Provincial Legislative Update – September 12, 2025
Provincial and Territorial Update: An overview of the Provincial Legislative and Territories Legislative Updates for the week of September 12, 2025. Written by Wes McLean.
New Brunswick
- Tents and other unofficial shelters would be banned from “red zones” in Saint John, including school and playground areas, under a proposed policy backed by city council Monday night. The policy would prevent encampments in daycares, sports fields and similar places, according to the staff proposal presented by Cara Coes, a community support services manager, and David Dobblesteyn, director of growth and community support.
- Public interest in a review of N.B. Power ordered by the New Brunswick government has been underwhelming so far, according to a key member of the independent group running the initiative. Duncan Hawthorne is a former president of Bruce Power in Ontario, and at a public meeting in Saint John on Thursday, said participation in the group’s online attempts to reach the public has been weak.
- National advocacy group CanAge is calling for the New Brunswick government to fund the shingles vaccine for people aged 50 and older to align with the policy in all other Atlantic provinces. CanAge, Canada’s national seniors’ advocacy organization, is pushing for New Brunswick to fund the vaccine because it’s strongly recommended by the National Advisory Committee on Immunization (NACI) for those aged 50 and older.
- The New Brunswick government says its report on a mystery brain illness affecting hundreds of people will be delayed until late December, but patients will get what they’ve called for — a review of all data by federal health officials. The office of the chief medical officer of health in New Brunswick was expected to release a report on its investigation into 222 cases of undiagnosed neurological illness, along with recommendations, by the end of the summer.
Nova Scotia
- Nova Scotia is looking to Ottawa for tax credits, low-interest financing and direct investment, among other requests, to realize Premier Tim Houston’s vision for a massive build-out of offshore wind and new transmission lines that together could cost $60 billion. Those are among the details revealed in a new document released by the provincial government on the same day that Prime Minister Mark Carney indicated “Wind West” could be designated a project of national interest.
- Nova Scotia Power is facing a $1-million penalty after failing to meet performance standards for the eighth year in a row. The Nova Scotia Energy Board announced the measure in a letter on Wednesday following a public hearing in June. It found the utility failed to meet two of its 14 reliability performance targets for 2024. Its letter shows as an established standard that an average customer should not be without power for more than four hours and 17 minutes throughout the year.
- Municipality of Cumberland Mayor Rod Gilroy doesn’t want the additional powers of a so-called strong mayor. On Tuesday, the Municipality of Cumberland council unanimously voted to write a letter in opposition to strong mayor powers to the Nova Scotia Federation of Municipalities and to the province. “The mayor is a co-ordinator, a coach, a quarterback, a teammate, and responsible for being the liaison between the council and senior staff,” Gilroy said.
- After more than a year of working to validate the accuracy of the province’s need-a-family-practice registry, officials at Nova Scotia Health say the work should be complete this fall, but they’re still trying to reach thousands of people to determine their primary care needs. “The majority of people on the registry would have had a reach-out from Nova Scotia Health by now, but there are some that we have not yet contacted,” Bethany McCormick, a vice-president with the health authority, said in a recent interview.
Prince Edward Island
- The P.E.I. government has signed a new five-year agreement with Island EMS aimed at modernizing and improving emergency health services across the province. Negotiations between the company and the provincial government had been going on for about a year. This marks the first overhaul of the deal since 2006. James Orchard, general manager of Island EMS and Medacom Atlantic, said the agreement was “quite badly needed” with call volumes increasing and health needs evolving. “There’s a general recognition that we have to be able to pivot to the changing needs of Islanders,” he said. “They change over time. They change at the community level, they change at the provincial level.
- With Prince Edward Island’s Liberal Party set to elect a new leader early next month, the two candidates are meeting with Islanders through a series of forums. Entrepreneur Todd Cormier and former MLA Robert Mitchell are the two candidates vying for the role. The leadership convention will be held Oct. 4 at the Delta Prince Edward in Charlottetown, with advance polling taking place throughout September. “These leadership forums that are coming up give them another four chances to connect in person with a wide range of members, and to be able to talk with them one on one,” said Matthew Murphy, co-chair of the convention.
