Provincial and Territorial Update – October 11, 2024
Provincial and Territorial Update: An overview of the Provincial Legislative and Territories Legislative Updates for the week of October 11, 2024. Written by Wes McLean.
New Brunswick
- Civil servants with the New Brunswick Department of Tourism, Heritage and Culture attended basketball games in Arizona in April, using tickets supplied by a company that has received grant money from the department, CBC News has learned. Four Tourism Department staff members, including deputy minister Yennah Hurley, travelled to Phoenix for five days to attend events around the Final Four of the NCAA men’s college basketball tournament.
- New Brunswick Green Party Leader David Coon is facing new scrutiny over his election commitments, particularly his inability to put a price tag on some of them and his willingness to run what he calls “short-term” budget deficits. Coon released the full Green platform Wednesday for the Oct. 21 election, a 45-page document that includes no costing. But an estimate provided by the party, filed with Elections New Brunswick, shows the party’s promises would add $2.9 to $4 billion to the province’s bottom line over five years.
- Continuing his tour of campaign stops across northern New Brunswick, Progressive Conservative Leader Blaine Higgs stopped for a photo op in Bathurst. Along with local candidate Kim Chamberlain, who is also the mayor of Bathurst, Higgs stood in front of the old Smurfit-Stone mill. The abandoned industrial site has been an eyesore in the town for 20 years, and the PC government issued a call for demolition so it can be cleaned up. Demolition began this week. When asked about a claim from Liberal Leader Susan Holt that Higgs has “ignored” the francophone north, Higgs pointed to the Smurfit-Stone site as an example to the contrary.
- Leader Susan Holt said the Liberal Party would sign an agreement with the federal government to give New Brunswickers free access to contraception if elected. Other women’s healthcare measures would include at-home pap tests and free rounds of IVF. The Liberals are also pledging additional midwives across New Brunswick, as they currently only are working in Fredericton.
Nova Scotia
- The Nova Scotia government is introducing new licence conditions for fish buyers and processors that officials hope will help crack down on illegal fishing. Kent Smith, the province’s fisheries minister, detailed the changes in a letter that accompanied a package sent to licence holders earlier this month. The package was shared with CBC News. “I acknowledge that these changes may seem like a lot all at once, however, I am confident they will serve to strengthen the department’s ability to support the sector without unduly adding excessive administrative burden to you, the licence holder,” Smith writes.
- Police in New Glasgow are investigating after thousands of dollars went missing from the bank account of Premier Tim Houston’s Pictou East Riding Association. Speaking to reporters in Halifax on Wednesday, Houston said he learned of the situation Monday evening and contacted police. Elections Nova Scotia was notified about the investigation on Tuesday. He said information would also be going out to party members to update them.
- Nova Scotia still has a lot of work to do to provide protection and resources to its most vulnerable citizens in times of emergency, says a climate change expert at St. Francis Xavier University. “We simply do not have the infrastructure to be able to save everybody,” Riley Olstead, an associate professor of sociology at the Antigonish, N.S., school, told CBC News in an interview. As Hurricane Milton barrelled toward Florida, residents of the state were evacuating to take shelter from the monster storm and extra precautions were underway to accommodate vulnerable groups, including people with disabilities and the elderly.
- The fall season is still normally a busy time for the Sydney Street Pub and Cafe in Digby, N.S., but the owner is worried this year is going to be quiet. Saskia Geerts says losing the ferry service to Saint John when the ship goes in for a refit is coming at a bad time. The MV Fundy Rose that runs between the two communities will be out of commission from Oct. 16 through Dec. 2, when it goes to a shipyard in Quebec for a biannual refit. “It’s a huge disappointment,” said Geerts. People who are still around touring the Maritimes and would normally take the ferry from Saint John to Digby are unlikely to drive all the way around, she said.
Prince Edward Island
- P.E.I. has a new minister of education and early years after a Wednesday morning cabinet shuffle by Premier Dennis King, and other top departments have new bosses too. King announced on Tuesday evening that he would be making the shuffle. The need for it became apparent when Natalie Jameson announced early Wednesday she would be leaving the cabinet to seek the federal nomination for the Conservative Party of Canada in the riding of Charlottetown, now held by Liberal Sean Casey. The new education and early years minister is Rob Lantz.
- Zack Bell, who has represented Charlottetown-Winsloe since 2020, was given his first cabinet position. He is now minister of fisheries, tourism, sport and culture. The rest of the shuffle was characterized by moving around existing members of cabinet. Cory Deagle, who had been in fisheries, tourism, sport and culture, moves to economic development, innovation and trade. That portfolio had been held by Gilles Arsenault, who moves to environment, energy and climate action.
