Provincial and Territorial Update – September 5, 2025
Provincial and Territorial Update: An overview of the Provincial Legislative and Territories Legislative Updates for the week of September 5, 2025. Written by Wes McLean.
New Brunswick
- The New Brunswick Court of Appeal says the closure of two provincial courthouses on the Acadian Peninsula did not violate constitutional language rights of francophone residents, and the provincial government is not obligated to revisit the decision. The province closed court facilities in Caraquet at the end of 2021 and reduced the Tracadie court to a satellite operation in 2022, with all cases transferred to Bathurst.
- Voters in the provincial riding of Miramichi West will elect a new member of the New Brunswick legislature on Oct. 6. That’s the date the riding will hold a provincial byelection, according to a cabinet order published on the government’s website Thursday morning. Premier Susan Holt confirmed the date in a press release shortly after the order appeared online.
- In what has become largely a battle of accounting concepts, N.B. Power formally made its application Wednesday for a ruling that the planned construction of a natural gas generating station in Tantramar should be exempt from review by the New Brunswick Energy and Utilities Board (EUB). The board is required by provincial legislation to hold hearings into any N.B. Power capital project that will exceed $50 million in expenditures, but the utility is asking for a ruling that the new generating station, scheduled for operation by 2028, not be covered by that provision.
- As New Brunswick continues to pitch a major pipeline project to the federal government, the province now says it’s also been in talks with private companies to realize its ambitious plan. In an interview with Radio-Canada, Natural Resources Minister John Herron said the province has spoken with TC Energy, a pipeline company, and Repsol, which operates a natural gas plant in Saint John, as part of an ongoing push to bring the product to Atlantic Canada and reach what the minister has called “energy sovereignty.”
Nova Scotia
- An Antigonish, N.S., man whose personal information was compromised in the Nova Scotia Power cybersecurity breach says he’s frustrated by the utility’s proposal to raise rates over the next two years. David MacLeod, who has written an open letter to CEO Peter Gregg calling for a rate freeze, said the company should be working to rebuild trust after thieves stole the personal and financial data of 280,000 people. He said the proposed increase does the opposite, and has left him feeling “more than angry.”
- The general manager of one of Victoria County’s largest employers says Pierre Poilievre’s call to scrap Canada’s temporary foreign worker program shows the federal Conservative leader doesn’t understand the struggle that rural communities face in filling positions. Osborne Burke of Victoria Co-operative Fisheries in Neils Harbour, N.S., was reacting to Poilievre’s assertion Wednesday that Ottawa should axe the program because it has flooded the market with cheap labour and made it harder for young Canadians to find work.
- Nine years after Corey Rogers was found dead in a holding cell at Halifax police headquarters, the case is still reverberating through the Nova Scotia justice system. This week, a Nova Scotia Supreme Court judge ordered a new hearing by the Nova Scotia Police Review Board after finding serious problems with a previous board hearing on the case. The board had looked at the conduct of Dan Fraser, one of two special constables who were terminated in relation to the death of Corey Rogers in June 2016 while he was in the custody of Halifax Regional Police.
- The waitlist for a spot in Nova Scotia’s public housing system has topped 8,200 people, an increase of more than 1,200 since last October. The updated numbers are contained in a recent access to information package released to the Opposition NDP. In July, the party requested updated waitlist figures from the Nova Scotia Provincial Housing Agency, which oversees the province’s approximately 11,000 public housing units.
Prince Edward Island
- P.E.I.’s solar energy rebate program has been paused due to high demand, the province says in a news release. The program has reached capacity for the current fiscal year. As a result, efficiencyPEI will no longer accept applications for solar electric rebates after Friday. “We have had great uptake on the solar program since it began. The program is now fully subscribed for the year,” Environment, Energy and Climate Action Minister Gilles Arsenault was quoted as saying in the release.
- Potato producers across P.E.I. say this summer has been among the worst in recent memory for drought-like conditions. Andrew Lawless, operator of Hilltop Produce in Kinkora, has been running his irrigation system since the beginning of July, watering about 40 per cent of his crop once a week. Despite that, he estimates he will lose about 30 per cent of his average yield because of the lack of rain. “It’s very tough. It’s going to be quite a loss to the farm,” he told CBC News. “It’s the worst year since 2001 and definitely the worst year of my career.”
- Tenants aren’t happy with a private member’s bill from MLA Brad Trivers suggesting changes to the P.E.I. Residential Tenancy Act. More than 80 people crowded into a room at the Charlottetown Library Learning Centre to offer feedback on the amendments the backbench MLA is proposing. Most of the people in the room were renters who were against any of the proposed changes to the act. Minister of Housing, Land and Communities Steven Myers also weighed in on Thursday, saying it’s not the right time to update the act.
