Monday, July 28: Finance MinisterNate Horner meets with Guy Smith, president of the Alberta Union of Provincial Employees, to discuss collective bargaining for 23,000 public employees. Both sides agree to begin enhanced mediation. Negotiations have been underway for 18 months. In May 2025 the union voted 90 per cent in favour of striking; the vote remains valid until mid-September.
Read More: Smith Vs. Smith
Tuesday, July 29: The province announces that 52 wildfires are burning across Alberta. Ten are classified as out of control. More than 1,400 firefighters—including from Australia and Chile—are battling the fires. Since the start of the 2025 fire season Alberta has had 850 wildfires, burning roughly 671,000 hectares.
Read More: “More Extreme Fires”
Wednesday, July 30: Alberta Chief Electoral Officer Gordon McClure issues the petition for a citizen initiative. The petition proposes the following question: Do you agree that Alberta should remain in Canada? Signature sheets and witness affidavits have been issued to the proponent, who has until October 28, 2025 to collect the 293,976 signatures needed to put the question to a provincial referendum.
Read More: Island Alberta
Thursday, July 31: A provincial audit of 13 medical clinics in Alberta that charge membership fees finds “no significant cases” of patients paying out of pocket for publicly covered treatments. The audit was started in 2023 after the clinics were found to be charging annual fees of up to $5,000 for families and $2,000 for adults. A U of C health law professor says the report didn’t address payment for preferential access to doctors.
Read More: Why Can’t You Get a Family Doctor?
Friday, August 1: A study from four Alberta scientists shows that regulations meant to protect streams from coal mine pollution are failing. At six sites near Alberta coal mines that closed in the 2000s, 98–100 per cent of water samples exceeded safe limits of selenium.
Read More: Why Coal Mines Always Get Approved
Saturday, August 2: MLAs Angela Pitt, Glenn Van Dijken and Chelsae Petrovic travel to Boston for the National Conference of State Legislators to “push for a barrier-free trade relationship between Alberta and the US.” Earlier the same week, US president Donald Trump increased tariffs on certain Canadian goods from 25 per cent to 35 per cent.
Read More: Hidden Connections in the Skybox Photo