- Steven Myers, who had been holding that portfolio, takes over Rob Lantz’s previous file in housing, land and communities. Jenn Redmond will continue as minister of workforce, advanced learning and population, while also picking up status of women responsibilities from Jameson. King also made some changes in house leadership. Bell had been government whip. He is replaced by former cabinet minister Brad Trivers. Matthew MacKay is out as government house leader, replaced by Susie Dillon. Dillon, the MLA for Charlottetown-Belvedere, was first elected in 2023.
- Residents of eastern P.E.I. had a chance to voice their frustrations over the beleaguered Northumberland Ferries service at a public meeting Thursday in Montague but left with more questions than answers. There has been no ferry service between Prince Edward Island and Nova Scotia since late September, and it could be weeks before the service starts up again — if it does at all this season. For some, the reality of the service’s frequent cancellations is bleak.
Newfoundland and Labrador
- Shovels will soon be in the ground to build a new community health centre in Deer Lake. Premier Andrew Furey announced the location of the centre on Humberview Drive on Thursday. The 30,000-square-foot facility, which will be called the Humber Valley-White Bay Community Health Centre, will house office and clinical spaces to support family care teams and mental health and addictions supports.
- Comments about rampant crime made by a Conservative Newfoundland and Labrador MP last month are getting pushback from the police — but despite protests from law enforcement, the politician is doubling down on his claims. As first reported by The Independent, MP for Coast of Bays—Central—Notre Dame Clifford Small said his riding was seeing a rise in illicit drug use and child sex trafficking rings, noting residents were terrified they’d be burned in their beds. He said it had gotten so bad that fearful seniors were sleeping with baseball bats next to them.
- The quiet, peaceful communities of Stoneville and Port Albert are being challenged by petty crime, and people have had enough, residents of the central Newfoundland outports say. People who’ve lived there for years tell CBC News they want the police to up enforcement, and the justice system to help them restore the way of life the tiny Notre Dame Bay communities had known for decades. “You don’t know when you wake up in the morning if something’s broken into or if something’s vandalized or if someone’s hurt or what the case happened overnight,” said Geoffrey Hodder, a lifelong resident of Stoneville.
- For cancer patients, imaging exams like CT scans or MRIs are an essential first step in their treatment, but professional associations say a shortage of medical radiation technologists has increased the wait times for these exams in Newfoundland and Labrador. Imaging is usually crucial to getting a diagnosis, and then important again for the treatment that will be part of a patient’s medical care. Delays in screening can cause a lot of uncertainty and anxiety for patients and their families, says Heather Mulligan, the manager of advocacy for Atlantic Canada with the Canadian Cancer Society.
Quebec
- After considering it, Premier François Legault is now ruling out paying asylum seekers to leave Quebec. Last week, in Paris, the premier declared that 80,000 migrants should be forced to move, even though the federal government warned him that this contravened the Charter of Rights and Freedoms. Bombarded by criticism, Legault insisted that these forced transfers could be carried out “humanely.” The Quebec Liberal Party (PLQ) was quick to describe Legault’s mission to Paris as a “trip of shame.”
- The Quebec government is facing criticism for a program that paid students to learn a construction skill – as less than half the graduates are certified to work in the industry. After it was recently revealed the program fell far short of its target, Parti Quebecois Leader Paul St-Pierre Plamondon on Tuesday accused the government of creating an “all-inclusive, all-paid package” that students can use “to go and renovate (their) cottage or renovate (their) basement.”
- Quebec Immigration Minister Jean-François Roberge tabled a bill on Thursday to reduce the number of international students, after reports of some private colleges mainly serving as channels to obtain citizenship. At a news conference in Quebec City Thursday, Roberge alluded to an unnamed private trade school that allegedly saw its enrolment of international students jump by 1,392 percent between January 2023 and May 2024.
- The Quebec government is considering the possibility of changing how family doctors are assigned based on Quebecers’ health to ensure that the most vulnerable have access. Sources who are aware of the discussions told Radio-Canada about a scenario that has been studied for several months. According to this scenario, Quebec patients in good health or with minor health problems would be referred to a modified Guichet d’accès à la première ligne (GAP), the service that is currently meant to give Quebecers without a family doctor access to medical appointments.
Ontario
- As the RCMP’s investigation into the Greenbelt scandal enters its second year, Premier Doug Ford’s political rivals say he “needs to come clean about his role” in the $8.28-billion land swap scheme. In the wake of revelations in the Star that at least eight of Ford’s current and former aides have already been interviewed by the Mounties, NDP Leader Marit Stiles said “There is still so much we don’t know about this mess.”