- Classes are set to begin for 20 Island students who are attending Prince Edward Island’s new medical school, which serves as the regional home for Memorial University’s Doctor of Medicine program. Despite the fact that construction on the building on the north end of the UPEI campus is not completed, Dr. Peter MacPherson said things have been sailing smoothly to date.
Newfoundland and Labrador
- All three of Newfoundland and Labrador’s major political parties were on the campaign trail Thursday for an election that has yet to be called. In Carbonear, Progressive Conservative Leader Tony Wakeham promised if his party is elected, they’ll beef up the province’s firefighting capabilities following a summer of burning wildfires. Among other promises, Wakeham said a PC government would ensure volunteer firefighters and search and rescue teams have the gear they need to respond to emergencies.
- Equinor has signed an agreement in principle with Oslo-based BW Offshore to design and construct the Bay du Nord FPSO — if the project goes ahead. The Norwegian energy giant hasn’t greenlit the project, but it will discuss technical and commercial aspects of the floating production, storage, and offloading (FPSO) unit with BW Offshore, which according to a press release from the company sent Monday, is now Equinor’s preferred bidder for the project.
- The state of emergency has been lifted in Conception Bay South as water tanks have now refilled to an adequate level. A news release just before 5:30 p.m. NT said repairs were completed, and water tanks were refilled, following work by repair crews overnight. Tanks had been filling slower than expected, but reached an adequate level Wednesday afternoon.
- Newfoundland and Labrador Premier John Hogan is again defending the Churchill Falls memorandum of understanding, following news that a member of the three-person independent review panel had resigned in frustration. First reported by online news site AllNewfoundlandLabrador, Mike Wilson resigned from the panel in May. His resignation letter is heavily redacted, but in commentary shared with members of the media, he wrote that he felt the work of the panel wasn’t meeting the public’s expectations and they weren’t digging deep enough into the MOU’s contents.
Quebec
- Quebec Premier François Legault will carry out a cabinet shuffle next week as he works on a reset ahead of the next provincial election in 2026. His office confirmed Thursday morning the rumours that had been swirling about changes to the government team. The announcement comes days after Legault testified in the Gallant commission, which is leading the public inquiry into the $500-million cost overrun for the province’s automobile insurance board’s digital transition project.
- As the CAQ ship takes on water, Municipal Affairs Minister Andrée Laforest resigns to run for mayor of Saguenay. Laforest confirmed rumours that had been circulating for several months during an announcement at a hotel in Chicoutimi, Saguenay, on Thursday. Municipal elections will be held on Nov. 2. Her hasty departure from the government will force Premier François Legault to call a byelection within six months, as the next general election is not scheduled until Oct. 2026
- Premier of Quebec François Legault continued to claim that he was unaware of the bill and cost overruns for the Société de l’assurance automobile du Québec’s (SAAQ) IT project until last winter, with the report from the Auditor General of Quebec (VGQ). Legault delivered his highly anticipated testimony before the Gallant Commission on Tuesday in Montreal, during which he blamed the directors of the state-owned company. He insisted that he was only informed of the costs of the SAAQ’s technological modernization when the VGQ report was published last February. And it was only with the failed launch of the SAAQclic platform in February 2023 that he first heard about the company’s digital shift, the premier said.
- Things are heating up in the government, less than a week before the cabinet reshuffle. Premier François Legault has just announced that he is expelling Pierre Dufour, MNA for Abitibi-Est, from the CAQ caucus. In an interview with La Presse, Dufour suggested that he would resign and run for mayor of Val-d’Or if the premier did not appoint an elected official from the Abitibi-Témiscamingue region as a minister.
Ontario
- Premier Doug Ford met with the family of an Ontario man who was killed in a crash involving an alleged dangerous driver last month and said he supports their efforts to change the province’s road safety laws. “This wasn’t an accident. It was a murder. This was a reckless, careless person that didn’t care about people’s lives,” Ford said after the meeting, noting the driver—Jaiwin Victor Kirubananthan—hit his car months before he crashed into Andrew Cristillo, 35, and his family in August. Ford spoke with Cristillo’s wife, Christina, brother, Jordan, and father, Danny, for a 30-minute, closed-door meeting at Queen’s Park on Friday.
- Ontario Premier Doug Ford poured scorn on the makers of Crown Royal whisky Tuesday, dumping out a bottle before reporters in protest over the company’s decision to shutter an Ontario bottling plant and move the jobs south of the border. “You know something, I always say smart people aren’t too smart, and you guys are about as dumb as a bag of hammers for doing this,” Ford said toward the end of an unrelated news conference in Kitchener, Ont. Rummaging for a bottle he said he found at home, he proceeded to empty the contents out on the ground.
