Provincial and Territorial Update – September 6, 2024
Provincial and Territorial Update: An overview of the Provincial Legislative and Territories Legislative Updates for the week of September 6, 2024. Written by Wes McLean.
New Brunswick
- Critics of Premier Blaine Higgs say his recent comments about French immersion raise questions about whether he’ll try again to replace the program if his Progressive Conservatives win next month’s election. Higgs told a PC audience in Bathurst recently that he remains preoccupied by what he considers a low rate of bilingualism among graduates of immersion — and then pledged to do something about it.
- A union representing transportation and tourism workers is pushing the province to make an offer based on dollar rather than percentage increases — an approach it has not seen since the 1990s. That’s because CUPE Local 1190 represents lower-wage earners in the public service, according to the union’s president Jonathan Guimond, with median wages between $20.67 and $33.33 an hour.
- New Brunswick Liberals are promising to establish a free, universal breakfast program in all provincial schools in time for the start of school a year from now. Leader Susan Holt said the $27.4-million-a-year program will also support a pay-what-you-can lunch program.
- Connors Bros., a leading supplier of canned herring and a major employer in southwestern New Brunswick, is laying off 20 percent of its workers, the company announced Thursday. The plant in Blacks Harbour, near St. George, employs up to 450 people, depending on the season. A Connors spokesperson did not respond when asked exactly how many people had been laid off. A news release from the company blames the federal government’s July decision to cut the herring quota in the Bay of Fundy.
Nova Scotia
- Liberal MLA Ronnie LeBlanc says the people he represents in Clare along Nova Scotia’s French Shore are growing more and more concerned about the violence and illegal lobster fishing they’re seeing in their community — and the lack of action by the provincial and federal governments to do anything about it.
- Nova Scotia RCMP will deliver a public apology on Saturday to African Nova Scotians and all people of African descent for the historical use of street checks and other harmful interactions. Street checks, which were banned in the province five years ago, were a process that involved police interacting with or observing someone they thought could be of significance in a future investigation.
- Proposed changes to Nova Scotia’s Residential Tenancies Act that would extend a rent cap and allow landlords to evict tenants sooner strike the “right balance” between both parties, the minister responsible for the legislation said Friday. But Colton LeBlanc said the government won’t heed calls from tenants and landlords to create an enforcement unit to go after those who flout the act.
- Premier Tim Houston showed little interest in downplaying early election speculation as the Nova Scotia legislature opened for its fall sitting on Thursday. Nova Scotia doesn’t have a legislative calendar — members are called to the House of Assembly at the direction of the governing party. But election speculation has mounted after the governing Progressive Conservatives recalled the House much earlier than usual, with Houston telling reporters “There’s work to be done.”
Prince Edward Island
- As the new school year began in P.E.I., MLAs were told that teachers are experiencing significantly more violence in the classroom than they did just a few years ago. The P.E.I. Teachers’ Federation told a legislative standing committee on Thursday that educators need more support to keep classrooms safe while calling the recent spike in violence an “epidemic.” Federation president Andy Doran said eight percent of teachers surveyed three years ago said they had experienced violence at school. In 2023, that number surged to 23 percent.
- Landlords in Prince Edward Island can increase rents for their existing tenants by at least 2.3 percent and as much as 5.3 percent in 2025. On Thursday, the province’s Director of Residential Tenancy announced in a news release that the maximum allowable rent increase as of Jan. 1 (without landlords having to make a special application) will be 2.3 percent.
- Charlottetown MP Sean Casey says he doubts a federal election will be triggered by the NDP’s decision Wednesday to end its supply-and-confidence agreement with the governing Liberals. NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh made the announcement Wednesday to end the deal, putting the minority Liberal government susceptible to a non-confidence vote that could bring the government down.
- Potato growers in some parts of P.E.I. are worried about the lack of rainfall in August as they watch their potato plants shrivelling in the field. The area around Malpeque Bay has been particularly dry, with some fields receiving a quarter of the rainfall in August that they usually see. Elsewhere there has been more rain, said Ryan Barrett, research and agronomy specialist with the Prince Edward Island Potato Board.
Newfoundland and Labrador
- The Registered Nurses’ Union is challenging the Newfoundland and Labrador government’s claims that over 600 nurses have been recruited since April 2023. Union president Yvette Coffey says the story looks very different on the ground — she’s been taking in scenes of understaffed and overworked emergency rooms. The union is calling on the government to release an updated job vacancy report, as well as clear evidence that 660 positions have been filled, and exactly where they’ve been placed.
