Provincial Legislative Update – September 20, 2025
Provincial and Territorial Update: An overview of the Provincial Legislative and Territories Legislative Updates for the week of September 20, 2025. Written by Wes McLean.
New Brunswick
- More than 41,000 New Brunswickers walked out of Horizon Health Network hospital emergency departments before receiving treatment in 2024-25, according to a new report by an independent public policy think tank. That represents 12.9 per cent of all Horizon emergency room visits, compared with a national average of 7.8 per cent — giving New Brunswick the third-highest proportion of patients leaving an ER untreated among the nine provinces included, says the report by the Montreal Economic Institute, known as MEI.
- Eased restrictions on alcohol imports are expected to take a bite out of New Brunswick Liquor’s sales, despite what officials previously told CBC News. Earlier this year New Brunswick dropped its restrictions on the amount of alcohol people can bring into the province for personal use as part of its efforts to eliminate interprovincial trade barriers. It also paved the way for consumers to purchase alcohol directly from some producers in other provinces.
- This spring’s cuts to district education council budgets were a “fiasco” that resulted from “significant failures” by the Department of Education and Early Childhood Development, according to a report from New Brunswick’s child and youth advocate. Kelly Lamrock’s scathing new report said officials didn’t provide the Holt Liberal cabinet with accurate information about the implications of their budgeting decisions.
- A decision by the New Brunswick Energy and Utilities Board to allow heating oil companies to add 9.03 cents per litre to the price of the fuel to cover rising expenses will take effect across the province on Friday. With HST added to the new amount, consumers will experience up to a seven per cent price increase, the largest in a single week on heating fuel in New Brunswick since last October.
Nova Scotia
- A proposed settlement has been reached in a class action lawsuit over the abuse of former students at schools for deaf children in Nova Scotia. The lawsuit, which was filed in 2015, alleges that the province of Nova Scotia and the Atlantic Provinces Special Education Authority were negligent and breached their fiduciary duty in connection with the schools, which include the School for the Deaf in Halifax and the Interprovincial School for the Education of the Deaf in Amherst, N.S.
- Nova Scotia Premier Tim Houston is taking his public condemnation of Nova Scotia Power’s proposed rate increases one step further, saying his government will intervene in the regulatory review of the utility’s proposal. He made the comments hours before Nova Scotia Power made its formal application with the Nova Scotia Energy Board. The utility applied to raise the standard residential rate 3.8 per cent in 2026 and 4.1 per cent in 2027 — a slight decrease from the dual 4.1 per cent increases it had announced earlier this month.
- Almost 10 per cent of the patients who visited an emergency department in Nova Scotia last year left without being treated, a rate that exceeds the national average, according to a new report from the Montreal Economic Institute. Nova Scotia’s figure, which has hovered around the same level for three years, is higher than the national average of 7.8 per cent.
- If Nova Scotia’s environment minister has information about the cleanup process for the property where the Northern Pulp mill once operated, including what it could cost and who might be responsible for the work, he wasn’t sharing the details with reporters on Thursday. “There’s a lot of moving parts,” Tim Halman said following a cabinet meeting in Halifax. “When the time is right, we’ll have more to say to Nova Scotians.” Northern Pulp is winding down its business, as the owner of the shuttered mill in Pictou County works through a multi-year creditor protection process. That process, which includes selling off assets, calls for the company to put $15 million toward a closure plan.
Prince Edward Island
- A report published by the Montreal Economic Institute says Prince Edward Island has the highest rates in Canada of people leaving the emergency department before seeing a nurse or doctor. The institute received its data from Health P.E.I. through a freedom of information request. It found that last year nearly 1.3 million people in emergency rooms across Canada left before receiving care. According to the report, 14.15 per cent of ER visitors in P.E.I. did not receive treatment, nearly double the national average of 7.78 per cent. Manitoba was the province with the second highest rate at 13.23 per cent.
- The Bank of Canada lowered its key interest rate by 25 basis points to 2.5 per cent Wednesday, in the first cut since March — and some in the Island real estate market are anticipating more action in the marketplace as a result. “It just shows a little bit of more confidence in our marketplace and generally, as interest rates go down, then we’ll see first-time buyers specifically be more prepared to enter the market,” said Mary Jane Webster, a broker and owner of ReMax Charlottetown.