- A union that represents Ontario public servants is taking action against the Doug Ford government after it ordered provincial employees to return to the office four days a week this fall and five days a week next year. AMAPCEO — Ontario’s Professional Employees, which represents more than 16,000 professional, administrative and supervisory employees in the Ontario Public Service, said the province failed to give the union enough notice of its decision. The union filed what is called a policy dispute on Tuesday, alleging the province violated its collective agreement.
- Following a series of violent crimes in York Region over the last week — including a Vaughan father fatally shot in front of his family during a home invasion — police provided an update on ongoing investigations at a news conference Wednesday morning at their Aurora headquarters. Alongside rising shootings and seized guns, the department is also seeing a “disturbing trend” in the rise of violent crimes committed by young people, said York Regional Police Chief Jim MacSween.
Manitoba
- The man police say killed his sister and attacked several others with a knife on Hollow Water First Nation in Manitoba was out on bail. Court records show Tyrone Simard, 26, was charged with assault with a weapon and mischief for alleged offences that happened on June 8. He also faced charges of sexual assault, sexual interference and invitation to sexual touching from alleged incidents in 2017. The records say a Winnipeg court granted his release on June 12 on both matters, with various conditions, including a curfew and an order not to use drugs or alcohol or to possess weapons.
- A patient forced to find their health card while suffering from a heart attack, another who sat for hours in a waiting room with a bleeding head, and a third who went an entire day without a meal are among the experiences outlined in responses to a survey offered at Winnipeg health-care facilities. A revealing look at how patients were treated while seeking care was captured by a Winnipeg Regional Health Authority patient survey. Each person who anonymously fills out the voluntary survey can add comments or suggestions.
- The City of Brandon is suing Manitoba Hydro for negligence after it says an overwhelmed and faulty gas line at a public works building caused an explosion that sent one person to the hospital two years ago. The explosion happened in the mechanical room of the Civic Services Complex, which houses Brandon’s transit fleet and administration, on Sept. 5, 2023. It sent one person to the hospital with non-life-threatening injuries, officials said at the time.
- Two PC MLAs are accusing the NDP government of not making good on promises to end chronic homelessness, and calling on the premier to oust the current minister of homelessness after she said that the province’s homeless strategy was “right on track.” “I don’t know what track the minister is actually talking about, and the premier is obviously backing her up,” Manitoba PC MLA for Lac du Bonnet Wayne Ewasko said at a Tuesday press conference, referring to NDP Homelessness Minister Bernadette Smith.
Saskatchewan
- The Saskatoon Police Service has fired three officers after a year-long investigation. Those officers and two others were suspended in September 2024 after an “off-duty gathering” that led to internal and external investigations. The dismissed officers are two constables with nine and 10 years on the force, and a special constable with two years, according to a news release. The two other suspended officers returned to work in April 2025.
- Saskatchewan Premier Scott Moe will have some company when he travels to China this weekend, as Prime Minister Mark Carney announced his parliamentary secretary will join the trade delegation. Kody Blois, MP for Kings-Hants, Nova Scotia, will spend three days in China as Moe attempts to bridge a divide that has led China to announce punishing tariffs on canola, according to a news release from the Prime Minister’s Office. The decision signals a partnership between the Saskatchewan and federal governments, Moe said at a press conference in Saskatoon on Thursday.
- Given staffing limitations in health care, Saskatchewan’s health minister says operating urgent care centres 24/7 is no longer the priority. “People want urgent care services in their community, so what our focus has shifted to, instead of focusing just solely on staffing one facility 24/7, we want to staff and open up more facilities around the province,” Jeremy Cockrill said while in Saskatoon on Tuesday at an event marking that a new urgent care centre in the city is one-quarter complete.
- Métis Nation-Saskatchewan has declared a state of emergency in response to the escalating crisis of addiction and violence in northern communities. Beverly Fullerton, health and addictions minister for the MN-S, said the organization has identified a critical shortage of support and treatment facilities, particularly for Métis citizens seeking safe spaces for healing. “We are noticing the gaps within, you know, our systems, the hardships that our communities and our people are facing,” Fullerton told host Sam Maciag on CBC Radio’s Blue Sky. “We are well aware of the lack of cultural safe spaces for our people to come together and find healing and find treatment.”
