Provincial Updates from October 4, 2025
An overview on Provincial and Territorial updates for the week of October 4, 2025. Written by Wes McLean.
New Brunswick
- Eight new seats will be added for francophone medical students at the Université de Moncton starting in the fall of 2026. “A significant fraction of our population is primarily francophone. Many speak English, but some don’t,” said John Dornan, the province’s minister of health. “It’s very important to get people the right care at the right time in the right place. And for some New Brunswickers who are unilingual French, it’s very important to bring French doctors to that community.”
- Horizon Health says recent changes by the Holt government won’t be enough to deal with the crisis of seniors on nursing-home waitlists taking up valuable space in the province’s hospitals. The Liberals announced last week that the government was changing the rules for seniors who refuse to accept the first available spot in a nursing home. Alternative-level-of-care, or ALC, patients in hospitals — people who don’t need hospital-level care but are waiting to enter a nursing home — will now face fewer consequences if they turn down the first available spot offered to them.
- Officials from New Brunswick’s Local Governance Commission heard questions and suggestions, but mostly praise during a legislative committee meeting on Wednesday. Commission chair Giselle Goguen presented the recently released annual report, which includes a call for mandatory training for municipal councillors and senior officials. The previous PC government of Blaine Higgs brought in Local Government Reform in 2023. Since then, two of the newly amalgamated municipalities — Strait Shores and Sunbury-York South — have needed supervisors installed by the commission after their councils fell apart from resignations.
- N.B. Power is asking for regulatory approval for a 4.75 per cent rate increase to electricity bills next April, a substantial hike but one that would be lower than three years of even larger increases. The new rate increase, if approved by the Energy and Utilities Board, will add another $130 to the average residential power bill in 2026-2027, based on figures the utility released Wednesday. Even with that hike, CEO Lori Clark said the Crown utility’s $5.7-billion debt will continue to increase in the coming years as it embarks on a series of costly renovations of its major generating stations.
Nova Scotia
- The Assembly of Nova Scotia Mi’kmaw Chiefs is demanding a meeting with Premier Tim Houston after a short fall sitting of the legislature during which they say the voices of their communities were stifled. The fall session at Province House, which wrapped up Friday after eight days, was dominated by a contentious omnibus bill that would make it illegal to block forest access roads on Crown land. Bill 127 was passed late Thursday. The chiefs have said they did not know the changes were in the works.
- Nova Scotia’s Progressive Conservative government pushed through its remaining pieces of legislation on Friday, wrapping up an eight-day sitting that opposition parties say was purposefully kept short to stifle dissent. The sitting was dominated by a controversial bill, introduced on the first day, that prohibits protesters from blocking access to logging roads on Crown land, and imposes a $50,000 fine and/or six months in jail for those who ignore removal orders.
- More than 100 people protested outside Cape Breton Regional Police headquarters in Sydney, N.S., on Thursday, hoping to convince the federal government to scrap its ban and buyback program for assault-style firearms. Mel Howley does not own a prohibited gun, but he said he’s worried the government will come for his guns if it’s successful with the buyback. “You have to draw a line in the sand, and I think that’s what we’re trying to do,” he said, holding a sign while standing on the lawn.
- Nova Scotia Premier Tim Houston on Friday tried to assure a group of people concerned about potential natural resource development that they will be consulted if a project is proposed. His reassurances came on the same day a petition with 7,000 signatures was tabled in the legislature calling for the reinstatement of a ban on uranium mining and exploration. One of the people who helped gather those signatures over four months said the petition was the result of frustration that the Progressive Conservatives passed legislation earlier this year to remove the ban without any community consultation.
Prince Edward Island
- Prince Edward Island’s housing minister and longtime Progressive Conservative MLA Steven Myers says he’s stepping down from his roles in government, ending a 14-year career in provincial politics. Myers announced his resignation on Thursday. He told CBC News: Compass host Louise Martin that he’s notified Premier Rob Lantz of his decision, which will come into effect on Friday. “I’m tired, I’m burned out. I don’t have the fire in my belly I once had,” Myers said.
