Most Albertans will soon pay $110 for a COVID shot
With Alberta soon to end free COVID-19 vaccines for most residents, there's growing concern about cost, coverage and access — especially for vulnerable seniors. When provincial funding ends, most Albertans will have to pay an estimated $110 per dose.
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CBC
22 minutes ago
- CBC
Portion of Wheatley, Ont., evacuated for gas leak 4 years after gas explosion rocked town
More residents of Wheatley, Ont., have now been evacuated from their homes after first responders found hydrogen sulfide gas "bubbling" in the area near the community's library. In a statement released Thursday evening, the Municipality of Chatham-Kent said the evacuation zone had been expanded beyond Foster Street to include all residents within 100 metres of the site, for a total of 60 homes. An evacuation centre has been established. "The evacuation site, located at 196 Erie St. N, will be open to affected residents for the duration of the evacuation. No timeframe has yet been established," the municipality said in a statement. Chatham-Kent's fire chief reported on social media Thursday afternoon that crews responded around 1:45 p.m. to reports of "a strong smell of gas." "When we arrived, we found an area at the back of the library that is bubbling with water and gas coming up, which we confirmed is hydrogen sulfide," said Chief Chris Case on X. Teams on site now include Chatham-Kent first responders, as well as employment and social services, victims services and local utilities. The municipality also noted a hazardous materials team from Windsor and geological scientists from the University of Windsor are attending, as are representatives from the ministries of environment, natural resources and emergency preparedness. Parts of downtown Wheatley were levelled in 2021 when an abandoned gas well exploded injuring 20 people. Last October, town officials announced that the well, at 17 Talbot St. E., had been drilled, cased and cemented, and a monitoring well established in 2021 had stopped venting gas, including hydrogen sulfide. 'A terrible thing to happen again' The officials said at the time they were "optimistic" that gas emission issues in the area may be resolved. "We know this is a terrible thing to happen again, however all the agencies are here working so we just ask for your co-operation while we try and work out what's going on and try and get the best result we can," Case said on Thursday. Hydrogen sulfide is a colourless gas with a characteristic rotten egg smell that can be released from wastewater treatment systems, oil and gas facilities, livestock operations, pulp and paper mills and mining operations, according to information on the Health Canada website. WATCH | Downtown Wheatley gas explosion from summer 2021: Video of Wheatley explosion 3 years ago Duration 0:44 It can also be released from inactive oil and gas wells. Natural sources include volcanoes, hot springs, petroleum crude oil deposits, decomposing plants and animals and normal bodily functions. One gas technician whose business was affected by the 2021 explosion said the situation is "a little unnerving." Doug Walker, who owns Walker Tetra Mechanical, lost a van in the explosion in 2021. 'A little concerned' He said he had enough equipment on his truck on Thursday to get him through Friday's jobs. But if the incident proves to be serious, "then I'm right back to where we started again." "I don't even want to think about it," he said. "I don't want to think about it. I really don't." Area resident Al Ringrose said Thursday's incident also had him feeling "a little concerned." "We were evacuated for a couple of years," he said. "We thought we had everything taken care of now, and yeah, so it looks like there's still issues." Another resident, Jeff Edwards, said he didn't know what to expect after first responders ordered him to leave the area Thursday. He left his apartment above the Dollar Haven and Discount store Thursday without even bringing his pills, he said. "I got food up there too," said Edwards, who is from the area but wasn't living there in the aftermath of the 2021 explosion. "I had chicken out for supper, but I don't think it's going to be very good if it lasts too long." Walker said he first noticed the smell of gas while unloading two of his trucks on Thursday. "Everybody was coming out of their stores saying that we could smell … something," he said. He began checking gas metres but couldn't see a problem, so he called 911. "None of us want to go through this again, ever, ever," he said, referring to the 2021 explosion. Police are urging the public to stay away from the area until further notice.
