Provincial Updates from October 24, 2025
An overview on Provincial and Territorial updates for the week of October 24, 2025. Written by Wes McLean.
New Brunswick
- More than half the gas stations inspected by the New Brunswick government this year were violating provincial regulations that apply to their storage tanks. The Environment Department says it inspected 91 gas stations since April, and 47 of them — 51.6 per cent — were not in compliance with the rules. “It’s very alarming, but some of those infractions were — I consider them minor,” Environment Minister Gilles LePage told CBC News.
- N.B. Power could be taking a “backwards step” with its proposal for a new major gas-fired power plant, according to the author of an upcoming report on Canada’s path away from fossil fuels. Ralph Torrie said that N.B. Power’s decision to sign a 25-year agreement with ProEnergy Canada is a commitment to 20th-century technology.
- The number of New Brunswick households refusing the installation of an N.B. Power smart meter has ballooned to an estimated 17,000 — 10 times the rejection rate the utility told MLAs it was experiencing just last year. But N.B. Power says this is not the reason it is reworking how it will deal with those who opt out of the smart meter program, including tripling the costs these customers will have to pay for hanging onto their old meters.
- For every 100 nurses under the age of 35 who started in New Brunswick in 2023, 62 other young nurses left, according to a new report by a public-policy think tank. New Brunswick had the second-worst retention of young nurses in the country, the Montreal Economic Institute, known as MEI, found. Only Newfoundland and Labrador lost young nurses at a faster rate, with 98 leaving the workforce for every 100 who joined. This was likely in part due to the end of many short-term travel nurse contracts during the COVID-19 pandemic, says the report titled The Evolution of the Nursing Supply in Canada.
Nova Scotia
- Nova Scotia Premier Tim Houston did not identify any particular performance issues with three cabinet ministers who lost their portfolios in a surprise shuffle this week, but said he needed to make sure he had “the right people in the right place.” “I got a big team,” the premier told reporters on Wednesday. “I’ve got lots of different perspectives and skill sets, and sometimes it’s necessary just to reset to move forward stronger, and I felt it was time to do that.”
- A commercial fishing representative is wondering what action the province is taking to combat illegal purchases following two recent seizures of lobster by federal fisheries officers. Fishery officers in southwest Nova Scotia inspected a commercial plant in Delaps Cove last week, seizing 112 crates of lobsters. One person was arrested for buying lobster harvested for food, social and ceremonial purposes. Lobster caught through the food, social and ceremonial fishery cannot be sold.
- Nova Scotia Premier Tim Houston says his government will learn from Ontario’s nuclear efforts as part of a new agreement he signed with its energy minister Thursday, despite having no near-future plans for nuclear power in the Atlantic province. Ontario’s Minister of Energy, Stephen Lecce and Houston, who appointed himself Nova Scotia energy minister two days ago, held a press conference in downtown Halifax to sign the memorandum of understanding on the topic of small modular reactors. “It’s not a near-term thing, for sure,” Houston told reporters, noting that the province has no imminent plans to purchase a small modular reactor.
- The Nova Scotia Liberal Party is calling on the governing Progressive Conservatives to order an independent review of the province’s largest electric utility. Interim Liberal Leader Derek Mombourquette on Thursday cited a long list of reasons Nova Scotia Power needs to come under the microscope, including power rate increases, frequent power outages, failures to meet performance standards and this year’s cybersecurity breach. “The premier has said he is disappointed, but disappointment isn’t enough. Nova Scotians deserve action,” Mombourquette said at a news conference.
Prince Edward Island
- The arrival date for a brand new ferry that will run between Prince Edward Island and Nova Scotia has been pushed back again. The federal government originally said a replacement for MV Holiday Island — which had to be scrapped after it caught fire just over three years ago — would be finished by 2027, then pushed the date back to 2028. Transport Canada, which owns the vessel and is overseeing the build, is now no longer saying when the ship can be expected.
- The president of P.E.I. Nurses’ Union says she’s not surprised by a new report warning of a growing number of new nurses leaving the province’s health-care system. “Unfortunately, we have a health authority right now that’s entirely focused on recruitment,” said Barbara Brookins, who spoke to CBC News on Wednesday during a professional development day held in Summerside for 100 Island nurses.
- The P.E.I. government will require both the province’s school boards to revamp policies around educational staff employment, including regular criminal record and vulnerable sector checks. Education Minister Robin Croucher introduced a ministerial directive on Wednesday requiring both the Public Schools Branch and the French-language school board, la Commission Scolaire de Langue Française, to “immediately update or develop new human resource policies and procedures related to education staff employment,” which will apply to both existing and new staff.