- Ontario has launched a review of the province’s 37 non-Indigenous children’s aid societies after Premier Doug Ford suggested they are being financially mismanaged, but the unions representing CAS workers say it is a mere “smokescreen.” Ministry of Children, Community and Social Services officials say the review will look at issues such as the quality of protection they provide and their finances. As part of a background briefing Wednesday, they provided graphs that show annual funding for the sector steadily increased over the past decade to $1.7 billion this year, even as the number of children in care declined.
- Ontario Premier Doug Ford said the province’s “tough” cost of living is one of the reasons why his government recently handed promotions to three Progressive Conservative MPPs, topping up their salaries by more than $16,000 a year. The promotions, the premier suggested, are to make up for the “unfair” base salary of $116,000 a year, which was first frozen in 2007 and has been kept in place by successive premiers, including Ford.
- Some Ontario municipalities are urging the province to allow involuntary treatment of people with addiction issues, and it appears the Ford government is paying close attention. A source familiar with discussions on the topic told QP Briefing that government officials are already talking about the issue, and there appears to be considerable support for it. “Sometimes it feels like politicians need to be publicly asked to do something, especially when it involves a sensitive topic, in order to be able to go and make it happen, and I think this is what is happening here,” the source said.
Manitoba
- New federal legislation that will cover the cost of birth control across the country after Manitoba moved to make it free starting this month could mean the province ends up with more dollars to instead spend on making other types of medication free, Premier Wab Kinew said Friday. The national pharmacare bill that was central to a now-defunct political pact between the Liberals and NDP received royal assent on Thursday night and has now become law. The legislation will inform the creation of any future national, universal pharmacare plan and will allow the federal government to sign deals with provinces and territories to cover both birth control and diabetes medications as part of the public health system.
- Changes to Manitoba’s child welfare system aimed at keeping more families together are now in effect. The province has put in place a system that will allow kids to stay out of child welfare by being placed with extended family or people within their home community. More than 80 percent of kids in care in Manitoba are Indigenous, and the changes will reduce the number of Indigenous children in the system, Families Minister Nahanni Fontaine said.
- Manitoba’s health minister announced plans to lower the breast cancer screening age to 40 on the same morning the legislature was debating an Official Opposition bill that would have legislated the same thing. Uzoma Asagwara said Thursday that the minimum age for self-referrals in the province will drop to 40 by December 2026. The NDP government said last month that the eligibility age would drop to 45 from the current 50 by the end of next year and promised to cut it to 40 at some unspecified date.
- The group that represents doctors across Manitoba says the province has seen a large increase in the number of physicians in the healthcare system. Doctors Manitoba, citing government statistics, says there was a net increase of 116 physicians between April 1 and Aug. 31 of this year. Doctors Manitoba president Dr. Randy Guzman said Thursday that the province saw a net gain of 133 physicians during the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Manitoba’s fiscal year, which went from May 1 to April 30. That’s the largest increase on record, he said, and significantly higher than a previous single-year milestone of 83.
Saskatchewan
- The Saskatchewan Party says it will no longer continue with a planned increase to the small business tax rate if they form government after the Oct. 28 provincial election. Saskatchewan Party Leader Scott Moe announced. The statement does not mention that the policy is a departure from the provincial budget, in which the Moe-led provincial government held firm to the planned increase to two percent effective July 1, 2025.
- Saskatchewan’s two main political parties have found at least one area of agreement: Both will maintain the current one percent small business tax rate if elected to form the government after the Oct. 28 election. Saskatchewan Party Leader Scott Moe announced the policy at a news conference in Kenaston, Sask., on Friday, while Saskatchewan NDP Leader Carla Beck called the policy “the right move” during a speech in Saskatoon laying out her party’s complete platform.
- Disabled people receiving income assistance say their benefits should be increased after Saskatchewan’s upcoming election, but advocates worry it has not become an issue. As of August, there were 18,128 households in the province receiving Saskatchewan Assured Income for Disability (SAID) benefits, according to the latest figures from the Ministry of Social Services. David Swan, 38, who lives with Laurence-Moon-Bardet-Biedl Syndrome, a disease so rare it occurs in “one in 25 million people,” has been on SAID since 2009.
- Saskatchewan NDP Leader Carla Beck is pitching the province’s voters on an idea: Think beyond party politics and support what’s best for the province when polls open on Oct. 28. Standing in front of a crowd of supporters at the provincial legislature, Beck described the race between her NDP and Scott Moe’s Saskatchewan Party as tighter than ever, and voters have a choice to elect change. While some may not agree with her on everything, Beck says, they can agree people deserve better.