- The P.E.I. government says it’s trimmed a list of five proposals down to just two that it will bring to the public as options for the former Confederation Bridge fabrication yard in Borden-Carleton. In a statement, the Department of Economic Development, Innovation and Trade said officials have been in “ongoing discussions with the two proponents to potentially advance their respective projects as they do not require the entire former fabrication yard.”
- A long-sought-after 2018 land report from the Island Regulatory Appeals Commission may soon be in the hands of politicians after a legislative standing committee issued a subpoena for the document. The IRAC report into land holdings on Prince Edward Island, including those of Buddhist groups in eastern P.E.I., was never released by the regulatory body. There has been some controversy about those holdings in recent years, with some groups saying the Buddist groups own more land than what’s allowed under P.E.I.’s Lands Protection Act.
- Renovations are starting to wrap up at Province House after more than a decade, but it’s not clear yet if the work will be complete by the time the P.E.I. Legislative Assembly begins its next session in November. Parks Canada is overseeing the renovations, which began in January 2015 and have cost $138 million, and the goal is to open the doors by late fall. The next legislature session begins Nov. 4. Chantelle MacDonald, acting project manager with Parks Canada, said the work has been complex, so it’s hard to determine an exact completion date.
Newfoundland and Labrador
- After spending much of the week trying to flip blue districts red, Liberal Leader John Hogan was on the defensive Friday after the province’s biggest trades organization, Trades N.L., endorsed the Progressive Conservative Party. Despite the endorsement, Hogan said the Liberals are committed to working with Trades N.L. and representing trades workers across the province. “We will make sure that we protect every single possible job for Newfoundlanders and Labradorians and for those trades workers here in this province,” he said while speaking with reporters.
- As U.S. oil giant ExxonMobil plans to slash 2,000 jobs globally, Newfoundland and Labrador’s political leaders are divided on what steps need to be taken next — but two are urging action. On Wednesday, CBC News reported some of the job losses in Canada would be felt in Newfoundland and Labrador as a part of the company’s broader restructuring plan. ExxonMobil Canada owns the Hebron project and is the lead owner in Hibernia. During a campaign stop in Paradise on Thursday, Liberal Leader John Hogan told reporters all he knew about the layoffs was what had been reported in the media, adding the provincial government is in “caretaker mode.”
- Liberal Leader John Hogan made his way back to the Avalon Peninsula on Thursday with a campaign promise that has been a hot-button issue for some residents in the northeast. Hogan is promising to ease traffic headaches in Paradise, a fast-growing community with over 21,000 people. That promise is a bid to end a decade of PC election victories in the district of Topsail-Paradise. On Thursday, he announced a new interchange connecting the Outer Ring Road portion of the Trans-Canada Highway to roads in Paradise and Portugal Cove-St. Philip’s would be a “very top priority” for a re-elected Liberal government’s infrastructure plans.
- Newfoundland and Labrador Conservative Senator David Wells is joining the call for the Churchill Falls memorandum of understanding with Quebec to be subject to an independent review. In an interview with CBC News on Wednesday, Wells said much of his concern with the MOU lies in its granting Quebec 40 per cent ownership of the Upper Churchill to develop Gull Island. Hydro-Québec would be the project lead for Gull Island development and manage its construction. The original Churchill Falls deal, signed in 1969, granted 34.2 per cent of the Upper Churchill to Quebec.
Quebec
- A former SAP executive said he was “annoyed” by the Quebec Auditor General’s (VGQ) conclusions regarding the advantage the German software company allegedly had prior to the call for tenders for the digital transformation of the Quebec auto insurance board (Société de l’assurance automobile du Québec – SAAQ). Guy Cossette, former director of business development at SAP, testified on Friday before the Gallant Commission, which is investigating the SAAQ’s technological modernization.
- The Quebec Liberal Party (PLQ) is requesting that the National Assembly’s Health and Social Services Committee examine the management of the digital shift within the healthcare system. The PLQ submitted this request on Thursday, just before Santé Québec announced the suspension of two major projects related to its digital transition. The government-owned corporation has paused its project to modernize payroll and purchasing management in the healthcare system, in addition to postponing the Digital Health Record for six months.