- Prince Edward Island’s new Child, Youth and Family Services Act has strengthened protections for children and youth, but there are still gaps that need to be addressed, says the province’s child and youth advocate. The legislation, which came into effect in September last year, replaced the more than 20-year-old Child Protection Act. Years in the making, it was developed by the Department of Social Development and Seniors with input from Marvin Bernstein, the province’s child and youth advocate.
- Tenants of the Browns Court rental neighbourhood in Charlottetown say they’ve been offered thousands of dollars to “pressure” them to leave their units after a new owner took over two years ago. Their units are now renting for significantly below the current market rate, but some occupants told CBC News they fear the rents will shoot up after the owner carries out planned renovations. “It’s a little unnerving that your housing isn’t secure,” said Mike Morrison, who has lived in his unit with roommates for four years now, and currently pays $400 a month toward its $1,200 monthly rent, utilities not included.
Newfoundland and Labrador
- A major report on modernizing the education system in Newfoundland and Labrador is peppered with fake sources, some educators say, that were likely fabricated by generative artificial intelligence (AI). Released last month, the Education Accord NL final report, a 10-year roadmap for improving the province’s public schools and post-secondary institutions, includes at least 15 citations for non-existent journal articles and documents.
- The struggling Braya Renewables refinery at Come By Chance has received a $25 million loan from the Newfoundland and Labrador government on the eve of an election call. The announcement came a day after the governing Liberals announced an extension to a power-purchase agreement between N.L. Hydro and Corner Brook Pulp and Paper, which sees the Crown utility purchase power from the company at inflated prices. Liberal Premier John Hogan, describing the Placentia Bay refinery as an important provincial asset, announced the repayable loan in a news release on Thursday afternoon.
- A second so-called Group of 9 has entered the debate over the Churchill Falls memorandum of understanding, but this time in full support of a proposed new energy deal between Newfoundland and Labrador Hydro and Hydro-Québec. Media outlets received a copy Thursday evening of a Sept. 9 letter to Premier John Hogan from nine prominent business leaders in the province. The letter surfaced as voters in Newfoundland and Labrador prepare for an election, with Hogan and the governing Liberals touting the MOU as the No. 1 issue in the campaign.
- An accountant who quit a panel overseeing energy negotiations between the electric utilities of Newfoundland and Labrador and Quebec says the public should be able to read his full resignation letter. Mike Wilson said Wednesday he is unable to share the letter himself because he signed a non-disclosure agreement. However, he called on the panel’s chair to encourage the Newfoundland and Labrador government to release the unredacted text of his resignation letter, which he submitted on May 12. The former EY executive has previously said he resigned because the panel was not serving the public as intended.
Quebec
- A former minister under Premier François Legault – who was dismissed from the cabinet – has broken her silence and expressed dissatisfaction following the announcement of the new CAQ cabinet. Maïté Blanchette Vézina had been Minister of Natural Resources and Forests since 2022, but lost her position on Wednesday without the government providing any explanation. “It’s clear that my confidence in the Premier and his inner circle has been shaken at this point,” she said during a press scrum on Thursday in her riding. She could not explain why she had been dismissed, as she claims to have followed the directives of the Premier’s office.
- Once the most popular premier in the country, François Legault is now considered the most undesirable, according to a new poll by the Angus Reid Institute. In the top place now is Manitoba Premier Wab Kinew, who, at 61 per cent, still sees a seven per cent decline compared to the institute’s last poll. As for Quebec’s premier, the data, released on Tuesday, show that one in five (22 per cent) of Quebecers currently approve of Legault, a decline of three per cent. Plus, 72 per cent say they do not support him.
