NWT wildfire evacuees recount flights, long drives as crisis continues

After two evacuations and hundreds of kilometres along smoky highways, Ramanda Sanderson has finally found safety from the fires that are ravaging her Northwest Territories home.

“Being evacuated two times in 24 hours is nothing likeI have ever experienced,” she said in an email from the Paddle Prairie Metis Settlement in Alberta, far from where she started earlier this week.

“Minutes feel like hours and days never seem to end.”

Sanderson is one of thousands of N.W.T. residents who have fled the 236 wildfires tearing through the northern boreal forest https://globalnews.ca/news/9894731/wildfires-shut-evacuation-routes-out-of-nwt-towns-some-being-transported-by-air/. More than 20,000 square kilometres have been burned, an area almost four times the size of Prince Edward Island.

Evacuations have been ordered for Fort Smith, Enterprise, Jean Marie River and Hay River.

Many highways have been closed by the fires and the territory is mounting what officials call the largest airlift in its history. The Canadian Forces are on the ground helping firefighters https://globalnews.ca/news/9897126/northwest-territories-wildfires-yellowknife-armed-forces/ and flying evacuees out on Hercules aircraft. |Read more https://globalnews.ca/news/9897940/northwest-territories-wildfires-evacuees-memories/|

#NorthwestTerritories #wildfires #cdnpoli #environment #evacuations #ArmedForces

Are our governments siding with big grocers?

In today’s Big Story podcast, there are thousands of grocery store workers are on strike right now because, they say, they can’t afford to buy food at the chain they work for. Food bank use has skyrocketed. Shoplifting has increased so rapidly that stores are using it as a reason to try to check customers’ bags and receipts. Food inflation still hovers near double digits, even as general inflation has cooled. And the heads of Canada’s huge grocery chains have testified that billions in profits don’t come from hikes to food prices.

Amid all this, the federal government has given some Canadians a one-time grocery rebate and … so far, that’s it, across all levels of government. |Read more https://halifax.citynews.ca/2023/08/15/big-grocers-governments-big-story-podcast|

#grocers #inflation #FoodBank #politics #accomplice #greed

A Pacific marine heat wave has arrived in B.C. waters. Here’s what it means for ocean life

A warm water mass heating up Pacific waters for months has arrived in British Columbia — raising alarms about what impact those temperatures could have on marine life native to the coast.

The Pacific marine heat wave started forming about 1,600 kilometres off the coast in May, but in recent weeks has migrated east toward B.C. and Oregon. The warm water mass, about four million square kilometres in size, was predicted to wash up on B.C. shores by mid-August.

Over recent weeks, surface temperatures in the warm water mass have clocked in at up to five degrees higher than usual, prompting the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration to classify the heat wave as “extreme,” the highest level of classification.

Marine heat waves can cause extreme weather, fuel rising sea levels, and contribute to faster-melting ice caps — all while threatening marine life.

Here’s what you need to know about the one that has reached B.C. waters. |Read more https://ici.radio-canada.ca/rci/en/news/2003322/pacific-marine-heat-wave|

#Heatwave #PacificCoast #environment #bcpoli #cdnpoli #impact

‘No transparency’: Premier Doug Ford faces questions over use of personal phone

As Ontario Premier Doug Ford https://globalnews.ca/tag/premier-doug-ford sat down for a fireside chat at Toronto’s Empire Club https://globalnews.ca/tag/empire-club in June, he gestured to a bank of broadcast television cameras in the back of the room and briefly paused to consider what he was about to say.

“Is this live on TV?” Ford asked, before immediately dismissing his own concern. “It doesn’t matter,” he continued.

“I’m giving my cell number, everyone has it anyways.”

Ford then offered up a phone number, with a 647 area code, to a room full of lobbyists, business leaders and attendees with both private and public interests.

“It is the premier’s personal cell phone number,” a government document sent to Global News as part of an ongoing freedom of information appeal confirmed.

While Ford has made accessibility part of his personal brand, handing his phone number out to voters and CEOs alike, new questions are being raised about who has direct access to the premier, who serves as the ultimate decision-maker in Canada’s largest province.

Those questions have been given new weight after the stinging Greenbelt report from Ontario’s auditor general revealed who has direct and informal access to the Ford government.

Global News files freedom of information request

In an attempt to gain insight into the premier’s government-related phone calls, Global News requested a copy of the call log for Ford’s private cellphone number during a one-week period in November 2022.

The request, however, was denied by government officials on the basis that it was Ford’s personal number and had nothing to do with government business. |Read more https://globalnews.ca/news/9892929/doug-ford-faces-questions-personal-phone/|

#DougFord #transparency #PhoneNumber #GreenBelt #scandal #onpoli

After years of delays, Canada announces plan to adapt to climate change

Amid forest fires on an unheard of scale and heat waves gripping the northern hemisphere, Canada announced a National Adaptation Strategy https://www.canada.ca/en/services/environment/weather/climatechange/climate-plan/national-adaptation-strategy.html to tackle the effects of climate change. This comes after lagging attempts to implement adaptive measures to protect people from the worst effects of climate change.

After coming out of the hottest week on record https://public.wmo.int/en/media/news/preliminary-data-shows-hottest-week-record-unprecedented-sea-surface-temperatures-and, with temperatures in countries reaching the low to mid 40s https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/jul/17/extreme-temperatures-recorded-across-northern-hemisphere, Canada has been struggling with the forest fires burning the most hectares of land https://www.ctvnews.ca/canada/record-breaking-10-million-hectares-of-land-burned-in-canada-s-wildfires-1.6481870 in its history. The smoke from the wildfire blanketed Southern Ontario in early June https://thenarwhal.ca/wildfire-smoke-southern-ontario-2023/, owing to over a hundred fires in Quebec, 79 of which are still burning https://montreal.ctvnews.ca/79-wildfires-burning-in-northern-quebec-11-out-of-control-1.6483861. But now forest fires in the B.C. interior have contributed to the deteriorating air quality and have also led to the evacuation near communities like Pemberton and Gold Bridge.

The ongoing forest fires throughout Canada have now burned over 111,000 square kilometres of land as of July 20. Experts are calling it the worst wildfire season in the history of the continent https://rabble.ca/environment/2023-is-the-year-canada-went-up-in-smoke/. |Read more https://rabble.ca/environment/after-years-of-delays-canada-announces-plan-to-adapt-to-climate-change/|

#environment #wildfires #ClimateChange #destruction