Alberta
- Alberta Premier Danielle Smith says her government is rewriting a ministerial order directing school divisions to ban books containing sexually explicit content to ensure classic books stay on library shelves. Smith says the order is being changed to only target books that contain images of sexual content. The initial order covered books with images, illustrations, audio and written passages with sexually explicit content. Smith says the government’s order was misunderstood by the division and would be changed to keep the classics in school libraries.
- The debate over whether immigrants are being scapegoated for Alberta’s problems was a highly polarizing feature of an otherwise friendly town hall for Premier Danielle Smith’s Alberta Next Panel in Medicine Hat on Tuesday night. While discussions around creating a provincial police service and reforming equalization payments elicited their own debates, the province’s proposal to take greater control over immigration by restricting some newcomers’ access to social services brought strong opinions from audience members.
- A new contract has been reached between some 23,000 civil servants and the Alberta government, averting a strike that could’ve happened as soon as next week. The Alberta Union of Provincial Employees says the mediator-recommended deal passed with 63 per cent of voting members in favour and 36.5 per cent opposed. In a release Wednesday, the union said 71 per cent of eligible members voted. The affected employees include administrative workers, some Alberta Sheriffs, social workers and provincial wildfire fighters.
- The Alberta government says it will begin creating standards for releasing treated oil tailings into the environment. Creating release standards is one of four policy recommendations pitched by a government-appointed committee tasked with studying tailings management options. Tailings are mixtures of water, sand, bitumen residue, and chemicals considered toxic to fish and other wildlife and, as of 2023, there were nearly 1.4 trillion litres of the substance stored across the province.
British Columbia
- British Columbia Premier David Eby is calling on the federal government to make major changes to the temporary foreign worker (TFW) program — or to scrap it outright. Eby made the comments on Thursday, at his first public appearance after a month break over the summer. “The temporary foreign worker program is not working. It should be cancelled or significantly reformed,” Eby said. “Here in British Columbia, we see an unacceptably high level of unemployment among young people, which has been linked both to the international student visa program as well as the temporary foreign worker program.”
- Just as the BC General Employees’ Union (BCGEU) is escalating its job action, the premier is now weighing in on the situation. Speaking Thursday morning in Surrey, Premier David Eby says members of the BCGEU did well in their last contract, and the government isn’t able to fork out the money this time. “We’re just not able to do that this time around,” said Eby. “We’re facing big fiscal headwinds, and we have to understand that, as a province — which includes government workers — we’re going to have to work together and find a fair deal, be creative, but respect taxpayers as well.”
- The community of Anahim Lake has been ordered evacuated as wildfires burning along Highway 20, north and east of Bella Coola in central B.C., moved closer to homes overnight. It’s part of a large number of evacuation orders issued by the Cariboo Regional District and the Ulkatcho First Nation on Friday morning at 6 a.m. PT. About 570 people living along the Anahim Lake, Nimpo Lake, Dusty Lake and Charlotte Lake area were asked to leave immediately due to the Dusty Lake wildfire, which has spread to more than 52 square kilometres. People are being told to travel east along Highway 20 to Williams Lake, more than 200 kilometres away, to the emergency service centre at the Cariboo Memorial Recreation complex.
- Well-known labour negotiator Vince Ready is stepping in to help resolve the strike at Cowichan Valley Transit on Vancouver Island. Bus and HandyDART staff in the Cowichan Valley, located 45 kilometres north of Victoria, walked off the job on Feb. 8, demanding better wages and access to washrooms while on shift. So far, members of Unifor locals 114 and 333 have rejected a negotiated deal reached by their bargaining team with employer Transdev, as well as a proposal suggested by Dave Schuab, a mediator appointed by the province in June.
Northwest Territories
- The N.W.T.’s former MP is criticizing the territorial government’s approach to fighting wildfires, and suggesting that Ottawa should potentially take over responsibility for fire response in the territory. Michael McLeod, who was MP for 10 years before deciding not to run again last spring, is currently an evacuee from his home community of Fort Providence. That community was placed under an evacuation order on Sunday due to a wildfire approximately 900 metres away. Whatı̀ is also under an evacuation order, and Jean Marie River is on evacuation alert
Yukon
- A draft framework for Yukon’s proposed new mining legislation outlines major changes to the existing system, including more say for First Nations on mining projects in the territory. The 30-page draft framework has been in the works since 2021 and was obtained by CBC News through an access to information request. The territorial government had earlier declined to release the document while consultations were underway.
Nunavut
- Minimum wage workers in Nunavut are gettin a pay raise on Monday as the minimum wage in the territory rises to $19.75 per hour. That’s a 75-cent increase. The change is part of a new annual adjustment system introduced by the Government of Nunavut that will see the minimum wage reviewed and adjusted each year, the territory said in a news release issued Friday.