- Quebec Premier François Legault, one year away from the general election and deeply unpopular with the electorate, announced a major cabinet shuffle on Wednesday and promised to soon present a new vision for the province’s economy. He also pledged to make radical changes to the public service, saying the system needs a “shock treatment” to get out of its lethargy. It’s all part of a plan to revive the fortunes of his party, which, according to poll,s is at risk of disappearing from the electoral map after it won a second mandate three years ago with a decisive majority. In front of his new cabinet on Wednesday, the premier suggested his planned changes for the next year will not be easy, but are necessary. “This marks the lowest approval of Legault since he first took office in 2018, and a remarkable reversal of fortunes for a leader who secured back-to-back majorities in 2018 and 2022,” the institute notes. “He now stares down ‘disastrous defeat.'”
- Quebec Premier François Legault “conceded” that spending tax dollars “to woo” the L.A. Kings “to play exhibition hockey games in the provincial capital was a mistake,” according to Philip Authier of the Montreal GAZETTE. Quebec spent “up to” CA$7M (US$5M) to “woo the team to play two pre-season games in 2024 at Quebec City’s Videotron Centre.” Legault said in an interview with the Radio-Canada Quebec City morning show, Première heure, “It was an error. Because people really did not appreciate that we put $5-6 million into bringing the Kings of Los Angeles to Quebec to show off our super amphitheatre.”
Ontario
- Ontario Premier Doug Ford says he’s glad that a federal list of “nation-building” projects slated for speedy approval includes the construction of small modular reactors next to the Darlington nuclear generating station. On Thursday, Prime Minister Mark Carney unveiled a list of five projects that the federal government hopes to get off the ground quickly. The list is being sent to the newly created Major Projects Office (MPO).
- In a letter sent to Mayor Frank Campion this week, Ontario Premier Doug Ford says he was “horrified” by the sexual assault of a young child during a recent home invasion in Welland. “This scumbag deserves to rot in prison for the rest of their life. Our justice system must do everything possible to prioritize the safety of the public over criminals,” Ford wrote in the letter, dated Wednesday. “Violent and repeat criminals who commit disgusting, heinous crimes have no place on our streets or in our communities.”
- The Ford government says it will remove automatic speed enforcement cameras this fall if municipalities do not take steps to scrap them. “We are exploring alternative tools to enhance traffic safety without the use of automatic speed cameras that are nothing but a cash grab,” Dakota Brasier, the director of media relations for Ontario Transportation Minister Prabmeet Sarkaria, said in an email statement to CTV News Toronto on Tuesday afternoon. “We want to see cities take steps to remove them; otherwise, we are prepared to help get rid of them when the House returns in the fall.” The statement came hours after Premier Doug Ford threatened to get rid of the speed cameras if they remain in place.
- Ontario Premier Doug Ford says young people aren’t looking “hard enough” for work in the province and suggested unemployed people should consider “fast food” as a potential job choice. At the same time, the Ford government has declined to take a position on whether the federal government should eliminate the temporary foreign worker program, which other Canadian premiers have suggested is one of the root causes of the country’s employment woes.
Manitoba
- A Manitoba cabinet minister has offered a public apology after reposting an Instagram message filled with disparaging commentary about conservative activist Charlie Kirk on the day after he was shot and killed in the United States. Families Minister Nahanni Fontaine shared a message from @che_jim, a U.S.-based Indigenous activist, for several hours Thursday on her Instagram page before removing it. The post criticized Kirk as a “racist, xenophobic, transphobic, Islamophobic” individual who “stood for nothing but hate.”
- Calls to restrict bail conditions have been amplified after a number of cases in Manitoba involving accused offenders who were released from custody while waiting for court dates. But restricting someone’s freedom isn’t as simple, or fair, as changing the law, says Manitoba provincial court Chief Judge Ryan Rolston. “It’s important to just take a step back and remember that we’re dealing with a pretrial process,” Rolston said in an interview with CBC’s Information Radio. Anybody charged in Canada, including repeat offenders, “is presumed innocent, and that presumption of innocence follows them all the way through until a judge or a jury finds otherwise,” he said. As well, bail is a constitutionally enshrined right in the Charter of Rights and Freedoms, he said.
