Provincial and Territorial Update – September 28, 2025
Provincial and Territorial Update: An overview of the Provincial Legislative and Territories Legislative Updates for the week of September 28, 2025. Written by Wes McLean.
New Brunswick
- Fourteen First Nations in New Brunswick scored a major win Thursday, signing new tax-sharing agreements four years after the original agreements were unilaterally cancelled by the provincial government. The communities needed the revenue to provide services, said Chief Gabriel Atwin of Bilijk First Nation. “It’s critical that First Nations communities have their own-source revenue,” he said at an event in Fredericton.
- A New Brunswick health authority has apologized to patients who were harmed by the improper use of restraints and seclusion rooms, as reported by the province’s ombud this week. The investigation by Ombud Marie-France Pelletier began after several complaints from psychiatric patients at the Restigouche Hospital Centre, operated by Vitalité Health Network, between 2021 and 2023.
- In a tight vote Tuesday evening, Tantramar councillors rejected a call to officially oppose a proposed natural gas power plant in a rural part of the southeastern New Brunswick municipality. N.B. Power first announced in July that its Renewables Integration and Grid Stability (RIGS) project would be built near Centre Village, a rural area outside of Midgic. Since then, local residents and environmental groups have been vocal in their opposition.
- A greater proportion of young New Brunswickers make poor choices for their mental and physical health than youth in the rest of Canada, according to the latest results of a New Brunswick Health Council survey. The electronic survey asked students from grades six to 12 in 33 communities about some daily health habits. Questions included how much sleep they got on school nights, how much time they spent on their phones and how much they exercised.
Nova Scotia
- Like the tidal waters of the Bay of Fundy that batter the Chignecto Isthmus, the timeline for upgrading dikes on that thin strip of land is murky. The PC government has long said it would be a 10-year project, but Public Works Minister Fred Tilley is now unable to say when the clock started or when the project might be completed. “I don’t know what year we’re in now,” he told reporters Friday, referring to the 10-year goal.
- The Nova Scotia government tabled on Friday the first major overhaul of the Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act in 25 years. And while the bill contains several changes the province’s privacy commissioner welcomed, it also includes one that causes him concern and is missing a promise Tim Houston made for years before he became premier. Among other things, the updated bill will make the privacy commissioner an officer of the legislature, meaning the role is answerable to the Province House and not a single cabinet minister.
- The Nova Scotia government is making legislative changes to allow energy generated by offshore wind turbines to be bought and used locally. On Friday, Energy Minister Trevor Boudreau introduced the Powering the Offshore Act, which amends several pieces of energy legislation. “While the vast majority of that [offshore] energy will be exported, there may be some opportunity for domestic use, and we don’t want to shut any doors,” he told reporters at a briefing.
- The Nova Scotia government is giving itself the power to proactively designate land for future priority transportation corridors, a move that would see people with property beside those areas needing a permit from the province before doing certain work. The Transportation Corridor Control Act is included in an omnibus bill tabled by Municipal Affairs Minister John Lohr at Province House on Thursday. “This will help improve on-time, on-budget delivery of significant transportation infrastructure by minimizing delays and improving coordination between landowners, municipalities and utilities,” Lohr said during a bill briefing.
Prince Edward Island
- The P.E.I. Liberals are adjusting their voting process for the upcoming leadership convention due to a Canada Post strike. Registered party members will vote using an electronic system run by Intelivote Inc., a Nova Scotia-based company. A press release states the vast majority of party members were to receive voter information on Friday, Sept. 26. The original date was Monday, Sept. 29.
- People who work in Prince Edward Island’s oyster industry are sounding the alarm about the “dire” situation brought on by the diseases MSX and dermo, and they’re calling for more support from the provincial government. Fishers, growers and processors crowded into a legislative standing committee meeting Thursday in Charlottetown to tell MLAs that the diseases are putting the industry on the brink. “There’s nothing… that’s really been done to help us get over this hurdle,” said Bob MacLeod, president of the P.E.I. Shellfish Association.