- Energy and Industry Minister Andrew Parsons has announced he is not planning to run in the next Newfoundland and Labrador election. In an interview with CBC News on Friday, Parsons said his decision is driven by personal reasons only and is unrelated to his political career. “This decision is about me,” said Parsons. “It has got nothing to do with politics.”
- Plans are progressing at the former hotel turned transitional housing facility in St. John’s. Designed to provide tenants with support in finding stable, long-term housing, 11 people were living at the facility in late May. Almost four months later, 43 people live at the facility — with almost as many staff hired to help them. That ratio will gradually change, though, as a phased approach to adding services, and therefore residents continues.
- The Newfoundland and Labrador government is moving ahead with plans to use a public-private partnership model to build two new sections of twinned highway along the Trans-Canada Highway, but government crews will provide snow-clearing and line painting services. Transportation and Infrastructure Minister Fred Hutton confirmed this week that the private sector will be contracted to design, build, finance and maintain the new roads through a 30-year agreement, which will be a first for Newfoundland and Labrador. The federal and provincial governments are investing more than $300 million, with construction scheduled to begin next year.
Quebec
- Following the sudden departure of one of his top ministers, Premier François Legault has adjusted his cabinet, officially appointing Christine Fréchette as the province’s new minister for both the economy and energy. Fréchette was officially sworn in Thursday afternoon, taking over the files previously held by Pierre Fitzgibbon, who announced Wednesday that he had lost the motivation for politics and was quitting his cabinet position.
- Premier François Legault will be travelling to France next month, his office announced on Friday. The premier will take part in a bilateral mission from Oct. 1 to 3, followed by the 19th Francophonie Summit on Oct. 4 and 5 in Paris. The theme of this year’s Francophonie Summit, which brings together the members of the International Organization of the Francophonie (OIF), is ‘creating, innovating and undertaking in French’.
- Just hours after confirming Energy Minister Pierre Fitzgibbon is leaving politics, Quebec Premier François Legault pledged on Wednesday evening to a meeting of caucus members and party supporters to develop the province’s wind energy sector. Speaking during a cocktail event at the Hotel Rimouski, Legault referred to the Bas-St-Laurent and Gaspé regions, saying: “Twenty-seven percent of Quebec’s wind energy is here. I would have nothing against doubling that capacity. … I cannot imagine a more beautiful social project for our young people.”
- As the resignations pile up within the government of François Legault, the Quebec Liberals say that what they are seeing “is beginning to look like an end of the regime.” Quebec Liberal interim-leader Marc Tanguay cited the resignations of Pierre Fitzgibbon, “super-minister” of energy and the economy, and government whip Eric Lefebvre, who has announced he intends to run for the federal Conservatives.
Ontario
- Ontario child-care centres that aren’t participating in the national $10-a-day program will soon lose provincial funding to offer new fee subsidies to lower-income families and their staff could see a pay cut of $2 an hour. In a memo sent to licensed operators in Ontario outlining changes to how the province is funding the $10-a-day program, an assistant deputy minister of education wrote that starting in 2025, non-participating centres will no longer receive routine funding such as “general operating, fee subsidy or wage enhancement grants.”
- Premier Doug Ford has once again slammed the federal government over bail laws when it comes to repeat offenders. “We need the federal government to change the Criminal Code once and for all, and stop being a bunch of bleeding hearts,” Ford said at an unrelated news conference on Tuesday morning. “Because people are fed up with this crime here. They’re absolutely done with it.”
- Nearly 4,200 convenience stores in Ontario began selling alcohol today, and Premier Doug Ford was in Collingwood to celebrate. Licensed stores will be able to sell beer, cider, wine, and ready-to-drink alcoholic beverages as part of what the province called “a phased expansion.” The government is also permanently allowing the transfer of wine and spirits between locations that have the same owner and/or affiliated licences as a way to help bars and restaurants effectively manage inventory and will allow licensed grocery and convenience stores to display alcoholic beverages in multiple areas of the store.