- Prince Edward Island is unlikely to ever have an in-vitro fertilization clinic, but advocates say there are other ways to improve fertility services on the Island. That was the message advocates wanted to get across during a presentation at a legislative standing committee on Thursday. Stephanie Sullivan, a fertility advocate and clinical lead registered nurse at Health P.E.I.’s obstetrics and gynecology office, told MLAs that the province doesn’t have the population to support an IVF clinic, so people will have to continue to travel off-Island.
Newfoundland and Labrador
- A new report says Newfoundland and Labrador has the highest number of young nurses choosing to leave the workforce, compared to the rest of the country. The report, released by the non-profit research group Montreal Economic Institute, indicates that for every 100 new nurses under the age of 35 in Newfoundland and Labrador who entered the profession in 2023, 98 others left. For comparison, the report said, on average across Canada, for every 40 nurses who left the sector, there were 100 who entered it.
- The outgoing premier of Newfoundland and Labrador has systematically refused to grant interviews since his Liberal Party’s defeat at the hands of the Progressive Conservatives, more than a week ago. John Hogan has made no public statements since his emotional concession speech on Oct. 14, leading to questions about his political future at the head of the Liberals, who are now reduced to Official Opposition status at the House of Assembly.
- As the Progressive Conservative Party gears up to form the next Newfoundland and Labrador government, Premier-designate Tony Wakeham has named four people to his transition team — including two former PC cabinet ministers. In a statement Wednesday afternoon, Wakeham said Ross Wiseman, Darin King, Steve Outhouse and Colleen Janes were on the team. “Together, this team will help guide the transition, ensure continuity of services, and prepare the new government to deliver on its commitments,” Wakeham said in a statement. His chief of staff will be Denise Tubrett, who was also Wakeham’s chief of staff while in opposition.
- The previously Liberal-led Newfoundland and Labrador government spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on the process that led to its Education Accord, a strategy whose validity was quickly called into question after it was released in August. The 10-year road map was meant to modernize the province’s public schools and post-secondary institutions, but became controversial after Radio-Canada reported it contained at least 15 citations for non-existent journal articles and documents. According to an access-to-information request obtained and shared by activist Matt Barter, the province spent $755,809.52 on the plan.
Quebec
- With his approval ratings at an all-time low, Premier François Legault is insisting he’ll be ready to run in the next election. However, 74 per cent of Quebecers believe he should step down before the next election. That’s according to a SOM poll conducted for La Presse and published Wednesday morning. According to the poll, 31 per cent of Quebecers believe the premier should leave before the next election, and 43 per cent think he should step down after finishing out his term. Only 16 per cent of those surveyed believe that Legault should run in the 2026 election to seek another term.
- The Legault government is wielding its club to impose a new compensation system on doctors, partly based on the achievement of performance targets. It is also putting an end to their pressure tactics. The National Assembly is holding a special session on Friday at the request of Premier François Legault to rush through a special law, Bill 2, aimed in particular at “ensuring the continuity of service delivery.” Doctors or groups of doctors who undertake “concerted actions”, who protest, for example, by reducing their professional activities, will now face heavy penalties.
- The Quebec government says it will ban religious symbols for daycare workers in its latest bid to tighten secularism rules across the province. Secularism Minister Jean-François Roberge said Thursday the government is acting in the best interests of children. “I think it’s important to provide a neutral environment for students,” he told reporters in Quebec City. “We know that Quebecers are behind us on this,” he said. In a social media statement, the minister said there is “broad consensus” in Quebec in favour of strengthening secularism.
- The Quebec government will equip highway traffic controllers with firearms. Traffic controllers are responsible for monitoring and enforcing road transport rules for people and goods under the Highway Safety Code. They perform most of their duties while on patrol — about 70 per cent of the time, according to the government. For years, road inspectors have been vocal about the lack of safety in their work, as they are sometimes exposed to aggression when they intercept a vehicle.
Ontario
- Ontario Premier Doug Ford said he will pull a controversial anti-tariff ad on Monday, after it airs during the weekend’s World Series games. U.S. President Donald Trump attacked the ad by the Ontario government, which uses quotes by former U.S. president Ronald Reagan to extol the virtues of free trade. Trump said he is terminating all negotiations with Canada after an anti-tariff ad was broadcast to American audiences. Prime Minister Mark Carney told reporters on Friday that Canada is prepared to continue trade talks “when the Americans are ready to have those discussions.”
- Premier Doug Ford appears open to the idea of publicly releasing the contract the Ontario government signed with General Motors for the now-defunct Brightdrop electric vehicle, after the automaker shut down production at its Ingersoll location. While the plant was originally shuttered in April, more than 1,200 employees were given layoff notices on Tuesday after GM officials announced the under-performing vehicle would be discontinued. The move prompted political backlash from the Carney and Ford governments, which threatened to pursue legal action over the taxpayer-funded investments to retool the facility.
