Provincial and Territorial Update – September 13, 2024
Provincial and Territorial Update: An overview of the Provincial Legislative and Territories Legislative Updates for the week of September 13, 2024. Written by Wes McLean.
New Brunswick
- A Mi’kmaw lawyer and researcher says she is sad and angry after police shot and killed a man in Elsipogtog last weekend. “It hits you right in the gut,” said Pam Palmater, who is from Ugpi’Ganjig First Nation, also known as Eel River Bar, and a professor and chair in Indigenous governance at Toronto Metropolitan University. It’s devastating for the family and the community, she said, and frustrating because of previous similar incidents.
- The province is spending $18.6 million on billing changes to encourage solo-practice physicians to work with nurses and take on more patients. The money will result in an update to the way physicians working under the fee-for-service model in private practice are compensated, Health Minister Bruce Fitch said at a news conference Thursday. Fitch said more than half of the province’s family doctors now operate their own practices.
- Green Leader David Coon says his party is preparing a list of conditions that would have to be met for it to support a minority government after next month’s provincial election. Coon refused to reveal those conditions at a news conference Thursday, where he unveiled his first platform commitment ahead of next week’s official start of the campaign. “Should we hold the balance of power after the election, there is a list of measures that we would insist on seeing implemented but I’m not going to share that list with you,” he said.
- A lawyer representing women who believe they were improperly given a labour-inducing drug at the Moncton Hospital has argued that a judge erred by not allowing a class-action lawsuit to proceed. John McKiggan told a panel of three judges on the Court of Appeal of New Brunswick on Thursday that there is an identifiable class of women who have a claim against former nurse Nicole Ruest, and the Horizon Health Network, and that it would be “impractical” to require them to pursue damages by filing their own individual lawsuits.
Nova Scotia
- Irish renewable energy firm Simply Blue is gearing up for a multibillion-dollar project on Nova Scotia’s Eastern Shore that’s meant to convert wind, solar and biomass energy into jet fuel. The company has been quietly working on the project for three years and shared details publicly for the first time on Friday. The megaproject would include wind and solar farms that feed electricity to a production plant in the community of Goldboro, N.S. There, Simply Blue plans to generate green hydrogen, which it would pair with biomass to produce what it calls sustainable aviation fuel.
- The outgoing mayor of the Cape Breton Regional Municipality may be in a conflict of interest after accepting a new job with the Nova Scotia government, says a political scientist. Tom Urbaniak of Cape Breton University said Amanda McDougall owes the public an explanation about her new position, which she hinted at last month on social media. “The CBRM mayor is earning a full-time salary, is earning a good salary, and there is a public expectation that the CBRM mayor not moonlight,” said Urbaniak in an interview.
- Nearly half of Cape Breton Regional Municipality’s next council is already decided, along with a number of candidates in other municipalities on the island. General elections are scheduled across Nova Scotia next month, but a large number of the positions on Cape Breton Island have been filled where candidates are running unchallenged. In CBRM, five of 12 council seats will be represented by the incumbent councillors who ran unopposed.
- Members of three unions representing more than 9,100 healthcare professionals at Nova Scotia Health and the IWK Health Centre have agreed to ratify a tentative collective bargaining agreement reached by the council representing all three groups last month. In a release Thursday, officials from CUPE, Unifor and the NSGEU, the three unions that make up the bargaining unit, said 79 percent of members voted in favour of the deal. Members work in fields including physiotherapy, psychology, lab staff, continuing care, social work and pharmacy.
Prince Edward Island
- Opposition MLAs are calling on P.E.I.’s auditor general to do an audit of cost overruns associated with the construction of a new rink in North Rustico. During a legislative standing committee meeting on economic growth Thursday, Green MLA Peter Bevan-Baker put forward a motion asking the AG’s office to look into what went wrong with the Eliyahu Wellness Centre.
- Several dozen protesters gathered outside Province House in Charlottetown Thursday evening to protest against xenophobia and rally in support of temporary foreign workers, international students and other non-permanent residents in the province. Maria Gomez, a community relations coordinator with the advocacy group BIPOC USHR, said non-permanent residents are being unfairly blamed for crises in housing and health care.