- A new political poll suggests most people on the Island are satisfied with the Rob Lantz government. Narrative Research’s poll says 64 per cent of Islanders are satisfied with the performance of Lantz’s Progressive Conservative government. That’s up two points over the last polling period and up seven points compared to last August.
- Hundreds of temporary foreign workers in P.E.I.’s seafood processing sector have seen their hours cut or faced layoffs this year after China imposed tariffs on Canadian seafood, says a group that supports the workers. In March, China introduced a 25 per cent tariff on Canadian seafood in retaliation for the levies Canada introduced on Chinese-made steel, aluminum and electric vehicles. The P.E.I. Seafood Processors Association said it’s just one of the factors leading to slowdowns at many processing facilities on the Island.
Newfoundland and Labrador
- Municipal election campaigns are well underway across Newfoundland and Labrador, but two acclaimed mayors on the island are voicing concerns over what they’re calling increased hostility toward council members, and worry it’s keeping people from running. Of the province’s 17 largest communities, almost half of the mayors have been acclaimed, meaning only one candidate was nominated to run in those races and they automatically claim the seats. Mike Browne, mayor of Grand Falls-Windsor, said he was surprised no other candidate threw their hat in the ring for the top job in town, a community with a population of 13,853.
- On the campaign trail in St. John’s, provincial Liberal Leader John Hogan promised cheaper electricity. Speaking on Thursday morning, Hogan committed to removing the provincial portion of HST from all residential electricity bills, saving people 10 per cent on those bills. It’s something the NDP advocated for back in March, but then-finance minister Siobhan Coady argued it couldn’t be done, even though in 2012 the Progressive Conservative government rebated eight per cent for the provincial portion of HST on electricity and heating fuels.
- An NDP election announcement on housing took an unexpected turn on Wednesday, when a resident of St. John’s — who had been invited by the party to speak about their struggle to get housing — took to the podium to blame immigration for the country’s housing crisis. Speaking on Livingstone Street, where a fire burned through six N.L. Housing units in March, NDP Leader Jim Dinn committed to building 1,000 public housing units per year if elected. Standing alongside Dinn was Shirley Gallagher, a retiree who returned to the province from Alberta and struggled for months to find a place to live.
- Newfoundland and Labrador Progressive Conservative Leader Tony Wakeham says he isn’t putting much thought into comments made by an unnamed Hydro-Québec official about how a better deal likely can’t be reached out of the Churchill Falls memorandum of understanding. On Wednesday, The Canadian Press cited an unnamed high-ranking official inside Hydro-Québec who doubted the provincial energy corporation would be able to make significant changes to the MOU signed between both provinces in December. The official also told The Canadian Press they believed the current deal, which is still being negotiated, already benefits both sides.
Quebec
- Former Coalition Avenir Québec minister Maïté Blanchette Vézina announced she’s leaving the party just over a week after being shuffled out of cabinet, saying the regions are being sidelined under Premier François Legault’s administration. For that reason, among others, she said she no longer has faith in the premier and invited him to “seriously think” about his future as leader of the CAQ.
- Coalition Avenir Quebec (CAQ) elected officials are assuring the province that harmony has already been restored within their parliamentary group, despite the dissension expressed over the past week. Francois Legault’s government MNAs met Thursday in parliament to take stock after last week’s reshuffle, which left some unhappy. However, one notable figure was absent: Granby MNA François Bonnardel, a veteran who lost his position as Minister of Public Security and made his dissatisfaction known. Nevertheless, elected officials assured that harmony had been restored, notably Luc Provençal, Member for Beauce-Nord, in a news scrum just before heading to the caucus.