- The Ford government has tabled an omnibus bill that would make changes to a whole suite of laws and regulations, from green roofs to tenant evictions and driver’s licenses. The “Fighting Delays, Building Faster Act” is proposing more than 40 changes to various regulations and acts. Here’s a rundown of a few of the proposed changes: The province wants to explore the possibility of modifying “security of tenure,” currently enjoyed by tenants under the Residential Tenancies Act (RTA). The current law means tenants have a right to remain in their rental unit as long as they follow the lease agreement and the RTA. Landlords cannot evict tenants without a legally valid reason under the current law, and after a fixed-term lease ends, the tenancy typically continues on a month-to-month basis.
- Ontario and the federal government are spending a collective $3 billion to build Canada’s first small modular reactors, a new nuclear energy technology to be built next door to the Darlington power plant. Prime Minister Mark Carney, who joined Premier Doug Ford in Bowmanville Thursday to announce the new spending, said he has added the Darlington New Nuclear Project to his list of projects deemed to be in the national interest and therefore worthy of fast-tracking.
Manitoba
- Manitoba’s premier and business community agree that U.S. tariffs are harmful and want them gone, but their opinions differ when it comes to Ontario’s effort to combat them. In a social media post on Friday, Manitoba Premier Wab Kinew appears on the screen of a vintage TV set, applauding an anti-tariff ad from Ontario Premier Doug Ford’s government and imploring him to keep it going. In the post, Kinew says the ads are effective and Canada stands with Ford. Chuck Davidson, the president and CEO of the Manitoba Chamber of Commerce, doesn’t agree.
- Assaults against a health-care aide and a nurse by a patient experiencing a mental health issue at Winnipeg’s Health Sciences Centre last weekend underscore problems with safety at the province’s hospitals, the Manitoba Nurses Union says. “We are seeing violent incidents almost every day,” union president Darlene Jackson told CBC News. “Front-line workers are not there to be hit or to be spit on or to be threatened, and they need to do something to protect them quickly.”
- Cambria Harris, a prominent advocate for missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls, has a new job in Manitoba’s provincial government focusing on reconciliation, the province says. The 24-year-old will be joining Manitoba’s Finance Department as a special assistant, a ministerial spokesperson confirmed in an email Thursday. Her hiring was reported in an Oct. 17 order in council. Harris is the daughter of Morgan Harris, one of four First Nations women murdered in Winnipeg by a serial killer in 2022.
- Nearly nine in every 10 reported measles cases in Manitoba since February involved patients who didn’t have a single vaccine dose, according to the province’s data. There have been 230 confirmed and 15 probable measles cases of measles so far this year, according to the latest Manitoba Health data, which covers the period up to Oct. 11. Of those 245 cases, 214 — or 87.3 per cent — involved people who were not vaccinated for measles.
Saskatchewan
- To kick off the fall session for the provincial government, the Hon. Bernadette McIntyre, Lieutenant Governor of Saskatchewan, delivered the throne speech on Wednesday at the Legislative Building. The speech touched on several topics, including wildfires, health care, safety and the economy. It claimed that Saskatchewan has the strongest economy in Canada, while leading in capital investments across the country. For the majority of the year, the province has led the nation in year-over-year job growth with the lowest unemployment rate.
- A Moose Jaw physician says the Saskatchewan government should not enact a law that could force people suffering from addictions into treatment. Dr. Karissa Brabant read out a Facebook post from Premier Scott Moe announcing the Compassionate Intervention Act at a session during the Saskatchewan Medical Association’s fall assembly on Friday in Saskatoon. “Bullshit,” the Moose Jaw doctor said while asking a question of Health Minister Jeremy Cockrill.
- The Saskatchewan government plans to introduce legislation that will amend the definition of interpersonal violence to include coercive or controlling behaviour and online stalking and harassment. It will also amend laws to enforce support orders when a parent moves out of Saskatchewan and to prevent people convicted of serious crimes from changing their names.
- On the second day of the fall legislative session, the Saskatchewan NDP introduced an emergency motion relating to tariffs on Canadian canola. Party Leader Carla Beck motioned that Premier Scott Moe immediately call on Ottawa to remove its tariffs on Chinese electric vehicles, as they are believed to have prompted China’s reciprocal tariffs on canola seed, meal, oil, seafood, and pork. Trade Minister Warren Kaeding responded that Moe has been doing exactly that for over a year via various overseas trade missions, discussions with federal ministers, and even a letter to Ottawa back in September.
Alberta
- The Alberta government will table back-to-work legislation on Monday that aims to end the province-wide teachers’ strike, Premier Danielle Smith announced on Thursday morning. The government served formal notice on Thursday that it would be introducing Bill 2, known as the Back to School Act, by publishing it via an order paper on the Alberta Legislature’s website. “The precondition has to be getting kids back to school and so far, [the teachers’ union has] been unwilling to do that,” Smith said during a news conference. She added that, although it’s still possible to reach an agreement by Monday, the government feels that’s unlikely.