- The P.E.I. Liquor Control Commission says it has taken steps to fix issues with how it selects and oversees agency liquor stores after concerns were raised in a recent report by the provincial auditor general. Officials from the commission appeared before a legislative standing committee on Tuesday to respond to the findings. The report, which reviewed agency store vendors and agreements up to Dec. 31, 2023, found the commission sometimes lacked proper documentation when choosing vendors and locations. In some cases, stores were not selected according to the requirements of regulations, and existing vendors were not always adequately managed.
- Canada Post workers are on strike across the country, including in Prince Edward Island, after the federal government proposed major reforms to the mail carrier this week. On Thursday, Ottawa called for Canada Post to end home delivery and close some rural mail outlets to stabilize its finances and ensure its survival. The Crown corporation is on track to lose $1.5 billion in 2025. The federal government lifted a 1994 moratorium on closing rural post offices, along with another that halted the installation of community mailboxes. “It’s going to hurt me. It’s going to hurt them…. It’s going to hurt people a lot,” said Eric Gautier, a former president of the Charlottetown branch of the Canadian Union of Postal Workers (CUPW).
Newfoundland and Labrador
- The 2025 provincial election campaign is now half over, and so far, the Progressive Conservative campaign has eschewed fiscal conservatism in favour of big spending promises. PC Leader Tony Wakeham hasn’t said what he would do about the province’s ballooning deficit and record level of net debt, but last week insisted he isn’t trying to skirt the issue. “Our attention will be focused on helping people balance their budgets, and then we will balance the budget of the province,” Wakeham said during a campaign stop in Harbour Breton.
- Liberal Leader John Hogan continued with big election promises on Friday, including free school supplies for primary and elementary school students beginning next year. “A re-elected government will focus on children, and as we’ve always said, we will focus on affordability. So we will give parents and teachers the financial break and the financial peace of mind that they deserve,” Hogan said. “We will provide free school supplies for all students from pre-kindergarten to Grade 6 beginning in September 2026.”
- The Newfoundland and Labrador New Democrats are promising to retool the way public money is spent in order to make life better for residents and address the province’s challenging fiscal situation. Leader Jim Dinn unveiled his party’s fully costed election platform on Friday at a kitchen table in St. John’s, and he’s promising to deliver a financial miracle for a province coping with a soaring net debt and painful annual deficits. Describing the platform as “practical and doable,” Dinn said an NDP government, if elected on Oct. 14, will return the province to surplus budgeting in Year 1, and with a forecasted surplus of nearly half a billion by 2029-30.
- Eight municipalities that rely on mail-in ballots for the municipal election are putting contingencies in place in light of the strike at Canada Post. CUPW members returned to the picket lines on Thursday afternoon, sending some municipalities scrambling. Most ballots should have been dropped in the mail by that time, meaning that many ballots are likely stuck in the postal system. The Department of Municipal Affairs has been in touch with each of the municipalities affected, and residents are being reassured that contingency plans are in place to ensure the integrity and accessibility of the electoral process.
Quebec
- Quebec Premier François Legault says his government will table new legislation to speed up environmental approvals, modelled on the federal major projects law. During a Sunday evening appearance on popular Quebec talk show Tout le monde en parle, Legault said the Quebec bill will be “equivalent” to Bill C-5, Prime Minister Mark Carney’s signature legislation meant to fast-track projects deemed to be in the national interest.
- CAQ party members want to ban people from covering their faces in public spaces, but the Legault government has not confirmed that it will follow through with the proposal. At their convention in Gatineau on Saturday, delegates from the Coalition Avenir Québec (CAQ) strengthened a proposal that initially aimed to ban demonstrations with masked faces. But in their desire to impose secularism in public spaces, a youth wing activist tabled an amendment to extend the ban on face coverings at all times.
- The Quebec government is lifting a ban on the sale of gas-powered cars that would have taken effect in 2035. Environment Minister Bernard Drainville says the decision will give the industry a break and Quebecers more choice. Now the government’s target is for 90 per cent of new vehicle sales in 2035 be hybrid or electric, down from 100 per cent fully electric. Quebec adopted the regulation banning gas-powered vehicle sales in December 2024. But Premier François Legault has spoken recently about the possibility of pausing certain environmental policies.