- Members of François Legault’s Coalition Avenir Québec government weren’t mincing their words Thursday when reacting to Ottawa’s intervention in the Supreme Court of Canada’s case on Quebec’s secularism law, known as Bill 21. In his brief filed with the Supreme Court, Attorney General Sean Fraser didn’t attack the provisions of Bill 21 — which prohibit public sector workers in positions of authority, including teachers and judges, from wearing religious symbols on the job — but raised concerns over the use the notwithstanding clause. The Charter clause can be used by provinces to shield legislation from constitutional challenges, as Quebec did when it passed its secularism law in 2019.
- Friday marks the official start of the election period for Quebec’s municipal elections, which will take place on Nov. 2. That means candidates can start putting up their signs, with many posters already appearing along the streets by Friday morning. About 8,000 municipal positions will be up for election on Nov. 2 in some 1,100 municipalities, according to Quebec government data. Candidates seeking to run for office have until Oct. 3 to submit their applications. Women and young people are encouraged to apply, since both groups are underrepresented on municipal councils.
Ontario
- Canada needs to maintain its 100 per cent tariff on Chinese electric vehicles, Ontario Premier Doug Ford said in an open letter to Prime Minister Mark Carney on Wednesday. Ford said the measure is critical to securing a trade deal with the U.S. and protecting Canada’s auto sector. “If the federal government removes its tariffs against Chinese-made EVs, you will contradict and undermine months of engagement with U.S. officials and lawmakers about the need to protect and enhance our highly integrated cross-border automotive supply chains,” Ford writes.
- Ontario’s police chiefs are pushing back against Premier Doug Ford’s plan to scrap automated speed cameras, telling the government they’ve been proven to reduce dangerous speeding in towns and cities. In a statement issued Thursday morning, the Ontario Association of Chiefs of Police said it supported the cameras Premier Ford has called a “tax grab,” arguing they have been “proven to reduce speeding.” Ford kicked off a plan to force local municipalities to remove automated speed cameras from their streets earlier this month, arguing they don’t improve safety and are mainly used to raise money for city hall.
- Against the backdrop of labour tumult and an auditor general’s probe into provincial training programs, Premier Doug Ford is defending his $2.5 billion Skills Development Fund. “That’s the best investment we’ve ever made in the province,” Ford said this week the International Plowing Match in Grassie, near Grimsby. “We’ve trained up over 700,000 people with multiple skills. We’ve given them the tools — literally given them the tools — to have a career and have a trade that they’ll have for the rest of their lives,” he said.
- Ontario Premier Doug Ford believes Prime Minister Mark Carney will back his idea for a tunnel under Highway 401 through the Greater Toronto Area, though it is unclear if he had received any such assurances from Ottawa. Carney recently named the first five projects in the national interest that will be fast-tracked, which is intended to strengthen the country’s economy, particularly in the face of U.S. tariffs. One Ontario project was on the initial list — building small modular nuclear reactors — and Ford said Tuesday that accessing the province’s critical mineral-rich Ring of Fire region will be in the next set of projects.
Manitoba
- A $1 million report, written after a recommendation to dissolve the Manitoba office that protects seniors in care, has been sitting on the health minister’s desk since December, leaving the future of the plan in question as no work has been done to make it a reality. A scathing report from Manitoba’s auditor general in July 2023 revealed a litany of issues at the Protection for Persons in Care Office. The office, which is within the province’s health department, is responsible for receiving and investigating reports of abuse or neglect of people in personal care homes or hospitals.
- International and out-of-province recruitment helped drive what the province’s College of Physicians and Surgeons says is believed to be a record increase in the number of doctors registered to practise in Manitoba. Manitoba saw a net gain of 164 doctors between April 30, 2024, and April 30, 2025, according to the college’s annual report, published Thursday. The total number of doctors in the province rose to 3,498. The increase would be the largest net gain since at least 2001, the earliest figure available in past published College of Physicians reports.
- Manitoba has filed its intervention in the Supreme Court fight over Quebec’s controversial secularism law, arguing that courts across Canada should be able to issue opinions on whether other jurisdictions’ laws — including those that use the notwithstanding clause — violate the rights of Canadians. Courts should be able to declare whether laws like Quebec’s Bill 21 violate the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, even if Section 33 — commonly known as the notwithstanding clause — allows governments to override certain protected rights, Manitoba’s attorney general argued in a legal factum submitted to the Supreme Court of Canada on Tuesday.
