News for residents of the “11th province”: Canadians abroad.
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Alberta to Vote on Leaving Canada
Albertans will vote today on whether the province should stay in Canada or start the constitutional process needed to hold a binding separation referendum. The vote is non-binding, but the wording puts Confederation on the ballot.
The question is one of ten that’s being put to voters. The other nine questions are about immigration, proof of citizenship (specifically for provincial voting), the Senate, judicial appointments and how to give provincial laws priority when they come into conflict with federal rules. Alberta’s government has spent $4 million on referendum advertising already trying to convince voters to vote “stay.,” but a September poll found 70% planned to choose Canada and 22% claimed to favor a start to the separation process.
For Canadians abroad who still sometimes get questions about the situation in Quebec, it looks like the next unity debate has moved west.
Read more: CityNews Calgary / Elections Alberta
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Biggest Airports May Get a New Flight Plan
Ottawa says that it wants private operators to run Toronto Pearson, Montreal-Trudeau, Calgary and Vancouver airports under concessions that would run for decades. The Feds says they want to keep the land and assets, but hope that private money will pay for operations and expansion.
PM Mark Carney says the plan could result in tens of billions of dollars worth of income, improve customer service, and allow for more funding of regional airports. Canada currently relies on not-for-profit airport authorities that run facilities on federal land, so if the change gets pushed through it will result in a very different machine behind the check-in desk.
How this will affect the price that passengers pay for their flights is still in question. Transport Minister Steven MacKinnon claims that fees would be partly regulated, but won’t promise that they’d stay put. Critics like to show how things shook out in Australia, where aeronautical revenue per passenger rose sharply at four big airports during the decade ending in 2017-18.
The fine print on these concession deals could end up impacting the cost of your ticket, so its a story to get familiar with.
Read more: The Pointer / The Walrus / Money.ca
Top Court Takes On Borderless Crypto Fraud
A $65,000 bitcoin fraud case is about to test how far a Canadian court is able to reach when the money is on a foreign crypto exchange. The Supreme Court of Canada has agreed to hear an appeal from the companies behind Binance. No date has been set yet.
Three Nigerian citizens are accused of defrauding someone in Canada. In 2025, investigators followed the bitcoin to accounts held by Seychelles-based Nest Services (part of the Binance group) and an Ontario court was able to freeze some of the assets after deciding that Nest had a virtual presence in Canada. At the time, it held accounts worth almost $36M for 248,114 Canadian customers.
But unsurprisingly, Binance claims that Ontario doesn’t have jurisdiction. If the Supreme Court agrees, Canadians who lose crypto to fraudsters abroad are likely to have a much harder time recovering anything at all.
Read more: The Globe and Mail / Investment Executive
Foreign Buyer Ban Has Three Months Left
Canada’s federal ban on foreign homebuyers will expire in January, and Ottawa hasn’t said what, if anything will replace it. The rule has prevented most foreign nationals and foreign-owned companies from buying Canadian homes since 2023. Canadian citizens are still allowed to buy regardless of wher they live.
The government says that its reviewing the policy and one possible replacement would copy Australia by allowing foreign money into vacant land and new construction but keep already-built homes off limits. Ontario and Toronto already slap taxes of up to 35 percent on non-resident buyers.
Read more: MoneySense