- The Quebec government’s financial statements have been revised upward for the 2024-2025 fiscal year, while the budget balance forecast for next year remains unchanged. Finance Minister Eric Girard released the government’s public accounts for the fiscal year ending March 31 on Friday. The report indicates that the financial statements for 2024-2025 show an accounting deficit of $5.2 billion, which corresponds to 0.8 per cent of GDP. This is an improvement over the previous accounting deficit, which stood at $6 billion, or 1 per cent of GDP, in 2023-2024.
Ontario
- Ontario Premier Doug Ford said Thursday morning that his government will soon table legislation to ban the use of speed cameras — a traffic enforcement tool Ford has called an ineffective “tax grab.” “Over the last few years, we’ve seen municipalities across the province use municipal speed cameras as nothing more than a cash grab,” he said at a news conference in Vaughan Thursday morning. “People are fed up.” Despite study findings and the opinion of police associations and municipalities to the contrary, Ford said speed cameras don’t slow people down, and the province plans to establish a new provincial fund to help municipalities.
- Ontario Premier Doug Ford took aim at the federal government and judicial “overreach” Thursday over a move to have the Supreme Court of Canada weigh in on provincial overuse of the notwithstanding clause. “That is way overreach,” Ford told reporters, referring both to the court and the federal government. He added that federal and provincial parliaments should be “supreme, meaning people are supreme, not judges ruling on stuff that shouldn’t even be in front of the courts.” Ford also took aim at Prime Minister Mark Carney and said the other premiers are also angry about the move.
- The situation at Marineland, the tourist attraction where 20 whales have died since 2019, is “terrible,” Ontario Premier Doug Ford said Thursday. There are 30 belugas left at Marineland, according to a database maintained by The Canadian Press based on government records and officials. They are the last remaining whales in captivity in Canada, which banned the keeping of cetaceans in 2019. “They have a responsibility to take care of these whales,” Ford said when asked about Marineland at an unrelated press conference. “They need to make sure that they’re healthy.” He said his heart breaks for the “poor whales” held in captivity.
- Ontario’s education minister has singled out a handful of Ontario school boards for their financial struggles, but a look at recent estimates shows nearly two-thirds of the 72 boards are either projecting deficits this school year or expecting to just break even. Not all boards planning deficits are in trouble, but neither did so many previously operate so close to the line. With a few exceptions, the Education Act requires boards not to run deficits. In media interviews, Education Minister Paul Calandra has said trustees at the five school boards under provincial control “refused to make the right decisions” to keep their budgets balanced.
Manitoba
- The commissioner hired to create a new office to better protect seniors in care says the only option to restore public confidence and create impartiality is to make it independent from the government, according to a report released Friday. Former judge William Burnett was tasked in 2023 to come up with a plan to dissolve the Protection for Persons in Care Office and create a new independent office with investigatory powers. This was after a scathing report from Manitoba’s auditor general in July 2023 revealed a litany of problems at the PPCO.
- The Manitoba government ran a higher-than-expected deficit in the last fiscal year and is on track to miss its target again this year, according to documents released Friday by the Finance department. The government finished the fiscal year that ended March 31 with a deficit of $1.1 billion — $353 million more than it originally planned. The higher deficit occurred despite the government getting hundreds of millions of dollars in revenue from a nationwide legal settlement, reached in the spring, that saw major tobacco companies agree to pay provinces, territories and former smokers for tobacco-related health costs.
- Winnipeg Mayor Scott Gillingham says extending the time methamphetamine users can be detained under provincial law could ease pressure on emergency workers and give people a better chance to connect with treatment, but an advocate for addictions treatment says longer detention alone won’t work. Premier Wab Kinew said Thursday his government will introduce legislation this fall to extend the current 24-hour maximum that a person can be held under the Intoxicated Persons Detention Act.
- The leader of Manitoba’s Official Opposition has filed a court action against Premier Wab Kinew, claiming the NDP leader violated the Election Financing Act during the recent Spruce Woods byelection. “Wab Kinew and the NDP think … the rules do not apply to them. I think they’re wrong,” Progressive Conservative Party Leader Obby Khan said Friday morning outside of the Law Courts building in Winnipeg. “The premier needs to admit it and apologize to it for all Manitobans.” The violation complaint stems from an Aug. 21 video reel posted by Kinew on his social media accounts, announcing a plan to repair a section of Highway 2 in the Spruce Woods constituency.
