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Smith blames Feds for housing rules Edmonton built for over a decade
Edmonton’s densification efforts began years before the federal housing fund was launched.
Edmonton has three months to roll back its housing rules after Premier Danielle Smith ordered the city to undo its work on densification.
The premier blamed the federal government for paying cities to replace single-family houses on residential lots with buildings for 16 families and no parking. Speaking on a call-in radio program Saturday, Smith called money from the federal Housing Accelerator Fund a “bribe” to get councils to allow more housing and said Alberta was undoing “bad federal policy.”
But that explanation ignores Edmonton’s housing ambitions and the city’s choices to pursue them, said Mike Moffatt, a housing expert and founding director of the Missing Middle Initiative.
The federal fund gives cities money for changes such as allowing more homes on residential lots and speeding up approvals. It did not specifically require Edmonton to allow eight homes on a single lot — its current maximum — or reduce the space between buildings and neighbouring property lines, Moffatt said.
That work started in 2015, long before the federal government got involved, in response to the city’s own housing and affordability needs. The Housing Accelerator Fund was established in the 2022 budget and launched in 2023.
Expensive suburbs drove densification
By the time the Housing Accelerator Fund got moving three years ago, Edmonton had already done much of what the federal government was asking other Canadian cities to do, said Kalen Anderson, a former city planning director who now leads the building industry association BILD Edmonton Metro. “We were already making all of these decisions with or without that funding,” she said.
Anderson said Edmonton included housing changes it had already approved in its federal funding plan. The money helped pay for downtown student housing, faster permits and water and sewer upgrades to serve new homes. Cities like Calgary and Red Deer are more likely to have changed their housing rules to get federal money than Edmonton, she added.
Calgary repealed its rezoning policy earlier this year after public opposition. Smith supported the reversal, but Mayor Jeromy Farkas described provincial interference in city decisions as a "disturbing attack on local democracy.”
Edmonton’s years of work gave it a head start, helping it become one of the fund’s top-performing cities, as Canada’s National Observer previously reported.
That work began more than a decade ago, Mayor Andrew Knack told Canada’s National Observer in May. The city could not afford — financially or environmentally — to keep spreading into new suburbs, he said. Knack described suburban expansion as the biggest driver of property tax increases over the last 30 years. Meanwhile, some older neighbourhoods were losing residents, contributing to school closures and leaving businesses with fewer customers.
Edmonton was preparing to grow to two million people, Anderson said, with half its additional housing in new suburbs and half in existing neighbourhoods. Allowing eight homes on a lot was one way to make room.
Anderson said the 16 homes Smith described are spread across two lots that used to be one. Around 2014–15, Edmonton began allowing 50-foot-wide lots to be split into two 25-foot-wide lots, she said. With eight homes on each, land that a decade ago held one house could hold 16.
Edmonton’s parking changes also predated the federal fund. In 2020, it became the first major Canadian municipality to let builders choose how much parking to provide. Building parking spaces adds to housing costs, so builders could leave them out if residents would not need them, Anderson said. But many eight-home developments had no parking, leaving residents to find space on the street.
Even after years of public meetings, some residents only understood what the new rules allowed when larger buildings started going up next door, Anderson said. The city should expect to adjust its rules based on what works, she said.
“Those are big changes, so we’re not going to get them right out of the gate,” she said.
Knack said the city had lowered building height limits and changed spacing rules in response to residents’ concerns. “There was a desire for refinement, not a desire to undo this work,” he said.
The mayor’s office told Canada’s National Observer in an email response that it had received no details beyond the province’s announcement, which did not specify precisely how the province expects cities to comply with its de-densification order. Without knowing exactly what Edmonton must change, it could not assess the consequences for federal funding.
‘Easier to make Ottawa the villain’
This isn’t the first time a province has told cities to change their housing rules. In 2023, BC required municipalities to allow three or four homes on many residential lots and six in some locations near frequent bus service. But Moffatt said setting common standards across municipalities, as BC has done, differs from overturning a specific city decision.