- Naawi-Oodena, the site of the former Kapyong Barracks in Winnipeg, has been chosen as one of the places where a newly created agency will put up some of the thousands of affordable units the federal government plans to build across Canada. A portion of the site will get some of the 4,000 modular units the Build Canada Homes agency plans to build starting next year, said a Wednesday email from the Canada Lands Company, a federal Crown corporation focused on real estate and development. That’s following the federal government’s announcement that Winnipeg would be one of six cities picked for the agency’s initial projects.
Saskatchewan
- Saskatchewan Premier Scott Moe met with Prime Minister Mark Carney and canola industry leaders in Ottawa on Tuesday to discuss international trade disputes and China’s canola tariffs. Moe described the meeting as “good and informative” and a chance to lobby for increased international market access for Saskatchewan canola and other exports. “There’s not a lot of confidence in trade certainty moving forward for any country right now,” Moe told reporters after the meeting. “We’re going to work alongside our federal government … in ensuring that Canada’s interests are well represented at that table.”
- Saskatchewan Premier Scott Moe said solving Canada’s trade war with China will be a “sensitive and delicate dance” with both Beijing and Washington because it was triggered by tariffs on Chinese electric vehicles that Ottawa imposed in concert with the United States. China in August imposed a 75.8-per-cent duty on Canadian canola seed, a major crop in Saskatchewan, as part of its retaliation for Ottawa’s 100-per-cent tariffs on Chinese EVs and 25-per-cent levies on Chinese steel and aluminum in 2024.
- Saskatchewan’s Opposition NDP says it’s asking the provincial auditor to investigate what it calls government mismanagement over wildfires that saw planes grounded, alleged overspending and a scorched northern village. Procurement critic Hugh Gordon says he plans to move a motion at a legislature committee next week to urge the auditor to probe the issue. The NDP’s calls follow accusations that the Saskatchewan Party government overspent on firefighting planes earlier this year. Court documents filed by Coulson Aircrane Ltd. allege the province could have saved $100 million if it had purchased planes from Coulson, rather than its competitor Conair.
- It looks like legislation aimed at removing trade barriers is coming to the Saskatchewan legislature this fall. The Sask Party government has confirmed it is planning legislation of its own, after the NDP announced Thursday in Saskatoon their intentions to introduce a private members’ bill on removing interprovincial trade barriers. The NDP’s critic for Trade and Economic Development, Kim Breckner, provided details to SaskToday about her proposed bill to be introduced in the new session. “What this law is looking to do is make it easier for goods and services to move between Saskatchewan and the rest of Canada, by allowing for recognition of similar rules and standards in other provinces, so this is kind of what is known as mutual recognition,” said Breckner.
Alberta
- Alberta Premier Danielle Smith’s office has directed officials to invoke the Charter’s notwithstanding clause in amending three laws that affect transgender people, says a leaked government memo obtained by The Canadian Press. The internal document sent Sept. 10 by the justice department asks other departments to assemble information as per a directive from Smith’s office to invoke the clause.
- Premier Danielle Smith is directing her jobs minister to use “all legal means” possible to give Alberta more control over immigration. In a new mandate letter to Joseph Schow on Wednesday, Smith says Alberta needs more control over immigration to ensure the province sees sustainable levels of newcomers. The letter tells Schow to use legal means and policy tools to gain control from Ottawa, while focusing “on economic migrants able to contribute to the growth of our economy.” It also says Canadian citizens should have first access to jobs, and young people should be prioritized over temporary foreign workers.
- Premier Danielle Smith’s Alberta Next panel, aimed at wrenching more political control from Ottawa, was spurred to take action in Grande Prairie on Wednesday. The panel is expected to pick six ideas that could become potential referendum questions eventually, and the naysayers were again outnumbered in a packed house of more than 500 attendees. Many who spoke at the microphone pushed Smith to take the panel’s proposals further. Those ideas include withdrawing from the Canada Pension Plan, withholding social services from some immigrants, taking more control over tax collection and replacing the RCMP. Smith, in her closing remarks, said she might take action on some of the files without any public referendum as early as the spring, after the panel submits a report before the end of the year.