Saskatchewan
- First Nation leaders in Saskatchewan are demanding answers from the Federation of Sovereign Indigenous Nations over allegations of financial mismanagement and a forensic audit that flagged $34 million in questionable expenses. On Friday, a group of First Nation chiefs and councillors held a news conference in Saskatoon, where they accused the federation’s leadership of refusing to address the allegations and the audit’s results. “This money belongs to the people, to the grassroots people, and it’s there to make a difference in people’s lives,” said Saskatoon Tribal Council Chief Mark Arcand.
- A Saskatchewan village devastated by wildfire, and angry with the provincial government’s response to it, had a surprise visitor Friday — Premier Scott Moe. Karen Thomson, a councillor for the village of Denare Beach, just over 400 kilometres northeast of Saskatoon, said they were surprised by Moe’s visit, as they were only expecting cabinet ministers to attend the scheduled update meeting. She says she talked with Moe about ways the province can support mental health needs for residents, along with financial assistance to help with the rebuild.
- Regina city council voted to draft a bylaw implementing the province’s Safer Public Spaces Act in a 7-4 vote on Wednesday, clearing the way for a final vote in October. The Saskatchewan Party government’s Safe Spaces Act, also known as the Street Weapons Act, came into effect on Aug. 1. It gives police the power to seize “street weapons” like knives and machetes, as well as hypodermic needles, and to arrest anyone in possession of them. Penalties include fines up to $5,000 or a year in prison. However, municipalities must opt in to the act, meaning police can’t exercise the new powers in Regina unless city council votes in favour of it.
- The Peepeekisis Cree Nation in Saskatchewan has lost an appeal of a ruling saying a settlement payout to one of its members could be seized to pay for child support. The case centres around the money Peepeekisis received under a settlement with the federal government. Colin Stonechild, a member of Peepeekisis Cree Nation, was behind almost $24,000 on his child support payments to his former partner. Stonechild, like other members of the Nation, is to receive a one-time payment of $30,000 as part of a $150-million “cows and plows” claim over lands seized from the nation more than 100 years ago.
Alberta
- Alberta Premier Danielle Smith’s government says it plans to introduce legislation that would allow it to disregard international agreements signed by Ottawa. The future legislation is listed in a new mandate letter Smith issued this week to the government’s intergovernmental relations ministry, which the premier heads. The letter says it’s about protecting “Alberta’s authority,” and Smith’s office added in a statement that it’s also an issue of due process. Sam Blackett, Smith’s press secretary, said as it stands, the federal government isn’t required to consult Alberta on signing international accords, even if they include commitments that fall under provincial jurisdiction, such as health care.
- Alberta Premier Danielle Smith is directing her two top public safety officials to prioritize safeguarding gun owners and those who act in self-defence from federal overreach. Updated mandate letters sent by Smith to Alberta Justice Minister Mickey Amery and Public Safety Minister Mike Ellis on Thursday contained identical instructions to “relentlessly defend Albertans’ right to lawful and safe possession of firearms and right to self-defence.” This is a new item on both ministers’ to-do lists. Amery told National Post that it’s not an accident the premier’s new directive to vigorously defend Albertan gun owners vigorously coincides with the launch of a pilot program for the Liberal government’s assault-style gun buy-back program, which Alberta has said it won’t cooperate with.
- Alberta’s premier says her government might invoke the notwithstanding clause to defend laws affecting transgender people because courts may take “years and years and years” to resolve the issue, and she wants to “protect kids.” Smith, who made the comments last Saturday on her provincewide radio call-in program, was responding to news that an internal memo from her government says it plans to apply the clause this fall to its three laws that police school pronouns, female sports and gender-affirming health care.