He sees a closer parallel in Ontario Premier Doug Ford’s push to remove Toronto bike lanes — another fight over a city’s decisions that can appeal to voters who live outside the cities.
Moffatt described Smith’s push as a sign of a shift toward right-wing populism, with premiers increasingly stepping into decisions normally left to local councils.
The fight comes days before Alberta’s Oct. 19 referendum, which includes questions about seeking more provincial power and whether to hold a binding vote on leaving Canada. In a booklet sent to households, the province says Ottawa uses conditions attached to federal funding to interfere in provincial decisions.
“I think it’s a lot easier to make Ottawa the villain than a fellow Albertan,” Moffatt said.
The Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation has not yet decided whether the changes will affect Edmonton’s or Calgary’s funding, Piper McWilliams, senior communications advisor to the Minister of Housing and Infrastructure, told Canada’s National Observer in an email response. The federal agency checks each city’s yearly report on its housing commitments before deciding on further payments. Those reports are not yet due.
“Our singular goal remains ensuring that we can deliver on building affordable housing for Albertans,” McWilliams said.
Sonal Gupta / Local Journalism Initiative / Canada's National Observer.
Copyright 2026, Canada's National Observer. All rights reserved.
Sonal Gupta, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, Canada's National Observer.
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Un froid hivernal s’installe ce week-end au Québec et jusqu’à 20 cm de neige sont prévus
Même tes citrouilles vont grelotter. 🎃🥶
Tes citrouilles d’Halloween risquent de troquer leur look de zombie pour une barbe de givre digne du père Noël ce week-end. Le mercure va plonger sous les normales de saison et jusqu’à 20 cm de neige au Québec sont attendus par endroits, surtout en altitude.
À lire également : Voici les prévisions météo de chaque mois pour l'hiver 2026-2027 au Québec
Selon Julieta Desmarais Juarez, météorologue chez MétéoMédia, c’est un creux atmosphérique qui amènera des températures plutôt froides sur l’ensemble de la province dès vendredi. Au même moment, deux dépressions, l’une venue de l’Ontario et l’autre du sud des États-Unis, vont fusionner et traverser le Québec. Résultat : de la pluie parfois abondante dans le sud et des flocons dans les secteurs plus frais.
Quelles températures sont prévues ce week-end au Québec?
Tu auras le bout du nez froid samedi en te réveillant. À Montréal, le mercure devrait descendre jusqu’à 0 °C dans la nuit de vendredi à samedi, après une journée pluvieuse plafonnant à 9 °C, selon Environnement Canada. Le soleil brillera pour cette première journée de la fin de semaine, mais sans faire de miracle : on ne dépasserait pas 6 °C, alors que la normale tourne autour de 12 °C à ce temps-ci de l’année.
À Québec, c’est la nuit de samedi à dimanche qui risque de surprendre, avec un minimum de -4 °C sous un ciel dégagé. Le thermomètre ne devrait pas dépasser 5 °C vendredi, 6 °C samedi et 7 °C dimanche. Si tu as encore des fines herbes ou des fleurs dehors, c’est le moment de les rentrer.
Dimanche, on pourra respirer un peu à Montréal, avec un maximum de 14 °C et beaucoup de soleil. Plus au nord, au Saguenay et dans le Bas-Saint-Laurent, on plafonnerait autour de 8 °C ou 9 °C, selon MétéoMédia.
Où la neige va-t-elle tomber ce week-end?
Les plus grosses accumulations sont attendues dans des coins qui ont déjà blanchi cet automne : la réserve faunique des Laurentides, entre Québec et le Saguenay, le parc national de la Gaspésie et l’intérieur des terres du Bas-Saint-Laurent, ainsi que le nord de la province. Dans les secteurs les plus élevés, on pourrait mesurer de 15 à 20 cm, assez pour parler d’une vraie bordée.
Au Saguenay et sur la Côte-Nord, entre Baie-Comeau et Sept-Îles, la neige pourrait aussi s’accumuler, mais les quantités varieraient beaucoup d’un endroit à l’autre selon l’altitude.