- It’s the sixth and final day — for now — of the rotating strike by nearly 2,400 STM maintenance workers, leaving Montreal’s public transit system still heavily disrupted. The two-week strike will officially end on Sunday, restoring full metro and bus services for Monday’s commute. The strike, which began on Sept. 22, is the second this year by maintenance employees and has led to significant delays and service interruptions across the city. With no agreement reached after more than a year of stalled negotiations, the situation has become increasingly tense — but there is now cautious optimism on both sides.
- After insisting the federal government should reduce the number of temporary immigrants in Quebec, Minister Jean-François Roberge now believes Ottawa was too “tough” and acted “very clumsily” regarding the temporary foreign worker program, especially in the regions. “Our regional economy is paying the price right now,” the minister said at a press briefing Thursday at the National Assembly. Pressure is mounting on Quebec as businesses in the regions fear having to close due to labour shortages.
Ontario
- Twenty mayors, a deputy mayor and a county warden from municipalities across Ontario are urging Premier Doug Ford and the transportation minister, in a signed letter, to compromise on automated speed enforcement (ASE) measures in school zones, instead of issuing a province-wide ban. If a ban is put in place, the 22 municipal leaders from Brampton to Ajax to Parry Sound requested the province “fully reimburse all municipalities for the costs” of cancelling the ASE program.
- The Ontario Premier said he is going to “ignore Trump” after the U.S. president revived his 51st state rhetoric during a meeting with top U.S. military generals in Virginia this week. “President Trump is back at it again,” Doug Ford said while speaking to reporters on Wednesday in a video shared by Global News and CTV News. The premier’s comments came after his meeting with Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer in Toronto.
- Ontario Premier Doug Ford is suggesting that the fate of 30 beluga whales being kept in captivity at Marineland in Niagara Falls is now in the “hands” of the federal government after it denied a request to send the animals to a facility in China. Ford made the comment during a media availability at Queen’s Park on Wednesday morning, hours after Fisheries Minister Joanne Thompson issued a statement confirming that she would not grant an export permit to ship the whales to the Chimelong Ocean Kingdom aquarium. In her statement, Thompson said that shipping the mammals to the aquarium would have meant “a continued life in captivity and a return to public entertainment.”
- Ontario is facing a shortfall of nearly $2-billion to maintain the $10-a-day child-care program next year, and fees may have to go up without additional funding from the province or the federal government, according to a new report on the program from the provincial Auditor-General. The province’s agreement with Ottawa expires March 31, 2026. With six months to go, Ontario has not yet signed an extension, although it has agreed to one in principle.
Manitoba
- A child-care agreement lauded as a historic moment when it was signed in 2023 is now being called a failure by Peguis First Nation’s chief, and he’s calling for its termination. Chief Stan Bird wants the agreement that created the Peguis Child and Family Services reworked with independent oversight, rather than it being entirely in the hands of the CFS management team. “The idea was that it was to help us deliver child and family services that are culturally appropriate and effective for our community. But instead of helping, it has created a system that is failing us at every level,” Bird said at a news conference in Winnipeg on Friday, where he called for the existing agreement to be ended.
- Shovels are expected to be in the ground early next year for the construction of a new emergency room at Victoria Hospital, which the Manitoba government says will open in 2027. Reopening a new ER at the South Winnipeg hospital, which had its emergency room turned into an urgent care centre under the previous Progressive Conservative government, was a promise made by Wab Kinew during the campaign for the 2023 election, which his NDP won.
- Recent fires and acts of vandalism won’t scare cabinet ministers Nahanni Fontaine and Bernadette Smith out of politics, Fontaine says. Fontaine said her personal safety and that of her colleague — the first two First Nations women cabinet ministers in Manitoba — are being considered carefully after several fires and acts of vandalism at their campaign offices. “We worked hard to be here. We continue to work hard for our responsibilities, for our departments, for our communities, for our relatives, and no amount of attacks will ever, ever push us out of this,” Fontaine said to applause at an unrelated funding announcement on Thursday.
