Western Canada News and Updates – September 3, 2024
Welcome to our weekly news and updates newsletter that focusses on the policy influencing Western Canada.
Manitoba News
- The Manitoba government has ended its rebate program for security systems, as the program’s budget has been used up. The province started offering rebates of up to $300 in June to homeowners, renters and small business owners who purchased security cameras and other anti-crime equipment. Funding for the program was initially capped at $500,000, which was fully allotted within days. Earlier this month, the government quadrupled the funding to $2 million, and that total was reached at the end of last week. The program is to be evaluated before the government decides whether to relaunch it, but Justice Minister Matt Wiebe said it appears to be successful in making streets safer. Applications submitted before the cutoff are still being processed, and the government estimates close to 8,800 applications will be approved in the end. The head of the Winnipeg Chamber of Commerce said the popularity of the program is a sign that crime is a major issue.
READ MORE HERE: LINK - The president of the union representing Manitoba’s teachers says a new collective agreement, promising wage increases exceeding 12 percent over four years, will help level the playing field for public school teachers across the province. Manitoba Teachers’ Society president Nathan Martindale said the first provincewide bargaining agreement will elevate wages so all teachers have a consistent and higher base of pay, no matter where they work. The Manitoba Teachers’ Society and Manitoba School Boards Association celebrated the new collective agreement by hosting a signing ceremony Tuesday at the Canadian Museum for Human Rights in Winnipeg. The contract was approved in a vote earlier this summer, with 95 percent of teachers who cast ballots voting in favour of it. The turnout rate was around 70 percent. The deal, which applies a single contract across all 37 English-language school divisions in the province, will raise general wages by a compounded 12.85 percent over the duration of the four-year contract, which runs from July 1, 2022, to June 30, 2026.
READ MORE HERE: LINK - Manitoba is still searching for a space for its first supervised consumption site, the province’s addictions minister said Friday, as government officials and advocates marked International Overdose Awareness Day at the legislative building. Bernadette Smith said the province is “working diligently” on getting the site “up and running in the coming months.” The province previously said it has an expected opening date in 2025. The NDP government promised in its budget to spend $2.5 million this year toward planning and developing the site, which is being steered by the Aboriginal Health & Wellness Centre. An official there said in July it was working with a commercial Realtor to find a location somewhere west of Main Street for the site, which can’t be near schools but must be in a location accessible to people who use drugs. It comes as overdose deaths appear to be rising in Manitoba, with preliminary data for the month of April released this week by Manitoba’s chief medical examiner showing more than 50 suspected drug-related deaths that month.
READ MORE HERE: LINK - A southwestern Manitoba hospice group wants an end-of-life residence built for people who live outside of Winnipeg. Standalone hospice facilities in the community typically offer a home-like setting for people with life-limiting illnesses and are staffed 24/7, providing an option for people who can’t stay in their own homes but don’t want to spend their last days in a hospital. While there are palliative care units in many hospitals, a hospice is distinct because it “provides a home-like atmosphere to give people comfort,” with staff trained to support people at the end of their lives, said Daniel Nowoselski, the advocacy manager of hospice palliative care for the Canadian Cancer Society. The Westman Hospice Association has partnered with the Canadian Cancer Society to demonstrate that Brandon — a city of 54,000 with a surrounding population of more than 100,000 — needs a hospice residence for those who have just months to live. Together they’ve launched an ad campaign, including billboards and bus stop signs, to highlight the lack of a hospice in Brandon, and to encourage people to donate to or volunteer with the Westman Hospice Association. The organization now needs to secure funding.