Plus au sud, ce sont plutôt de petites averses de neige qui sont possibles en montagne, notamment en Estrie, en Beauce près de la frontière américaine, dans les Laurentides et en Mauricie.
Avec cette neige, ça vaut le coup de penser à installer tes pneus d’hiver bien avant le 1er décembre, date à laquelle ils deviennent obligatoires au Québec. Si tu dois prendre la route dans les secteurs touchés ce week-end, la prudence sera de mise.
Est-ce qu’il va neiger à Montréal?
Si tu habites dans la métropole, tu peux laisser la pelle au cabanon. Le Grand Montréal devrait être largement épargné, même si quelques flocons ne sont pas exclus dans le nord de la région, du côté de Saint-Jérôme et au-delà.
En ville, c’est surtout la pluie de vendredi qui risque de te déranger, avant le retour du soleil samedi et dimanche.
Est-ce que l’hiver est arrivé pour de bon?
Pas si vite. D'après l’Aperçu de l’automne 2026 dévoilé en septembre dernier, cette chute au thermomètre était attendue. Les météorologues prévoyaient qu’une période plus froide s’installe pendant une à deux semaines entre la mi-octobre et le début novembre, de quoi donner l’impression d’un hiver hâtif.
Ce serait toutefois une fausse alerte. Sous l’influence d’un « super El Niño » dans le Pacifique, le mercure devrait remonter près ou au-dessus des normales jusqu’à la fin novembre, et même au-delà.
D’ailleurs, la douceur reviendrait dès lundi, avec 18 °C prévus à Montréal et 15 °C à Québec, selon Environnement Canada. Tu peux donc garder ton manteau d’hiver à portée de main, mais pas besoin de ranger tes vestes d’automne tout de suite.
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More than a third of young nurses in Canada do not renew licences, says think tank
Retaining young nurses, a national challenge
THE CANADIAN PRESS/Christopher Katsarov
A new report says more than a third of the registered nurses in Canada under the age of 35 in 2023 did not renew their licences the next year.
The Montreal Economic Institute compiled the numbers in the report using the latest data available from the Canadian Institute for Health Information.
The health information organization's numbers are based on licence applications from provincial and territorial nursing regulatory bodies.
It reveals that for every 100 nurses under the age of 35 who were registered to practise in Canada in 2023, 34 did not renew their registration in 2024.
The numbers suggest an improvement from the previous year, when 40 per cent of nurses did not renew their licences.
The Montreal-based think tank has promoted more private sector involvement in the health care system to improve services.
Gabriel Giguère, a public policy analyst at the think tank and co-author of the report, said the report shows Canada still has work to do to persuade nurses to remain in the profession.
“This sends a very clear message about the retention rate of young nurses, and it's a bad one,” he told The Canadian Press.
The report notes how recent survey responses suggest factors such as excessive overtime, poor working conditions, high stress and the risk of extreme fatigue on the job may be contributing to the exodus of some nurses.
The think tank also suggests in the report that provinces could help encourage more nurses to remain in the profession if they had additional opportunities in the private sector that offered more flexibility, such as in travel nurse agencies, private clinics or telehealth companies.
It also notes how some provinces such as Quebec have programs that pair novice nurses with colleagues who have more experience.
"British Columbia has job swapping pools, which allow nurses to trade shifts without needing approval from administrators," the report said. "Union contracts should also be renegotiated to reward skills and competence over seniority."
The report also highlights that, countrywide, the proportion of nurses under the age of 35 rose from 27.7 per cent in 2014 to over 30 per cent in 2017 and has remained between 30 per cent and 31 per cent since then.
The number of unfilled positions — which stood at more than 27,000 in 2025 — has declined from its peak of approximately 41,000 unfilled positions in 2023.
“When you look at it year by year, it’s obviously a good thing to have fewer job openings,” said Giguère, nuancing that the 10-year trend is not moving in the same direction.
In 2016, there were just over 9,000 job openings, three times fewer than today.
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Canadian Press health coverage receives support through a partnership with the Canadian Medical Association. CP is solely responsible for this content.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 15, 2026.
By Katrine Desautels | Copyright 2026, The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.
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