be compensated by capitation payment, that is to say, through a fixed payment based on the number of patients they take on and the care provided.
- At least seven universities in Quebec are forecasting budget deficits for the 2025–26 academic year, raising concerns that deep cuts could be on the horizon. Christian Blanchette, president of the Bureau de coopération interuniversitaire (BCI), which represents the province’s universities, said the sector is being squeezed by two major pressures: a lack of government support for salary increases and inflation, and a steep drop in international student applications.
- Despite a downward trend, Quebec still reported nearly record-high population growth last year due to immigration, even as the province’s fertility rate reached its lowest level on record. Non-permanent residents — including temporary foreign workers, international students and asylum seekers — were responsible for much of the province’s population growth in 2024, according to a new report from Quebec’s statistics agency. Premier François Legault has made reducing temporary immigration one of his top priorities, and has called on the federal government to halve the number of non-permanent residents in the province. He claims temporary immigrants are putting pressure on housing, health care and education.
- The Quebec government has tabled legislation that would ensure a minimum 150-metre distance between supervised injection sites and schools and daycares. Social Services Minister Lionel Carmant says the bill would grant his department new powers to approve or refuse a new site allowing the supervised consumption of drugs.
Ontario
- Premier Doug Ford’s government has given Ontario Power Generation the green light to start construction on Canada’s first small modular reactor, a new nuclear energy technology to be built next door to the Darlington power plant.
- The Ford government is planning to impose new rules on how local governments greenlight development projects, pushing the changes on municipalities as the province struggles to meet its self-imposed goal of building 1.5 million homes by 2031. The government is relying on a series of changes to Ontario’s planning rules, like reducing studies developers have to undertake and standardizing development charges, in a bid to speed up homebuilding.
- Ontario’s unemployment rate ticked up again last month, according to Statistics Canada, reaching its highest level in more than a decade, with the exception of the initial economic shocks of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Manitoba
- Nurses rallied by the hundreds to say Manitoba’s health-care system hasn’t improved under the NDP. Before the NDP was elected in 2023, Darlene Jackson, president of the Manitoba Nurses Unionsaid the union was fielding “continuous phone calls” from the then-opposition party, which said fixing the province’s beleaguered health-care system would be its top priority. But 18 months later, “we hear from our nurses on a daily basis that we are not seeing any appreciable change to health-care.”
- Several Manitoba communities near The Pas have evacuated due to an out-of-control wildfire in the area. Rocky Lake East Shore, Rocky Lake North Shore, Wanless and the Carrot Valley along Highway 283 were evacuated on Thursday, according to a social media post from the RM of Kelsey.
Saskatchewan
- Saskatchewan’s Opposition NDP introduced a bill on Wednesday that would increase the threshold for citizen petitions on separation referendums and create a legal barrier to prevent the premier and cabinet from unilaterally calling such a referendum. “This is about not leaving things to chance and about showing some leadership in that respect,” NDP energy and resources critic Sally Housser said. “You see Danielle Smith in Alberta trying to make [separation] easier. We want to make it harder.”
- An employee with the Saskatchewan immigrant nominee program is accused of using his job to enrich himself and launder the proceeds of financial fraud, RCMP say. Saskatoon resident Tony Dou is charged with several financial crimes in connection with his full-time employment with the provincial government’s nominee program, which connects foreign workers with local businesses looking to fill jobs.
- The Saskatchewan Public Safety Agency says there are more wildfires burning in the province this time of year compared with the five-year average. Land Operations Executive Director Bryan Chartrand says there are 24 active fires, and nine of them are not contained. He says all of the wildfires have been started by humans and he called the situation concerning.
Alberta
- Last week, Premier Smith’s government introduced a bill that would sharply lower the bar for citizens seeking to trigger provincewide referendums. This has caused outcry but has pushed back this week Smith saying she doesn’t support separating her province from Canada, but says Albertans have genuine grievances with the federal government, and she wants concessions from Liberal Prime Minister Mark Carney.