- The standoff between the Alberta government and its 51,000 teachers — with each side accusing the other of lying — is set to turn into an all-out advertising war. Finance Minister Nate Horner’s office confirmed Wednesday it plans to release an advertising campaign to push its side in the dispute, countering a campaign by the Alberta Teachers’ Association that has been ongoing for weeks. “The government must now correct the false narrative the ATA has created,” Horner said in a statement. His office said it is still determining which mediums the ads will be on, how much they will cost and what day they will be launched, but that details are coming soon.
British Columbia
- Filmmaker, activist and former journalist Avi Lewis launched his campaign to be the next federal leader of the NDP, taking aim not only at the Conservatives and Liberals, but Canada’s corporations and CEOs. In a video posted to his Facebook page, Lewis is shown walking toward the camera while wearing an untucked linen shirt against a background that flips between urban and nature settings. His monologue blames corporations, CEOs, free trade and past federal governments for the cost-of-living crisis facing Canadians today, and promises he has a plan to fix it.
- A spirited B.C. Premier David Eby took aim at the federal government Thursday over what he says is the unfair treatment of B.C. ferry passengers before accusing Alberta Premier Danielle Smith’s aggressive pipeline push of threatening the viability of other projects in his province. Eby made the comments in Ottawa after having dinner with Prime Minister Mark Carney on Wednesday evening. He’s also meeting with key cabinet ministers during his visit to the capital. “I am obviously disappointed that there hasn’t been an increased emphasis on the incredibly unfortunate treatment of ferry users in British Columbia compared with ferry users in Eastern Canada,” Eby said.
- John Rustad is responding to allegations of voter fraud that have marred the review into his leadership of the B.C. Conservatives. He spoke exclusively to CBC News before a meet-and-greet in the Kelowna area on Wednesday night. Asked about the allegations of fake member sign-ups in the area, Rustad said, “I think you should ask the party about that. But as soon as I heard about it, the first thing I did was call the executive director and say, ‘This is ridiculous. These things need to be removed. We can’t have them as part of the vote.'”
- B.C.’s premier has doubled down on a pledge to cut down on administrative spending as the province faces an $11.6 billion deficit — a figure some economists say warrants a reassessment of the public sector, which has grown substantially since the NDP took over government. On a financial update Monday, finance minister Brenda Bailey announced the province was grappling with an $11.6 billion deficit, exceeding March budget projects by about $700 million. The swelling figures were largely attributed to the end of the carbon tax program, a cooling housing market resulting in a drop in property transfer taxes, lower-than-expected prices in commodities like natural gas and lumber and overall economic uncertainty.
Northwest Territories
- The N.W.T. government is directing the territory’s power companies to launch a long-term plan that incorporates more renewable resources while keeping rates affordable. The directive was sent in April 2025 in a letter from the territorial government to the Public Utilities Board, the N.W.T.’s energy regulator. The plan is required to take into account climate targets in 2030 and 2050. This includes upping the cap on renewable power generation from 20 per cent to 30 per cent. The territory acknowledged this could have a significant impact on power costs so the plan needs to ensure the supply is reliable and affordable.
Yukon
- Former staff from Whitehorse’s Jack Hulland Elementary School say a settlement reached in a class-action lawsuit over the use of restraints and seclusion at the school is positive. The settlement agreement, made public last week, offers compensation to children who experienced holds, restraints, or seclusion at the school between 2007 and 2022. The lawsuit was filed by two families. Under the agreement, still to be approved by the court, claimants could receive anywhere from $10,000 to $1 million in compensation, depending on their experiences. The territorial government will also issue a public acknowledgment and apology for the harm suffered by students.
Nunavut
- The Nunavut government has amended legislation to include a non-binary option to residents’ birth certificates. The change happened Wednesday when Nunavut MLAs passed a series of motions to change the territory’s Vital Statistics Act — a piece of legislation that governs tracking demographic information like births and deaths. Nunavut is the last jurisdiction in Canada to add the non-binary option.