READ MORE HERE: LINK
Saskatchewan News
- Farmland prices across the Prairies have been going up for the past 20 years, but they took a marked jump in Saskatchewan in 2011 and have continued to see huge increases since then. Prices in the province rose 15.7 per cent in 2023, the highest increase in Canada that year. A hectare sells on average for $6,670 to $16,060 depending on where it’s located and whether it has irrigation. Values in Manitoba and Alberta also fall within that range or are higher in some cases. Farmers and analysts say the situation has made it difficult for younger producers to expand their operations and compete with large farms, which have continued to get larger. Leigh Anderson, an economist with Farm Credit Canada, said it has been a challenge because young farmers tend to not have many assets to finance the purchase of more land. He said increasing prices over the last several years are due to strong crop revenues. Supply is also tight, with many parcels being sold before they make it to public listing websites. Some speculate how much influence land owned by out-of-province investors is driving up prices. A report from Re/Max Canada has noted large farming corporations have been buying land, causing values to spike.
READ MORE HERE: LINK - Saskatoon’s proposed $1.2 billion Downtown Event and Entertainment District, or DEED, is now one step closer to becoming a reality after Saskatoon City Council unanimously approved a report outlining a funding strategy on Wednesday afternoon. City administration can now proceed with working out the details of the strategy and securing funding for the project, which includes an arena to replace SaskTel Centre and renovation and expansion of TCU Place. The administration made it clear that the current plan does not involve raising property taxes as a method of paying for the arena and district, but Ward 1 Coun. Darren Hill cautioned that “there are no guarantees at all.” The city says it will get the money for the arena and district from a mix of sources, including covering about 27.5 to 33 percent of the project cost itself, with a 30-year debt repayment plan. The strategy calls for the rest to come from the provincial and federal governments, which city administration says is necessary to bring the project to fruition. One proposal in the funding strategy is collecting an accommodation tax on hotel room stays, which the report calculates could be as high as 5.9 percent. Hill said if city administration comes back with a proposal for an accommodation tax, he would not approve that plan. The administration is set to continue bringing back reports for the council to discuss and debate.
READ MORE HERE: LINK - The Saskatchewan government is forecasting a bigger deficit this year than it previously predicted. The province’s first-quarter financial report is projecting a deficit of $354 million this year, up from the $273 million it forecast in its spring budget. It says it’s a result of increased expenses across departments, including compensation costs under a new collective agreement with provincial employees. It also says it received more revenues from fees, along with additional income from investments. Finance Minister Donna Harpauer says Saskatchewan’s fiscal picture is strong and that the government plans to manage spending while investing in services. She says Saskatchewan’s real GDP grew by 1.6 percent last year, the second-highest in the country.
READ MORE HERE: LINK
Alberta News
- The wildfire that ripped through Jasper National Park this summer and destroyed a significant portion of the Jasper townsite is Canada’s ninth most expensive disaster for insurance payouts, according to the Insurance Bureau of Canada. The IBC estimates the insured damages — including homes, businesses, their contents and vehicles — to be $880 million. IBC says the wildfire is the costliest insurance event in Canada’s national park history. A residential debris removal program is underway, including a sifting program done by Team Rubicon to help residents look for heirlooms among the ashes. According to de Pruis, more than 300 properties have signed up so far. Once that process is completed, the goal is to clear all debris by Nov. 30 — with a priority given to commercial properties.
READ MORE HERE: LINK - Calgary’s public and Catholic school boards have revealed new rules banning the use of cellphones, tablets, laptops and smartwatches in classes, aligning with a ministerial order from the province to prevent distractions from learning. The Calgary Board of Education (CBE) unveiled its approach to regulating personal mobile devices on Tuesday. Calgary Catholic School District (CCSD) chief superintendent Bryan Szumlas informed parents of its new rules in an email on Friday. The rules cover use of personal mobile devices as well as devices capable of communicating with them like headphones or Bluetooth speakers. Students in kindergarten to Grade 6 in both school districts will not be allowed to use any personal mobile device while at school, with exceptions made in certain circumstances for health or medical reasons, or specialized learning needs. High school students from grades 10 to 12 in both school districts will be allowed to use their personal devices at school outside of class time. The policy will be reviewed in December, and any feedback from schools will be considered before the school board’s administrative regulation on the issue is finalized as of Jan. 1, 2025.