- Manitoba’s Official Opposition leader says the heat in the legislature has been cranked up by Premier Wab Kinew, who refuses to take accountability for his party’s failings. “Asking the premier tough questions is our job. Him refusing to answer [and calling] Manitobans goofballs, and for him to raise the temperature in the chamber, I think is completely wrong,” Obby Khan told CBC Manitoba Information Radio host Marcy Markusa on Friday. “I’m asking questions and we’re not getting answers.” Khan was responding to comments made by Kinew in question period Wednesday and during an interview with Markusa on Thursday. The premier accused Khan of taking “a run” at Families Minister Nahanni Fontaine, one day after her constituency office was set on fire.
Saskatchewan
- A member of the Federation of Sovereign Indigenous Nations executive says he cannot stand behind his colleagues’ response to a scathing forensic audit last week that flagged $34 million in questionable expenses. Craig McCallum, who was elected 4th vice-chief of FSIN in October 2023, issued an open letter this week to Saskatchewan First Nations leadership. “I cannot, in good conscience, stand behind the statement released by the other executive of the FSIN,” McCallum wrote. “Only transparency, humility, and the wisdom to listen to our people will heal the wounds caused by secrecy.”
- On Monday, Saskatchewan Premier Scott Moe apologized to all the students who attended the Île-à-la-Crosse school, and agreed to pay $40.2 million in restitution to them and their families. Moe travelled to the northern village, about 460 kilometres north of Saskatoon, to sign the agreement in principle, which was also signed by the six representative claimants. “Residential — whether it be day or industrial — schools are a shameful mark on Canada’s history, with harmful intergenerational impacts on Indigenous and Métis people,” Moe said on Monday.
- Premier Scott Moe is voicing his support for Alberta’s latest pipeline proposal, emphasizing that no group outside of the federal government should have a veto over the decision. “There is no B.C. coast. It’s Canada’s coast. There are no B.C. ports. There are Canada’s ports,” he said in reference to comments by B.C. Premier David Eby and several B.C. Indigenous groups raised concerns about the proposed project. “I feel an equal owner in those ports as a Canadian.” Moe said if the country is serious about diversifying its economy away from the U.S., “there’s no project that can do it like this.”
- A three-month investigation into more than two dozen allegations against the president of First Nations University of Canada, commissioned by the institution’s board in 2023, concluded with a stark assessment of her conduct. “The Investigator found that [President Jacqueline Ottmann] created a “circle of favor” around and inside her office, which attaches to the individuals whom she favors, and excludes those whom she does not favor from having influence,” said the 200-plus page report by Deloitte Legal, an affiliate of the university’s then-accounting firm Deloitte LLP.
Alberta
- Premier Danielle Smith says Alberta is committing $14 million to a West Coast oil pipeline do-over that hinges on First Nations getting on board early and Ottawa reversing a tanker ban that would make such a project unworkable on the northern B.C. coast. It’s a project Smith hails as the fulfillment of a higher duty to humanity, while her B.C. counterpart characterizes it as half-baked political gamesmanship. “What stands before us right now is a once-in-a-generation opportunity to unlock our wealth and resources and become a world-leading energy superpower,” Smith told a news conference in Calgary on Wednesday.
- The Alberta Next panel’s Calgary stop finished the town hall tour with a bang, and may have left Calgarians more divided than united. The Alberta Next panel reached its last in-person stop in Calgary Monday evening, with some attendees expressing support for discussion points and others sharing frustrations on topics both on the agenda and off. The province-wide town hall meetings have been stopping in and around Alta. since July, and reactions have been mixed.
- The president of the Alberta Teachers’ Association says it wants the provincial government to fund class size recommendations established in 2003 following the province’s last major teachers’ strike. ATA president Jason Schilling said on Alberta at Noon Wednesday that the province’s public, Catholic and francophone school divisions would need to hire more than 5,000 teachers to reach the recommended pupil-teacher ratios in that report.