- Ontario Premier Doug Ford ruled out calling an early election this year, but left the door open on Tuesday to calling one in 2025. The province’s next fixed election date isn’t until June 2026, but Ford continued to dance around the issue of whether or not he’ll call an early election. “We aren’t having an election this year,” the premier said at an unrelated news conference, without providing further clarity on whether he would call an early vote. Ford confirmed, however, that he has given his party’s members of provincial parliament a December deadline to decide if they will run again.
Manitoba
- Cathy Merrick, the first woman to become grand chief of the Assembly of Manitoba Chiefs, is being remembered as a “remarkable leader” and a “true matriarch,” as tributes poured in from leaders across Canada after her sudden death on Friday. Merrick was speaking to the media about a court case outside the law court building in Winnipeg early Friday afternoon when she collapsed. She was given CPR before being rushed away in an ambulance. Merrick, 62, is survived by her husband, Todd, three children and eight grandchildren, a friend confirmed to CBC.
- The future of a Winnipeg organization that supports residential school survivors and their families is uncertain after the majority of its funding got pulled. The Wa-Say Healing Centre said it’s two years behind on the financial statements required for the renewal of its annual funding agreement with the federal government, its main backer. The centre was notified last month that funding wouldn’t be renewed. The organization, founded in 2012, helps the healing journey of residential school survivors and their families through cultural events, offering things like sweat lodge and drumming group programs, as well as naming ceremonies.
- A corrections officer charged in the 2021 death of an inmate who was shown on video repeating the words “I can’t breathe” while officers swarmed and restrained him in a Manitoba jail has been acquitted in the man’s death. Robert Jeffrey Morden pleaded not guilty to criminal negligence causing death and failing to provide the necessaries of life, following a February 2021 altercation that began as a prolonged standoff between inmate William Walter Ahmo and corrections officers in a common room of the Headingley Correctional Centre, west of Winnipeg.
- The federal Conservatives are trying to use the New Democratic Party’s two-year association with the unpopular governing Liberals as a means of wresting a longtime Winnipeg stronghold away from the NDP in an upcoming by-election. On Sept. 16, voters in Elmwood-Transcona will choose a new MP to replace Daniel Blaikie, who resigned from the House of Commons in March after spending eight and a half years as the NDP representative for the eastern Winnipeg riding. The NDP has won 10 out of the 11 elections held in Elmwood-Transcona and its predecessor riding, Winnipeg-Transcona, since the formation of this electoral district in 1988.
Saskatchewan
- Hundreds of air quality advisories have already been issued in Saskatchewan this summer, according to Environment and Climate Change Canada (ECCC). That’s led to a health advocate in the province fielding more calls for respiratory concerns. ECCC keeps records of smoke hours, which are hours where the visibility is reduced by smoke to 10 kilometres or less, in Saskatoon, Regina, Prince Albert and La Ronge. According to the data, all of those locations have had some of their most smoke hours ever over the last two years. For instance, Saskatoon recorded 321 smoke hours last year and 218 this year — its two highest totals ever.
- Rob Stone says China’s decision to target Canadian canola as part of a trade spat is disastrous for producers. “It’s devastating news as far as a farmer is concerned,” said Stone, who farms canola near Davidson, Sask. “The markets reacted very negatively to the news.” Last week, Canada followed the lead of the United States and the European Union and announced a 100 percent tariff on imports of Chinese electric vehicles and a 25 percent tariff on imported steel and aluminum from China.
- Saskatchewan NDP Leader Carla Beck made a string of announcements over the last week, signalling the start of the fall election campaign. On Aug. 29, Beck promised not to increase taxes and to cut the provincial gas tax if elected. The gas tax cut is not news, but holding the line on all other taxes is a new pledge from the NDP. When asked how she plans to pay for the tax freeze, Beck said, “by growing the Saskatchewan economy, leaning into that opportunity that we see right across this province by finding efficiencies and cutting the long list of Scott Moe’s waste and mismanagement.”
- The Government of Saskatchewan provided an update about more than $30 million of investments toward improving the highway network in the province’s west-central area this construction season. “Our government is committed to improving traffic safety and enhancing our transportation system and these projects are a prime example,” said Education Minister and MLA for The Battlefords Jeremy Cockrill said on behalf of Highways Minister Lori Carr.
Alberta
- The Government of Alberta’s share of funding for Calgary’s Green Line LRT project is in jeopardy, according to a letter from the province to Calgary mayor Jyoti Gondek. In the letter, obtained by Global News, Transportation Minister Devin Dreeshen noted that he has “serious concerns” with the shortened LRT line, and that the province won’t be contributing its $1.53 billion share of the project.