- Islanders paying out of pocket for private MRIs as waitlist climbs past 2 years. Scans start at more than $1,000; those who can’t pay can face long, painful waits. According to the most recent national data from the Canadian Institute for Health Information, dating from 2023, P.E.I. had the second-longest MRI wait times in the country. Since then, the waitlist for Islanders has only gotten longer.
- Current legislation to protect Prince Edward Island’s coastlines doesn’t go far enough, provincial politicians were told on Thursday. Researchers with the Canadian Centre for Climate Change and Adaptation appeared before a legislative standing committee to talk about the state of P.E.I.’s coasts. In late 2023, the UPEI-affiliated centre released a report outlining 16 policy recommendations to inform the government’s future decisions about coastal development.
Newfoundland and Labrador
- Newfoundland and Labrador is dropping anchor and opening shop in Boston. On a trade mission to the Massachusetts state capital this week, Premier Andrew Furey announced the province would be opening its first international trade office in the city. Furey said the province and Boston have connections in the seafood and marine industries and across the biotechnology and energy sectors.
- A group of 36 parents came together in Corner Brook, N.L., on Thursday evening to explore ways to secure educational support for their special needs children following cuts to the assistance they receive under the federal Jordan’s Principle policy. Patti Lynn MacDonald of Lark Harbour organized the event through a Facebook group with more than 145 members — many of them parents who learned on the first day of school last week that their children would be receiving less support
- Newfoundland and Labrador’s justice minister can’t say what led to delays that allowed an accused murderer to walk free without standing trial. Asked by reporters Friday whether a lack of public prosecutors contributed to a stay of proceedings this week in the murder case of Kurt Churchill, Bernard Davis could only say the decision to toss out the case was now under examination by the Crown.
- Premier Andrew Furey said Friday a $3-million equipment purchase will help bring volunteer fire departments across Newfoundland and Labrador up to date. The money will be put toward purchasing more than 300 new self-contained breathing apparatus units, Furey announced at an event at the Holyrood volunteer fire department. The new units will replace the old ones that are set to be discontinued. More than 50 departments in the province now employ them.
Quebec
- The Canadian government on Friday announced a loan of $2.14 billion to satellite operator Telesat to help the company build its broadband satellite constellation, in what Prime Minister Justin Trudeau described as Canada’s largest ever space program. Quebec’s government, meanwhile, announced a loan of $400 million to the company, which has contracted aerospace technology firm MDA to build its satellites in Ste-Anne-de-Bellevue, Que.
- Quebec legislature member Youri Chassin announced Thursday he’s leaving the Coalition Avenir Québec to sit as an Independent, becoming the second member of government to quit in a little more than one week. Chassin’s announcement came hours after he wrote an open letter published in local media criticizing Premier François Legault’s party for abandoning its principles of smaller government.
- Premier François Legault says he agrees with his party’s youth wing that there needs to be more respect, discipline and better manners in schools. At the annual convention for the Commission de la relève de la Coalition Avenir Québec (CRCAQ) in Saint-Hyacinthe, Que., on Saturday, some 150 delegates adopted several motions aimed at creating what’s being called a “culture of civility” in schools. Now, Legault is asking Education Minister Bernard Drainville to table a plan to make it happen.
- Ottawa is considering a plan to relocate tens of thousands of asylum seekers across Canada to take the pressure off of Quebec and Ontario. The immigration minister said Wednesday he will use what levers he has available to get uncooperative provinces to take more.
Ontario
- Ontario Premier Doug Ford is “ramping up” relations with American governors and senators ahead of the U.S. presidential election and crucial renegotiations of the North American free trade deal. Speaking at the Toronto Region Board of Trade on Thursday, Ford indicated that his government is trying to get ahead of the potential disruption by forging ties with state-level politicians in the hopes that they endorse Ontario’s new ‘buy North America’ strategy.