- A group representing more than 350,000 union workers in Alberta is urging Premier Danielle Smith to reconsider legislation that would force teachers back to work. At an emergency meeting Friday evening among the Common Front, which serves as an umbrella group for all unions in the province on behalf of the Alberta Federation of Labour, leaders unanimously agreed on a message to Smith, according to a media release later that evening. The message says escalating the conflict between the Alberta Teachers’ Association and the government would “make a mockery of the constitutionally protected right to strike.”
- Alberta Premier Danielle Smith reiterated her province’s commitment to becoming a carbon-neutral economy by 2050 at a parliamentary committee on Thursday, where MPs are studying Canada’s emissions reduction plan for the end of this decade. Her virtual appearance included testy exchanges as Bloc Québécois MP Patrick Bonin repeatedly demanded to know whether Smith believes in climate change. She suggested that as a Quebecer, he could not grasp the substance of one of Canada’s biggest industries. Bonin repeatedly asked the premier whether she agreed that the climate is warming up, and if human activity is primarily the cause.
- Alberta’s government kicked off a new legislative session pledging to build new pipelines and deploy its vast natural gas reserves to become a major player in artificial intelligence. The government of Premier Danielle Smith laid out ambitions to build new oil pipelines running to the Pacific coast, Ontario and Hudson Bay in Canada’s north, taking advantage of more energy-friendly policies of Prime Minister Mark Carney. The province will also aim to attract more AI data centres to lessen its economic reliance on resource exports.
British Columbia
- Undaunted by U.S. President Donald Trump’s cancellation of trade talks with Canada in reaction to TV ads paid for by the Ontario Government, B.C. Premier David Eby says there are plans to develop more ads directed at an American audience. On social media Thursday afternoon, Eby announced the province will unveil a digital campaign next month aimed at explaining who wins and who loses when it comes to the tariffs imposed on Canadian lumber entering the United States.
- Premier David Eby supports Richmond Mayor Malcolm Brodie’s decision to warn some private property owners that a recent court ruling on Aboriginal title could undermine title to their own land within the city. “I share the concern of Mayor Brodie about the implications of this decision,” Eby told reporters Monday. “It is a big deal and it’s crucial for our economy — for just the basic economics of a family, that people understand their private property rights.” The province is working with Richmond on an appeal of the Aug. 7 B.C. Supreme Court decision, which granted Aboriginal title to the Cowichan Nation over a large tract in Richmond, including hundreds of hectares of private land.
- British Columbia’s attorney general celebrated proposed federal bail reform legislation that aims to make sentences tougher and bail stricter and more difficult to obtain for repeat, violent offenders. Niki Sharma said Thursday that some of the more than 80 changes to the federal Criminal Code outlined in the bill reflect specific reforms the province had requested to improve public safety. “Many provisions in that bill came straight from our work to make sure that the streets are safer,” Sharma said.
- A homeless camp first established near downtown Prince George in 2021 is officially being shut down, as the city is set to begin remediation work on the site at Lower Patricia Boulevard. At its peak, the Moccasin Flats homeless encampment, which is between the downtown core and an embankment leading to a residential neighbourhood, had as many as 100 residents according to estimates from the city and service providers. Over the years, it was also the site of several tiny homes and a trailer belonging to local outreach volunteers servicing the community.
Northwest Territories
- Members of the N.W.T. legislative assembly passed a motion on Thursday calling on the territorial government to establish its own emergency management agency. Nine regular MLAs voted in favour of the motion. Six cabinet MLAs abstained. The government now has 120 days to respond. Range Lake MLA Kieron Testart put the motion forward. It comes in the wake of the territorial government rejecting the idea of creating such an agency, despite it being recommended in two independent reviews into recent N.W.T. evacuations.
Yukon
- If elected, the Yukon Party believes it has a “realistic and achievable” plan to chart a new path and new way forward for the territory in its 2025 territorial election platform. The Yukon Party platform opens with Leader Currie Dixon’s take on the state of the territory as well as what he sees as the challenges and opportunities ahead. “Whether global forces beyond our control, a national agenda that so often overlooks the North or our own deteriorating public finances, which limit a future government’s ability to respond, we must acknowledge reality,” Dixon said.
Nunavut
- Nunavut Tunngavik Incorporated says they’re making history with a new housing corporation for Inuit by Inuit. The corporation, called Igluvut Corporation, is a not-for-profit organization run by representatives from each regional Inuit association and two representatives from Nunavut Tunngavik Inc. (NTI). In a news release on Wednesday, NTI said it has an initial $135 million to work with — $72 million from the federal government’s 2022 budget and $63 million from the federal government’s repayment of the Nunavut Agreement Negotiation Loan.