- Alberta’s education minister is urging the teachers’ union to return to the bargaining table, but the Alberta Teachers’ Association says there is no progress to share as a province-wide strike approaches. More than 50,000 teachers are poised to walk off the job Monday, a move that would close classrooms for an estimated 730,000 students across the province. Cory Hare, spokesperson for the Alberta Teachers’ Association (ATA), said Thursday there has been no shift in the standoff. “At this point, the only thing we can say is that there’s nothing new to report,” Hare said in an emailed statement to CTV News.
British Columbia
- As the Supreme Court of Canada considers whether to hear the case of a B.C. farm that’s fighting to save its ostriches from a Canadian Food Inspection Agency cull, politicians in Ottawa appear to be choosing their words on the matter very carefully. Pierre Poilievre was asked twice this past week whether he supports the people gathered at Universal Ostrich Farms to protest the planned cull. The typically outspoken Conservative leader has avoided commenting directly on the protesters’ claims. On Thursday, Poilievre — without saying the word “ostrich” — pointed the finger at the Liberal government.
- Energy Minister Tim Hodgson is brushing off questions over whether the Liberal government will repeal the tanker ban in B.C.’s northern waters, calling them “hypothetical” since Alberta has not formally submitted a pipeline proposal for consideration. Speaking to reporters Friday afternoon in Montreal, Hodgson addressed Alberta’s announcement that it plans to pitch a new bitumen pipeline to the northern coast of B.C. — a move that drew a sharp rebuke from B.C. Premier David Eby.
- British Columbia house leader Mike Farnworth said the NDP government plans to pass 18 bills in the fall session of the legislature by the time it ends in late November. Farnworth said the government will focus on growing the economy, protecting health care and dealing with affordability and good governance issues, adding that most of the bills will be tabled during the session’s first week to give MLAs time to read the legislation. He said one of the bills would enable B.C. Hydro’s planned North Coast Transmission Line between Prince George and Terrace.
- A B.C. Conservative Party staffer who called the orange Survivors’ flag — which honours residential school survivors — a “disgrace” and a “fake flag” on social media has been fired. Lindsay Shepherd, who had worked as a communications officer for the B.C. The Conservative caucus, faced widespread criticism after her posts on the social media platform X late last week. Last Thursday, several NDP, Conservative and Green MLAs raised the Survivors’ flag on the front steps of the legislature in Victoria, ahead of National Day for Truth and Reconciliation on Sept. 30.
Northwest Territories
- The N.W.T. integrity commissioner has dismissed a complaint against Nahendeh MLA Shane Thompson, who was accused of meddling in operations at a Fort Simpson school. Benjamin Adams, the principal of Líídlįį Kúę Elementary School in Fort Simpson, argues Thompson breached the code of conduct which applies to MLAs. Adams accused Thompson of harassment and alleged that he inappropriately interfered with school operations by supporting calls to terminate Adams’ position as principal.
Yukon
- Yukon’s territorial election campaign will officially begin on Friday. Premier Mike Pemberton says he’ll ask Yukon Commissioner Adeline Webber on Friday to dissolve the legislative assembly and set the territorial election for Nov. 3. Pemberton made the announcement in Carcross on Thursday, alongside a handful of Liberal candidates. Pemberton’s Liberals are seeking a third mandate with an almost entirely new roster of candidates this time. All but one of the party’s sitting MLAs decided not to run again. It’s also Pemberton’s first campaign after taking over as party leader earlier this year.
Nunavut
- The Sailijaaqvik medical boarding home in Iqaluit was supposed to be more comfortable and accessible than its predecessor, according to one government official who spoke to CBC two years ago. It promised more barrier-free and wheelchair-accessible rooms, programming space and cultural activities than the old Tammaativvik boarding home across the street. But today, some say it too has become inaccessible. The broken elevator is a big concern for Mary Ottokie, who recently stayed at Sailijaaqvik. She called the situation “horrible”. “When you have to climb up the stairs, you have to go to the fourth floor,” she said. “When you have to walk all the way up with your luggage, it’s so tiring.”