READ MORE HERE: LINK - Alberta’s first-quarter fiscal update shows the government expects a surplus of $2.9 billion but won’t have surplus cash this year and will need to borrow hundreds of millions of dollars. Finance Minister Nate Horner said it’s an accounting surplus, meaning the money is tied up, so in the meantime the province will need to take on $641 million in short-term borrowing. The government has no plan to immediately introduce the personal tax cut Premier Danielle Smith promised in the 2023 election that could cost $1.4 billion. The increase in the estimated surplus, up by $2.6 billion from only $367 million originally forecast, is being driven largely by income taxes and higher-than-expected oil prices. In 2024-25, the government plans to spend $73.3 billion — up $101 million from the budget — and rake in $76.2 billion in revenues. Taxpayer-supported debt is estimated to be $86.1 billion as of March 2025, down $1.7 billion.
READ MORE HERE: LINK - The number of opioid-related overdose deaths in Alberta continues to trend down, dropping to a new low not seen since before the COVID-19 pandemic. Data published by the province for the month of May, the most recent month for which Alberta has published new numbers, shows 72 people died of an opioid-related overdose. It marks a 55 percent decrease from what it was for May of last year and is also the lowest of any month so far in 2024. A total of 431 opioid-related overdose deaths were reported between January and May of this year, down from the same timeframe last year when 788 died of the same cause. Monty Ghosh, an addiction physician and assistant professor at the University of Calgary and the University of Alberta says there are a multitude of reasons that have contributed to the decline, including a reduction in overdose deaths related to carfentanil — a drug responsible for 23 percent of overdose deaths in 2023.. There has also been an uptick in people using opiate agonist treatment, a method of treatment that helps reduce drug-related harms while supporting long-term recovery.
READ MORE HERE: LINK
British Columbia News
- Cellphone use will be restricted in all British Columbia school districts when pupils return next week, as the province becomes the latest to curtail the use of the devices by students. Premier David Eby says all school districts now have policies in place to ban cellphone use “bell-to-bell,” in line with a government directive announced in April. Eby said Tuesday that how the rules are implemented will vary between school boards “but the bottom line is that the phones are not going to be out in the classroom.” The premier said the aim of the ban is to make sure students can learn and develop relationships without a phone and remove the peer pressure that can come when students have phones. Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Alberta, Quebec, Ontario and Nova Scotia all either have or are in the process of creating, rules that restrict the use of cellphones by students.
READ MORE HERE: LINK - An earthquake early detection system has been activated in British Columbia to provide the public with a few seconds of warning ahead of a potentially harmful tremor. Federal Energy and Natural Resources Minister Jonathan Wilkinson said when a strong earthquake is detected, alerts will be transmitted automatically to British Columbians via cellphones, radio and televisions. The alerts will be sent “seconds to tens of seconds” before strong shaking beings, giving people a bit of time to “drop, cover and hold on,” according to a statement from Natural Resources Canada. He said the system, jointly announced by the federal and B.C. government, will also allow critical infrastructure to take immediate action, such as halting traffic from driving onto bridges or into tunnels. The new system is part of the federal government’s $36 million plan to develop a warning system to protect regions vulnerable to earthquakes. The system will be expanded later this year to southern Quebec and eastern Ontario.
READ MORE HERE: LINK - The price of building the new Vancouver Art Gallery has risen 50 percent — from $400 million to $600 million — and the gallery’s CEO says some aspects of the project could be altered or scaled back. In a statement, the gallery blamed rising construction costs, not just for its project but for all types of construction in Canada. The statement said future work at the building site — which now sits more or less as a fenced-in hole in the ground at the corner of Cambie and West Georgia streets — will be “decreased” while design revisions are made. The federal government, in a statement received after this story was published, said it has kicked in over $30 million for the project through the heritage and infrastructure departments.
READ MORE HERE: LINK