The province is behind a controversial proposal to assemble 770 acres of farmland near Wilmot Township. (Fight For Farmland) Premier Doug Ford acknowledged that the province is behind a controversial proposal by Waterloo Region to assemble 770 acres of farmland near Wilmot Township for future industrial and economic development. In March, farmers along Highway 8 just outside of Kitchener were offered compensation for their properties — and told that if they don’t accept by March 20, their land will be expropriated. At a press conference in Waterloo last Thursday, Ford said the province to ..read more

Premier Danielle Smith and Mental Health and Addictions Minister Dan Williams announced the formation of a new Recovery Alberta agency. (Government of Alberta) Assurances from Mental Health and Addictions Minister Dan Williams that the transition from Alberta Health Services to a new Recovery Alberta for front-line workers comes as cold comfort to the unions representing those workers. Ahead of Wednesday’s Recovery Capital conference, the government announced it is taking over mental health and addiction services from the arm’s length health board, which came as a surprise ..read more

B.C. Mines Minister Josie Osborne says the province is taking a multi-pronged approach to modernizing the Mineral Tenure Act. (Flickr) Nearly six months after B.C.’s Supreme Court ordered the province to modernize its mineral claim system, Energy, Mines and Low Carbon Innovation Minister Josie Osborne announced the launch of a consultation process to update the Mineral Tenure Act. The province is also pausing mining activity, new permits and mineral claims in Gitxaała Nation and Ehattesaht First Nations territory. In exchange, the nations are pausing their court challenge, which asked tha ..read more

BC United Leader Kevin Falcon with members of his caucus (BC United) True to his word, Conservative Leader John Rustad has burst out of the gate when it comes to nominating candidates for the upcoming provincial election. The party has already announced 37 candidates — about 40 per cent of a full slate for this year’s election. In December, the leader of B.C.’s upstart fourth party said he hoped to have the Conservatives ready for a March election, refusing to take Premier David Eby at his word that he will stick to the scheduled election date in October. “We’re going to be competing in e ..read more

Premier Doug Ford and CPC Leader Pierre Poilievre pose in various promotional media. Multiple sources with deep ties to the Conservative Party of Canada and Ontario PC Party said CPC Leader Pierre Poilievre and his team are not enthusiastic about the prospect of PC MPPs running under their banner in the next federal election — save for a few potential exceptions. Despite coming from the same political stripe, Poilievre and Premier Doug Ford are not close allies. The CPC declined to offer up volunteers to help the PCs campaign in a recent byelection, and ..read more

A button — featuring Premier Doug Ford on a bulldozer — was unveiled by the Cat Lake First Nation at the Chiefs of Ontario conference in November. It represents the First Nation’s “unwavering commitment to defending their land and culture.” The conflict between the PC government’s mining ambitions and Indigenous communities seems set to escalate after multiple resolutions supporting restrictions on mining-related activity on First Nations territories were endorsed at the Chiefs of Ontario’s (COO) general assembly in November. One resolution called on the province to implement a one-year m ..read more

Housing Minister Ravi Kahlon introduced a suite of legislation this fall aimed at making it faster and easier to build multi-unit homes across B.C. (Province of British Columbia/Flickr) B.C.’s new housing policies are meant to spur the creation of thousands of new homes every year, but without a close eye on who is buying those homes, financialization of the housing sector will continue to affect affordability, federal housing advocate Marie-Josée Houle warns. In order to truly address housing affordability, especially for renters, Houle says governments need to make large-scale investmen ..read more

The Mascot Dock and Marina in the Village of Patchogue (Village of Patchogue) Within minutes of her leadership victory Saturday, the PCs and the NDP began rolling out attacks on new Liberal Leader Bonnie Crombie. The PCs were first out of the gate with a press release painting Crombie as a rich phoney. “She doesn’t get the concerns of everyday people. She drives fancy cars and vacations at her home in the Hamptons,” claimed an unattributed PC Party statement. Crombie responded that she doesn’t own a car but uses a “fleet vehicle” provided for her use as mayor, and, after being pressed by ..read more

Ontario Premier Doug Ford with Public and Business Service Delivery Minister Todd McCarthy and Ontario Real Estate Association president Tim Hudak at the association’s Power House conference in Toronto (Doug Ford/Twitter) Premier Doug Ford and Public and Business Service Delivery Minister Todd McCarthy professed their “love” for real estate agents at the Ontario Real Estate Association’s (OREA) Power House conference in Toronto yesterday and assured attendees that new regulations coming into force on Friday will prevent “a very few bad apples [from painting] a bro ..read more

TVO workers on strike this fall. TVO employees had until Monday to decide whether to take voluntary buyouts, a measure the provincial agency encouraged so strike-related anger does not “fester” in the workplace. In a statement to Queen’s Park Today, TVO said the buyouts are “what’s best for TVO and how we move forward as an organization after what has been a long and emotional few months.” The provincial agency says it wants a team “committed to TVO and returning to work” and that a “relatively small group of employees … made it clear they are not aligned with TVO’s culture and direction ..read more