- Premier Danielle Smith wants Alberta’s education and advanced education ministers to create an “abbreviated” teacher training program for people who already have post-secondary credentials. She’s also tasked Education and Childcare Minister Demetrios Nicolaides with negotiating a new federal-provincial child-care agreement. In her mandate letters to Nicolaides and Advanced Education Minister Myles McDougall, Smith instructs the ministers to develop a teaching certification program for people with training in “relevant fields” that doesn’t require an education degree.
British Columbia
- Councillors in two B.C. communities are welcoming the premier’s announcement of involuntary care facilities amid public safety concerns, even as a drug policy academic says forcing people into drug treatment is ineffective. B.C. Premier David Eby announced Friday at the Union of B.C. Municipalities (UBCM) convention that Surrey and Prince George would receive involuntary care facilities, though he said the exact details would come later. In making the announcement, Eby directly referenced one of the central issues of UBCM — municipalities’ concern over public disorder and drug use — as the reason for the 100 new involuntary treatment beds between both communities.
- Negotiations will resume on Monday between the union representing British Columbia’s public service workers and the province, but picket lines in front of government offices and liquor stores will remain up. Finance Minister Brenda Bailey said that the Public Service Agency “extended an invitation” to the B.C. General Employees’ Union (BCGEU) on late Thursday to ask them to return to the table and resume negotiations. “We remain committed to achieving a fair agreement that is good for workers and also helps us maintain our fiscal plan,” said Bailey.
- Emily Lowan, a 25-year-old climate activist, is the new leader of the B.C. Green Party. Lowan won on the first ballot with 3,189 votes, ahead of second-place Jonathan Kerr with 1,908 votes, while Adam Bremner-Akins finished third with 128 votes. A total of 8,641 eligible members cast their votes in the ranked-ballot election for a turnout of 61 per cent. “This campaign was electrifying,” Lowan told a room of supporters in Victoria, where the results were announced Wednesday. “It was a lightning rod of hope. We brought in thousands of new members to this party, many of whom were completely disillusioned with politics.”
- The Canadian Food Inspection Agency says the “ongoing delay” in carrying out the cull of ostriches at a British Columbia farm presents “potential animal and human health risks.” The agency said in a statement Friday that it will continue to feed the birds under veterinary oversight, and it will be using the feed provided by Universal Ostrich Farms’ regular suppliers. There are between 300 and 330 ostriches on the farm in southeastern B.C., and work on determining a more precise count is ongoing, the agency said. It has also identified one ostrich on-site “with compromised health,” but the statement doesn’t say what is wrong with it. The birds on the farm have been given a temporary reprieve after the Supreme Court of Canada issued a last-minute stay of the cull earlier this week.
Northwest Territories
- The organizer of an Orange Shirt Day march planned for Yellowknife on Tuesday is now asking attendees not to bring any signage related to Gaza. In a Facebook post, Kaitlyn Whitekeyes wrote that “in respect to [residential school] survivors, please refrain from any signage for Gaza for the march.” An Instagram post by Whitekeyes for the initial event said “everyone is welcome to come together in grief, anger and remembrance to march in protest of the slaughter and starvation of children in Gaza.” That post prompted reaction from some local politicians and Indigenous leaders.
Yukon
- For the past five years, the Yukon First Nation Education Directorate (YFNED) has provided two warm meals and snacks daily, as well as school break hampers, to 13 of Yukon’s communities through its rural nutrition program. This year, however, the program has been suspended after YFNED’s application for funding through Jordan’s Principle was denied by Indigenous Services Canada (ISC). Melanie Bennett, YFNED’s executive director, said this will have an extremely negative impact on almost 900 children and youth across the territory.
Nunavut
- The list of candidates running in Nunavut’s territorial election on Oct. 27 is set. The deadline for declaring candidacy has passed for all three Nunavut regions. Fifty-eight Nunavut residents have put their names forward in total. The same number of candidates ran in the 2021 election, though it is still down from 72 in 2017. There are 22 ridings in Nunavut, but not all voters will head to the polls. Some ridings only have one candidate. Once confirmed, that will mean they will be acclaimed to the position.
- As a consensus-style government, there are no political parties or candidates running as independents. Members of the cabinet are chosen after the general election. Newly-elected MLAs gather to select the Speaker, premier and ministers, in a secret-ballot election.