- A new report from Statistics Canada says Alberta was one of the country’s leaders in employment growth last month. It says around 15,000 Albertans found work last month, 14,100 of whom came into full-time positions. This largely helped to offset a decline in jobs from March.
- The number of Albertans who have contracted measles since cases were first detected in March has now reached 326. The Alberta government’s latest update reports 13 more cases of the highly contagious disease. There are three people with measles in intensive care; 97 of the confirmed cases are in children under five years of age and nearly two-thirds of the cases (200) are in the province’s south health zone, which includes Lethbridge, Taber and Medicine Hat.
- Teachers in Alberta’s public, Catholic and Francophone schools have rejected a mediator’s proposal that would have given them an average wage increase of 15 per cent over four years. The offer didn’t go far enough to address teachers’ concerns about crowded classrooms, packed with a growing number of students who have complex and differing needs, said Alberta Teachers’ Association (ATA) president Jason Schilling.
- Premier Danielle Smith will send Speaker Nathan Cooper to Washington as the provincial representative, at a time when U.S. President Donald Trump’s tariff threats put the Canada-U.S. trade relationship at its most precarious state in years. Cooper has been the legislative Speaker since the UCP formed government in 2019. He will replace James Rajotte, the former Edmonton Conservative MP who was the D.C. envoy under former premier Jason Kenney and Smith for nearly five years before stepping aside after Trump’s second inauguration.
British Columbia
- Elections Canada recently disclosed that more than 800 special ballots cast during the recent federal election were mistakenly kept at the office of a returning officer in B.C.
- Elections Canada said an initial analysis shows that the outcomes in those 74 districts were not affected by the mislaid ballots.
- The British Columbia government has appointed a former chief justice of the B.C. Supreme Court to report on safety measures for event organizers and police after 11 people were killed when a driver rammed into a crowded street festival in Vancouver. Premier David Eby said Christopher Hinkson has agreed to serve as commissioner to conduct the review “in a very short period of time.”
- The Supreme Court in British Columbia has ordered a pause of operations at a wastewater storage facility at the Mount Polley mine as an addition to the dam is challenged by a local First Nation. The court’s decision issued Thursday orders the Mount Polley Mining Corp. not to deposit mine tailings into a storage dam that is being raised before July 1.
Northwest Territories
- Canada’s three northern premiers have agreed to look into the concept of striking up a “territorial trade zone” that recognizes modern treaties and land claims, and removes internal trade barriers where it can.
- The Premier of the Northwest Territories is reaffirming support for his health minister after a group of three MLAs accused Minister Lesa Semmler of not taking her role seriously and threatened to oust her from the job. In a news release Thursday, MLAs Kieron Testart, Robert Hawkins and Richard Edjericon shared a list of actions they want to see taken to improve health care, including negotiating licence-sharing with Nunavut and Alberta to speed physicians’ ability to enter the N.W.T.’s system, releasing details of new locum contracts for emergency departments and implementing minimum staff-to-patient ratios at N.W.T. hospitals.
Yukon
- Yukon Premier Ranj Pillai announced Wednesday that he was stepping down as the leader of the territorial Liberal party and will not be running for re-election in his Whitehorse riding of Porter Creek South.
Nunavut
- Nunavut RCMP have asked an external body to investigate them after a Nunavut man died during an interaction with police over the weekend. RCMP say a man in Pond Inlet died on Sunday.
- The premiers of Manitoba and Nunavut are hopeful a proposed hydroelectric and fibre optic project is moving closer to fruition, and are seeking federal money. Manitoba Premier Wab Kinew and Nunavut Premier P.J. Akeeagok have signed a memorandum to work together on the project and ask Ottawa for capital funding. The proposed Kivalliq Hydro-Fibre Link would see a 1,200-kilometre line built through northern Manitoba to several Nunavut communities west of Hudson Bay that currently use diesel to generate electricity.