- With hunting season set to open Monday, leaders of Bloodvein First Nation say they’re not backing down from their goal to stop licensed hunters from entering their community in eastern Manitoba. No-trespassing signs were put up near Bloodvein, which is just over 200 kilometres north of Winnipeg along Lake Winnipeg’s eastern shore, in late August due to concerns about overhunting. Chief Lisa Young said at the time that non-Indigenous hunters who tried to enter the area would be turned away at the community checkpoint, where one of the signs is stationed.
- Manitoba Premier Wab Kinew said he’s optimistic the federal government will invest in the Port of Churchill, despite its absence from the first wave of “nation-building projects” announced Thursday. Prime Minister Mark Carney announced five such projects Thursday, including an expansion of the LNG Canada liquid natural gas pipeline in B.C. A nuclear power project in Ontario, mine projects in Saskatchewan and B.C., and a terminal container project expansion at the Port of Montreal round out the initial list, though more project announcements are expected in the near future.
Saskatchewan
- The Saskatchewan NDP is calling for tuition to be lowered in the province, pointing to data published this week by Statistics Canada that shows students in the province pay the highest fees in the country outside Atlantic Canada. At a news conference Thursday, Tajinder Grewal, the NDP’s advanced education critic, highlighted the jump in tuition levels since Scott Moe became premier. In 2017-18, the average tuition in the province was $7,257. This year, it’s $9,863 — an increase of 36 per cent.
- Prime Minister Mark Carney has unveiled the list of five projects that he’s recommending for approval by the federal government’s newly created major project office (MPO), and a copper mine in northern Saskatchewan is one of them. Foran Mining’s McIlvenna Bay project, which is slated to start commercial production next year, is about 380 kilometres northeast of Saskatoon, near the small community of Creighton. Carney said on Thursday that the first group of projects already meets many of the required regulatory standards, but just needs a little nudge to get them approved.
- The town of White City and the rural municipality of Edenwold, both just east of Regina, say they were targeted by a ‘sophisticated fraud scheme’, losing $200,000 and $497,000 respectively, according to a joint press release. The municipalities said “a fraudster electronically impersonated” the WCRM158 Wastewater Authority, which is jointly owned by the two municipalities. Both municipalities notified the RCMP and “relevant financial institutions” after discovering the fraud on July 29, 2025, according to the release.
- The NDP’s critic for rural and remote health says he plans to introduce a private member’s bill this fall that would require the province to notify the public of all emergency room closures. Regina Walsh Acres MLA Jared Clarke said that too often, people only learn that their local emergency room is closed when they arrive at the hospital and find locked doors and a closure notice. “We have all heard the stories, people across this province forced to guess whether the local emergency room is going to be open when they need care,” Clarke said.
Alberta
- Alberta Premier Danielle Smith says her latest meeting with Prime Minister Mark Carney has inspired optimism, and he is demonstrating a “real shift” from the previous Justin Trudeau-led Liberals. Speaking in Edmonton on Thursday, she said she understands why Albertans might feel the rug has been pulled out from them several times before, but she’s committed to diplomacy. “I found more common ground with the prime minister when I met with him yesterday than I have in any meeting with a prime minister,” she said.
- With a provincewide teachers strike looming, Alberta Premier Danielle Smith says their union has a stark choice between heftier pay hikes and more teachers. Smith suggested they can have one or the other, but they can’t have both. “We know that with the tight budget that we have, any additional dollars for salaries end up taking away from our ability to hire more teachers,” she said Thursday at an unrelated announcement in Edmonton. Smith made the comments when asked about stalled contract talks between her government and the Alberta Teachers’ Association, the day after the union set a strike date of Oct. 6.
- The leader of the Parti Québécois says he sees possible areas of co-operation with Alberta Premier Danielle Smith if he’s elected Quebec’s premier next year. Paul St-Pierre Plamondon, who became leader of the sovereigntist PQ five years ago, was a guest speaker Thursday at the University of Calgary’s School of Public Policy. He wasn’t supportive of a pipeline through his province. But he said support for sovereignty in Alberta and the way Smith has been demanding more provincial rights and less federal interference shows she has been doing a good job in watching out for the best interests of her constituents.