- Premier Doug Ford says changes could be coming to the province’s rental rules, arguing the “pendulum has swung” against small, independent landlords, who are grappling with issues like non-paying tenants. Ford on Wednesday said he’s been discussing with Attorney General Doug Downey possible reforms to the Landlord and Tenant Board (LTB) — a quasi-judicial body that regulates rental disputes — to address these concerns.
- One of the largest factors standing in the way of Ontario being able to speed up critical infrastructure projects is a sense of public distrust fostered by the government’s own history with the Greenbelt, polling commissioned by the government suggests. Leger conducted an online survey about infrastructure in mid-to-late December and held focus groups in January. The Greenbelt was frequently cited, more than a year after media reports first raised questions about government ties to developers and several months after the release of two legislative officers’ scathing reports.
- Premier Doug Ford is promising no one working at the shuttered Ontario Science Centre will be left unemployed as the museum is moved to a new location. “We’ll find jobs for those people within the system, so we’ll help them out,” Ford told reporters Thursday in Toronto. “I don’t like anyone ever losing their jobs,” he said.
Manitoba
- Winnipeg’s acting police chief says the service needs dozens more officers to meet the skyrocketing number of calls for help. Speaking to reporters after a meeting of the Winnipeg police board on Friday, acting Chief Art Stannard said ideally, he would like to see the number of police officers expand by 78, in addition to the 24 new officers already slated to join the downtown foot patrol.
- The province has appointed an education union executive and former Winnipeg school principal to lead a new provincial discipline process for teachers. Bobbi Taillefer has been selected as Manitoba’s independent education commissioner, the provincial government confirmed Thursday. The role, created as part of a 2023 bill amending the province’s Education Administration Act, empowers Taillefer to investigate complaints from the public and reports from school boards or employers about teacher misconduct and incompetence, take disciplinary action and post discipline records on a public registry of teachers.
- A Churchill hotel owner and ecotourism operator is preparing to run for the leadership of Manitoba’s Progressive Conservative Party. Wally Daudrich, who owns Lazy Bear Lodge and Expeditions in the Hudson Bay coastal community, is one of three prospective leadership candidates now listed on the Manitoba PC website. Daudrich launched a campaign website this week and has started to solicit support.
- Manitoba’s healthcare system has a new information management system that, for the first time, will track every surgery in the province and more accurately reflect wait times. The Surgical Waitlist Information Management system — better known as SWIM — will help Shared Health target where patients are waiting for a procedure, and prioritize people who have been waiting the longest for surgery where possible.
Saskatchewan
- The Progressive Conservative Party of Saskatchewan has decided not to merge with the Buffalo Party of Saskatchewan. PC Leader Rose Buscholl called a news conference on Thursday to announce an agreement could not be reached. “While there were a few things that we had in common with the Buffalo Party, including the love we all have for this great province, unfortunately, there were many things that kept us apart,” Buscholl said.
- Premier Scott Moe announced Thursday that his government is increasing timber allocations to Saskatchewan-based company One Sky Forest Products, setting the stage for the company to open an oriented strand board (OSB) mill in Prince Albert. The government has allocated nearly 1.2 million cubic metres of timber per year, an increase from the initial 845,000 cubic metres, to One Sky Forest Products. “It’s a very much a foundational step,” Moe said.
- A new campaign from the Saskatchewan Teachers’ Federation highlights the challenges the union says teachers are facing in the classroom, with the intent of making education a top-of-mind issue in the upcoming provincial and school board elections. The “Vote for Public Education” campaign, which the federation officially launched Thursday, focuses on three key commitments it wants to see from candidates: restoring and maintaining per-student funding, addressing class size and complexity, and addressing concerns about violence in schools.
- The Saskatoon Tribal Council (STC) is calling on the province and the City of Saskatoon to open a warm-up shelter instead of a planned enhanced emergency shelter, which STC says could bring a cut to its Fairhaven shelter. The province plans to open two new shelter facilities, one in Saskatoon and one in Regina, with about 30 beds each. A former Saskatchewan Transportation Company building located at 210 Pacific Avenue has been identified as a potential temporary site to accommodate 30 to 40 beds, offering essential amenities like showers, bathrooms and kitchen facilities, the city said in a news release late Friday afternoon.