Alberta
- Alberta’s United Conservative Party members will soon debate 35 policy resolutions that include banning transgender people from women’s washrooms, prohibiting non-binary gender identifiers on government documents, and ensuring trans medical treatments are not publicly funded. The party’s annual general meeting begins Nov. 1 in Red Deer, where Premier Danielle Smith’s leadership will also be up for review. It’s being billed by the party as the largest political convention in Canadian history, with at least 5,428 UCP members registered to attend.
- On Tuesday, Premier Danielle Smith announced that her chief of staff, whom she has described as “the spiritual leader for all of us in the government,” was leaving his post. In a statement released on social media, she said that earlier this year Marshall Smith told her he intended to retire from public service in October. Marshall Smith, who is not related to the Premier, has been described as a pioneer in the province’s approach to substance use disorders, which heavily favours treatment and recovery above harm reduction.
- On Wednesday, the United Conservative Party welcomed back into its fold an MLA who once compared transgender youth to a batch of cookies laced with “a little bit of poop.” When the 2022 comments by Jennifer Johnson, who represents Lacombe-Ponoka, surfaced ahead of the 2023 election, she was told she would not be allowed to sit in caucus. But caucus members voted to let her rejoin the government benches.
- Premier Danielle Smith says a new pay structure for Alberta family doctors that physicians say they’ve been waiting on her health minister to approve will be revealed “in the coming weeks”. Smith, who was speaking at a town hall in Medicine Hat on Wednesday, did not give a specific date for such an announcement. The proposed funding model aims to help more doctors open clinics by covering some of the overhead costs, the Brooks-Medicine Hat MLA said.
British Columbia
- Some British Columbians are already casting early ballots and the provincial election is just over one week away, but the BC Conservative Party has yet to release its costed platform. Both the BC NDP and the BC Green Party have released detailed platforms that include projected costs and revenues. The Conservatives, meanwhile, have been making near-daily election spending announcements, but have yet to detail how they would pay for their plans if elected next weekend.
- With just a week left until the provincial election, the leaders of B.C.’s main political parties focused on different issues during their campaign stops on Saturday. BC Conservative Party Leader John Rustad spoke about food banks at an event in Surrey, saying demand for the service has gone up from about 7,300 to 18,000 people a day in the last two years, but donations are not keeping up.
- As advance polls opened across B.C. Thursday, political parties and Independent candidates ramped up get-out-the-vote efforts, with experts saying just a few hundred voters could determine who forms government come election day. While door-knocking and phoning landlines are the classic method for reaching voters, parties now have access to technology to reach an electorate that increasingly uses cell phones and lives in apartment buildings. Putting up lawn signs and sending an army of volunteers or paid canvassers to people’s doorsteps still happens, but, for some parties, they’re taking more of a back seat to text-based messaging and online ads—the B.C. Conservatives recently sent text messages to hundreds of thousands of cellphones across the province, asking users who they planned to vote for.
- Violence should have no place in British Columbia politics, said New Democrat Leader David Eby as police investigated a bomb threat at a party campaign office on Vancouver Island. Eby, who was campaigning Friday in Campbell River, said an NDP campaign office in the city was temporarily evacuated after the threat was made — although he was not present when it happened. He said he is grateful for the courage of the office staff who were told to leave by the RCMP.
Northwest Territories
- Imperial Oil is asking the Mackenzie Valley Review Board to overturn a ruling that triggers an environmental assessment of the company’s entire operation in Norman Wells, N.W.T. In a letter to the board on Oct. 9 and first reported by Cabin Radio, the company argues the environmental assessment subjects the Norman Wells facility to “significant immediate-term uncertainty and risk.” That’s because, it said, the assessment has the “potential” to delay regulatory decisions coming from the Sahtu Land and Water Board (SLWB) and the Canadian Energy Regulator (CER) that it needs to keep operating in 2025 – thereby risking a “shut-in” of the facility, meaning a halt in production, in less than three months.
Yukon
- The Yukon Water Board acted unfairly when it raised Victoria Gold’s financial security by $74 million in 2022 without allowing the company to see and respond to the third-party analysis it relied on to come up with the increase, a judge has ruled. In a decision issued last month, Yukon Supreme Court Justice Karen Wenckebach acknowledged the case was largely moot given that the Yukon government successfully petitioned in August to have the company placed into receivership following the heap leach failure at its Eagle Gold mine.
Nunavut
- The Inuit Broadcasting Corporation (IBC) says years of Inuit history and knowledge could be lost because it doesn’t have the funds to continue much of its archiving work. The IBC has been digitizing old video tapes that contain material created over decades and making the material available online. The footage chronicles everything from the creation of Nunavut to the formation of national Inuit organizations. The organization says it has gone a year and a half without a major source of funding, forcing it to stop its archival work. And with about 2,000 hours of footage yet to be digitized, IBC says time is running out before those tapes become unusable.