- Premier Danielle Smith’s Alberta Next panel faced a mostly supportive and inquisitive crowd at its latest stop Thursday night in Lethbridge as the group continues to take the public’s temperature on the province’s relationship with Ottawa. While many audience members pushed back on the province’s six proposals with the aim of taking greater control over immigration, policing, taxation and other issues, the crowd joined past town halls by overwhelmingly supporting the ideas in straw polls. The town hall arrived hours after Smith expressed optimism in the federal government’s new direction under Prime Minister Mark Carney following a face-to-face meeting the day before.
British Columbia
- A union representing British Columbia’s public service workers says it is escalating its job action by starting an overtime ban at several Liquor Distribution Branch warehouses. The B.C. General Employees’ Union (BCGEU) says in a statement that the overtime ban is effective Friday and applies to distribution centres in Delta, Richmond and Kamloops, as well as at the Liquor Distribution Branch’s head office in Burnaby. The union says the escalation expands the number of public service workers engaged in job action in B.C. to more than 6,000.
- B.C. municipalities are being reminded that they must conduct meetings in public and not behind closed doors. British Columbia’s ombudsperson has released a draft of a guide to open meetings at municipal governments, saying such meetings are “not optional” and are legally required to ensure public trust and democratic process. In the draft, Jay Chalke says open meetings are a “legal requirement fundamental to public trust and democracy,” adding that the province may need to play a “stronger role” in making sure municipalities comply in cases where local governments ignore or resist recommendations from oversight bodies.
- B.C. Premier David Eby says it’s a boon that two of the five so-called “nation-building” projects that will be prioritized by Ottawa are located in his province. However, Eby says he’s heading to Ottawa to meet with Prime Minister Mark Carney next week to push for more fast-tracked B.C. projects. The list includes two resource projects that have already cleared regulatory hurdles in B.C.: Phase two of LNG Canada in Kitimat, and the expansion of the Red Chris copper and gold mine in northwestern B.C.
- An affidavit by Canada’s deputy chief veterinarian says new analysis has confirmed ostriches at a British Columbia farm that is fighting a cull order for its flock were sickened by a unique and more lethal strain of the avian influenza virus. The affidavit by Cathy Furness with the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) says further investigation of samples taken from the birds revealed the “novel reassortment” of the virus has “enhanced the pathogenicity” of the strain.
Northwest Territories
- The Northwest Territories is $46 million richer after receiving its first payout from a national tobacco settlement and advocates hope that money will go into smoking prevention and education. The $46 million payment, up from the $44 million the territory originally expected, came on Aug. 29. It’s the first payment in an expected total of $185 million the N.W.T. is set to receive over 18 years. The money follows a decision from March when an Ontario judge approved a $32.5-billion settlement for three major tobacco companies to pay out to the provinces, territories and former smokers across Canada. The payout is contingent on the tobacco companies’ future revenues.
Yukon
- Families of students who were subject to holds and restraints at Whitehorse’s Jack Hulland Elementary School will be eligible for payouts of up to $1 million, under the terms of a settlement reached in a class-action lawsuit against the territorial government. The proposed settlement was reached this week between the government and families who brought forward the class-action suit. The settlement still needs to be approved by the Yukon Supreme Court at a hearing next month.
Nunavut
- Nunavut’s newest gold mine has officially started production. The Goose mine, owned by Vancouver’s B2Gold, sits about 400 kilometres south of Cambridge Bay. It’s expected to have a a nine-year lifespan and produce 300,000 ounces of gold in 2026. Around 300 people descended on the mine site last week, flying in from Yellowknife and Vancouver to mark the mine’s official opening. Nunavut’s Premier P.J. Akeeagok, MP Lori Idlout and people from across the country packed into a hangar to hear speeches from mine executives and community members.