- The Alberta government has signed a five-year governance agreement with the province’s legal aid lawyers. It says the deal with Legal Aid Alberta and the Law Society of Alberta is expected to take effect on Friday and to stretch into September 2029. Legal Aid Alberta board chair Ryan Callioux said access to justice through legal aid is a fundamental right. The agreement comes after a funding and governance dispute that lasted almost two years. Justice Minister Mickey Amery said the government’s goal is to ensure legal aid’s sustainability and fiscal accountability into the future.
- The Alberta government says it’s moving ahead this fall with legislation that would require parents to proactively sign up to have their children opt-in, rather than the usual practice of opting out, for sex education. It’s a move that has teachers wondering what problem the province is looking to solve. Education Minister Demetrios Nicolaides, in a statement, said school boards, teachers, superintendents and parents are being consulted. “We intend to propose legislation this fall and will continue to consult with stakeholders throughout the implementation of these policies,” Nicolaides said.
- Landowner resistance seems to have quashed an Alberta government pilot program offering energy companies partial recognition for well-site cleanup that isn’t complete. “We’ve been telling all the landowners it’s a horrible idea,” said Daryl Bennett of the Alberta Surface Rights Federation, which represents landowners. Bennett said landowners are increasingly concerned the province plans to reduce the environmental liability of conventional oil and gas and boost its sinking bottom line at their expense.
British Columbia
- Premier David Eby says mental health care in the province for those committed against their will needs to be “dignified and humane” to be effective, as his government works on a strategy about involuntary care. Eby, speaking after a deadly random stranger attack in downtown Vancouver this week, says the 2012 closure of Riverview Mental Health Hospital in Coquitlam put vulnerable people on the streets without adequate support.
- As the dust from recent explosive events in B.C. politics continues to settle, the focus is shifting to party policies as British Columbians assess which of the remaining options offer the best plans to deal with the pressing issues facing the province. New data from the non-profit Angus Reid Institute finds many British Columbians critical of the current BC NDP government, and a strong preference to the challenging BC Conservatives on several key issues.
- Independent candidates in British Columbia’s upcoming fall election could be potential “power brokers” after what is expected to be a closely fought contest between the New Democrats and the B.C. Conservatives, says the latest BC United candidate to drop party affiliation. Dan Davies, first elected in 2017 in the Peace River North riding, announced his move Thursday, saying Independents could play pivotal roles if the election results in a minority situation.
- British Columbia’s Official Opposition, the BC United Party now says it will run some candidates in the Oct. 19 election, despite suspending its campaign last week to support the BC Conservative Party instead. A letter to party members says despite last week’s suspension “we intend on running a select number of candidates” in the fall election.
Northwest Territories
- A homeless encampment set up on 51 Street in Yellowknife will be taken down next week, and the N.W.T. government says another formal encampment won’t be established. Instead, it plans to work with individuals who have been staying at the camp to find other options for them, either through shelters, with family members or — for those who came to Yellowknife from elsewhere in the N.W.T. — by helping them get back to their home communities if they want it.
Yukon
- A homeless encampment set up on 51 Street in Yellowknife will be taken down next week, and the N.W.T. government says another formal encampment won’t be established. Instead, it plans to work with individuals who have been staying at the camp to find other options for them, either through shelters, with family members or — for those who came to Yellowknife from elsewhere in the N.W.T. — by helping them get back to their home communities if they want it.
Nunavut
- Bernice Kuutuu Clarke was attending a conference for female Indigenous entrepreneurs when she got the news she had been hoping for. “I just started crying,” she told CBC from her Vancouver hotel room. “I was jumping up and down and everybody [was] looking at me like, ‘What are you doing? What’s happening?’ And I said, ‘I can’t tell you, not yet.” The news Clarke received was the Nunavut Court of Appeal striking down the government of Nunavut’s latest appeal involving a lawsuit brought forward by Nunavut Tunngavik Incorporated (NTI) and two representative plaintiffs, one of whom is Clarke. After first being launched in 2021, the lawsuit, which alleges that Inuit students are being discriminated against at the hands of the government of Nunavut (GN) by not being able to receive an education in Inuktut, is now set to go to trial.