Alberta
- Premier Danielle Smith says Alberta is not open to having additional asylum seekers settled in the province. Smith joined the back-and-forth political battle, taking the side of the leaders of New Brunswick and Nova Scotia. The dispute stems from a federal initiative to relocate tens of thousands of asylum seekers across Canada to take the pressure off of Quebec and Ontario.
- The province is touting what it says is an almost 60 percent reduction in Albertans’ August electricity bills since the Market Power Mitigation Regulation came into effect earlier this summer. “This regulation prevents power price spikes for Albertans on variable rate contracts. Within weeks of being implemented, the regulation protected Albertans on variable rate contracts from price spikes when a summer heat wave drove up demand at a time when access to power was critical,” the province stated earlier this month.
- Premier Danielle Smith says if Ottawa comes back this fall with a lowball estimate on Alberta’s share of the Canada Pension Plan, hard questions will have to be asked on the next steps. “When we get that number, we’ll have to decide if they’re being unrealistic and unreasonable about it,” Smith told Shaun Newman on a Thursday podcast. Smith told Newman a low number changes everything. “If it’s equal (to) per capita, then that means I’d have to tell Albertans it’s about $93 billion that would be transferred,” Smith told Newman.
- Alberta has a very serious problem of schools that are full or overflowing, the premier has declared while teasing that a new plan to address the issue is coming next week. “Every single school is facing these capacity issues,” Danielle Smith told reporters Wednesday in Lloydminster. “It’s acute and it’s across the system…I spoke with one large school board yesterday and they comfortably operate at 85 percent utilization and they are now at 96 percent utilization.”
British Columbia
- BC NDP leader David Eby announced on Thursday that his government would scrap the carbon tax for consumers if the federal government dropped the requirement for the provinces to keep the tax in place. “It’s a big pivot for British Columbia, for the province which led in establishing carbon pricing in Canada back in 2008,” Kathryn Harrison, a professor of political science at the University of British Columbia said.
- There’s a storm brewing on Vancouver Island — and this one isn’t coming in off the coast. When the next federal election rolls around, five of the six ridings the New Democrats hold on the island could be scooped up by the Conservatives, according to polls aggregator Eric Grenier of The Writ, it’s a potential shift that residents of Campbell River, B.C. are starting to notice on the ground. “I feel the island is more conservative than it’s been, especially the north island,” said Kelsey McCrea, a mom of three who co-owns a local welding business with her husband.
- British Columbia Conservatives are promising changes that will bring more “stability” to the province’s struggling forestry industry. B.C. Conservative Leader John Rustad announced his plan for the sector a week before the official launch of the provincial election campaign, saying a Conservative government would do away with stumpage fees paid when timber is harvested and instead put a tax on the final products that are produced.
- It has been a controversial issue for some time. Mental health, addictions, safe supply, open drug use and decriminalization. And the Leader of the Conservative Party has come out with support for involuntary treatment, starting with children and youth. Rustad says his plan would look at compassionate intervention legislation, secure facilities for treatment for those who pose a risk to themselves or others and crisis response units. And while the proposal focuses on youth, he won’t rule out adults.
Northwest Territories
- Some education officials in the N.W.T. say they’re open to federal Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre’s idea of a new pre-trades program for students, but it isn’t clear yet how that program would work alongside what’s already in place in the N.W.T. At a rally in Yellowknife on the weekend, Poilievre promised to introduce a pre-trades program for N.W.T. high school students if his party wins the next election.
Yukon
- The Yukon government says the long-awaited new fibre optic line along the Dempster Highway is “substantially” complete, and should be operational by the end of the year. “The line is in the ground, the connections have been made,” said Yukon project manager Fred Jay at a news conference on Friday. “We’ll turn it over to Northwestel to complete their commissioning phase… to turn the line on, so to speak.”
Nunavut
- New job-sharing model aims to relieve Nunavut’s understaffed healthcare system. Retaining nurses in Nunavut’s healthcare system has been an ongoing challenge. There are severe staffing shortages affecting services across the territory. But a new job-sharing model could bring relief and attract a wider pool of nurses to fill these critical roles. –