Globe and Mail
2 hours ago
- Globe and Mail
Why cuts to a U.S. inspection agency matter for Canadian food
For months, the 'buy Canadian' movement has inspired Canadians to shift their shopping habits away from American goods. While this has mostly been a patriotic move, some experts say recent cuts at the Food and Drug Administration, the agency responsible for inspecting 80 per cent of American food, might give Canadians another reason to think twice about buying American products at the grocery store. Kate Helmore is The Globe's agriculture and food policy reporter. She's on the show to talk about why the cuts at the FDA have some experts concerned, how intertwined the U.S. and Canadian food systems are, and why it's so challenging to disentangle them. Questions? Comments? Ideas? Email us at thedecibel@
CBC
2 hours ago
- CBC
Health-care workers who treat refugees plan message to Trump administration
Adeb Arianson fled his home in Kabul just days before the capital of Afghanistan fell to the Taliban in 2021, as Western nations were evacuating their citizens and panic seized the city. He crossed the border to Tajikistan, where he had to spend a few weeks in a hospital recovering from physical and mental shock. "The panic attacks, the thoughts that were coming on and all the pressure of what's going to happen? What am I going to do?" Arianson recalled in a recent interview. "It was constant panic attacks. It was fear, it was just shock." Arianson, now 23, eventually arrived in Canada as a government-assisted refugee in 2022. He will be a guest speaker at an international conference in Halifax this weekend, where hundreds of health-care workers are gathering to discuss refugee and migrant health. Last year the conference had more than 1,000 attendees, and about 75 per cent of them were from the United States. This year attendance has dropped to about 500. Many attendees didn't attend because they were afraid of having trouble re-entering the United States—particularly if they were not born there—in the wake of the Trump administration's immigration policies. As well, many agencies had their federal funding cut, said conference organizer Dr. Annalee Coakley. She said the conference attendees are planning to send a message about protection of vulnerable migrants by drafting a statement they are calling the "Halifax Declaration," which they will submit to a major medical journal. "Patients are very, very fearful if they come from a migrant background," said Coakley, a family doctor who works in Inverness, N.S. She is also the co-director of a research program on refugee health in Calgary. "Together we have a shared voice, and we share values and so we're hoping to put together a statement in support of refugee and migrant rights, and their right to health," she said. In January 2025, the Trump administration issued an executive order saying it would suspend the United States Refugee Admission Program for an indefinite period of time. President Donald Trump called on U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to carry out mass deportations, and ended programs that allowed some migrants to live and work in the United States. Refugees go through a different process, which usually involves being referred for resettlement by the United Nations. In the days following the suspension of the refugee admission program, thousands of refugees who were cleared to travel to the U.S. had their plans halted, including Afghan refugees who helped American armed forces when they were based in that country. Arianson has been following the news from his home in Halifax, and felt it was important to speak out at the conference. "As a refugee myself, as someone who went through this journey, I have seen the gaps and the struggles that refugees go through," he said. "I saw the opportunity and I thought I have the chance to raise my voice." Arianson was 18 years old when he left Afghanistan, and fled alone because his immediate family was killed when he was a toddler after the family car struck an explosive device. As a queer person and proud member of Halifax's LGBTQ community, Arianson knew living in Afghanistan under the Taliban would be dangerous for him. "Refugees are people that are just looking for a spot, a place to just be able to be themselves and be alive," he said, adding that he thinks it is "inhumane" for the United States to close its doors to refugees. Dr. Katherine McKenzie is the director of the Yale Center for Asylum Medicine, and came to the Halifax conference from New Haven, Conn. "I am very worried and concerned, and really sad as well," said McKenzie, who cares for many resettled refugee families. "I am always concerned that the families will be split up, that maybe a mom or dad will be deported," she said. "What will happen with the children in that case?" McKenzie said she is seeing families come to her clinic filled with stress and anxiety. "Obviously I'm a doctor, I want people who I see as patients to be healthy—mentally healthy and physically healthy. And this scenario .... is absolutely interfering and having an effect on mental and physical health," she said. Coakley said in her first conference meeting, one attendee shared a story of a family who delayed bringing their child to an emergency department out of fear of being deported. "When they finally did present to the emergency department they had a ruptured appendix, and that's potentially life-threatening," she said. "That's a very precarious place to be, and it's unconscionable in a country with plenty," she said.
