B.C. is burning through its wildfire budget well before the season even peaks
Total budget for 2023 season at $204M, as province transitions B.C. Wildfire Service to year-round service The B.C Wildfire Service (BCWS) has now spent $105.3 million fighting fires so far this season, burning through half of its allocated budget well before the start of the peak fire season. The service provided the figures in a statement to CBC News on Monday. The BCWS’s total budget for the 2023 fire season is $204 million. In 2022, the budget was $199 million. “However, B.C. Wildfire Service has the authority to spend as required over those amounts for suppression activity,Read more
The U.S. uses a food stamp program to tackle food insecurity. Should Canada?
In 2022, more than 41 million people in the U.S. purchased food with SNAP benefits West Virginian Meghan Hullinger is a single mother of four who, despite working a full-time job, says she has only about $45 left over each month after paying most of her basic living expenses. So for the past six years, Hullinger has been using a government issued debit card at her nearby grocery to purchase food for her family. She is one of the millions of Americans who use that card as part of the U.S. Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) — a federal food security program run byRead more
Rescued child says mom survived 4 days after plane crash in Colombian jungle before dying
4 children spent 40 days in jungle before rescue; expected to remain in hospital The four Indigenous children who survived 40 days in the Amazon jungle after their plane crashed have shared limited but harrowing details of their ordeal with their family, including that their mother survived the crash for days before she died. The children, aged 13, 9 and 4 years and 11 months, are expected to remain for at least two weeks in a hospital receiving treatment after their rescue on Friday, but some are already speaking andRead more
5 arrested at tense faceoff between group protesting ‘gender ideology’ and counter-demonstrators
Hundreds of protesters on both sides led to temporary closure of Broadview Avenue Five people were arrested on Broadview Avenue in Ottawa on Friday, where hundreds of demonstrators gathered to “drown out” and counter a man who was protesting what he calls “gender ideology.” The two groups chanted slogans like “protect trans rights” and “leave the kids alone” at each other, at times separated by a line of police officers. Three schools and a medical centre sit along or near Broadview Avenue close to where the demonstration was held. OnRead more
Northern B.C. wildfire on the edge of Tumbler Ridge townsite has more than doubled in size
Fire is ‘not receptive to any sort of suppression activities’: official The West Kiskatinaw River wildfire burning in northern B.C. — now an estimated 230 square kilometres in size, up from 96 square kilometres on Thursday — is pushing closer to the evacuated town of Tumbler Ridge. Forrest Tower, an information officer with the B.C. Wildfire Service (BCWS), said Friday morning the blaze is four to five kilometres away from Highway 52, which runs through Tumbler Ridge. Meanwhile, the District of Tumbler Ridge is reporting the fire as being “aboutRead more
The Calgary affordable housing idea that divides conservatives, federal and local
Pierre Poilievre’s MPs shout ‘NIMBY’ at the councillors they typically call allies Two things are traditionally true of many (if not most) Calgary city councillors. They want to address the lack of affordable housing. They also want to avoid giving discomfort to the many homeowners who love how far away they live from lower-cost duplexes, row houses or apartments, and how hard it is for anyone to build those types of homes near them. These two values clashed loudly this week, and the results at city hall were rather messy.Read more
Canada attends first-of-its-kind UFO briefing at the Pentagon
Amid extraordinary new claims, U.S. office delivers its first briefing to allied nations The Canadian government has confirmed its participation in a first-of-its kind international meeting on unidentified flying objects hosted at United States military headquarters. The gathering at the Pentagon late last month comes amid a burst of activity in Washington and eye-popping news reports related to so-called Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena (UAP). It featured a U.S.-led briefing to visitors from nations of the Five Eyes intelligence-sharing alliance, which includes Canada, the United Kingdom, Australia and New Zealand. The Canadian DepartmentRead more
Quebec fire authorities say they’re unable to bring all fires under control
Val d’Or and Normétal latest municipalities evacuated, forest access banned Quebec’s fire authority says it’s unable to bring all 153 fires burning in the province under control. It says it can only attack between 20 to 30 fires at a time until reinforcement arrives. “We took charge of 35 fires today, compared to 21 yesterday. We chose specific fires to protect our critical infrastructures, but above all to protect our population,” said Public Security Minister François Bonnardel at a news conference Sunday. “All our resources are concentrated on these fires.” Armed forces and firefightersRead more
Quebec’s North Shore communities grieving after deaths of 4 children, 1 man during fishing trip
Group was fishing on St. Lawrence shoreline when tide swept away several people As Quebec provincial police investigate the deaths of four children and one man on a fishing trip on the St. Lawrence River shoreline in Portneuf-sur-Mer, Que., communities in Quebec’s North Shore region are expressing their shock and grief. According to a report by Radio-Canada, the children hailed from the village of Les Escoumins, Que., about 44 kilometres south of Portneuf-sur-Mer. Provincial police have said they will not release the identities of the children, but the one adult victim hasRead more
Federal government’s plans to implement N.S. mass shooting report still up in the air
Ottawa, N.S. set up watchdog to monitor progress on Mass Casualty Commission recommendations Two months after a commission investigating the worst mass shooting in Canadian history made sweeping calls to reform the RCMP and improve community safety, it’s still not clear how many of its recommendations the federal government will adopt. On March 30, the heads of the Mass Casualty Commission released a final report with 130 recommendations over more than 3,000 pages. The commission was struck to investigate the deaths of 22 people at the hands of a gunmanRead more