N.S. fire that killed 3 children ruled accidental
A memorial is pictured outside a home on Riverside Drive in Lower Sackville, N.S., following a fire. (CTV Atlantic)
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National Post
an hour ago
- National Post
Fewer education assistants means less support for Delta students
Article content DELTA, British Columbia — A shortage of education assistants in Delta Schools will mean less support for the district's most vulnerable students next school year. This is the warning from CUPE 1091, the union representing school support workers in the Delta School District. Article content 'Education assistants are overwhelmed trying to meet the needs of students. Come September, there will be even fewer of them,' says Daun Frederickson, a Delta school support worker and president of CUPE 1091. 'It is so much harder for students with complex needs to succeed at school without one-on-one support. For our schools to be truly inclusive, they need EAs.' Article content The Delta School District is faced with a half million-dollar shortfall for its 2025-2026 budget. Despite an ongoing shortage of EAs, the district will not be able to replace retiring EAs and will need to leave other EA and support staff positions vacant, unless the province steps in with more education funding for the next school year. Article content 'B.C. public schools should be inclusive for every child. Cutting EAs, like in Delta, Surrey, and Prince George, just to name a few communities, makes it harder for schools to be inclusive for students with complex needs,' says Paul Simpson, head of the K-12 Presidents Council and a Burnaby school support worker. Article content The K-12 Presidents Council, representing over 60 K-12 support staff union locals across B.C., including CUPE 1091, says the cuts being experienced in Delta are happening across B.C. It has launched a province-wide campaign, Better BC Schools, calling on the province to increase funding for EAs and other supports for public schools to help B.C. families. Article content 'School support workers could be doing so much more – helping more students in every grade, helping expand before- and after- school child care spaces we desperately need,' says Simpson. 'These are investments that could make a real difference for practically every family in this province. All school support workers in B.C. are dedicated to making our schools better for students and are ready to work with school districts and the province towards that goal.' Article content Article content Article content Article content Article content Contacts Article content For more information: Article content
CTV News
an hour ago
- CTV News
Report blames improper grading, blocked catch basin for catastrophic flooding to Embrun homes
Brenden Haldane at his Embrun home that was destroyed in a flood on June 9, 2025 (Katelyn Wilson/CTV News). Nearly a year after a newly built semi-detached property in Embrun, Ont. was destroyed by flooding, an engineering report points to improper grading and a blocked catch basin as the cause. Brenden Haldane purchased the home in the community of St. Thomas Place, about 45 kilometers southeast of Ottawa, last February as an investment. 'My work has been impacted, my kids' lives have been impacted, my mom's life has been impacted,' Haldane said. 'Every day I wake up thinking if this is the day that I'm out of money.' In March, catastrophic flooding destroyed the home along with the one next door, displacing seven tenants, including Haldane's mother. 'I was giving back to my mom in the best way possible and in the blink of an eye, it's all taken away from you,' he said. Embrun Ontario flooding A look at the properties for homes that experienced flooding in Embrun, Ont. in March. (Katelyn Wilson/CTV News Ottawa) According to the engineering report obtained by CTV News Ottawa, in some areas Haldane's property slopes two feet lower than the house adjacent to his, sending water to the foundation. Which the report says that along with a retaining wall installed months after he moved in, violates the Ontario Building Code and 'will likely cause a reoccurrence of this issue if corrective actions are not undertaken.' 'I basically purchased a new home and expected it to be up to code or up to par,' Haldane said. 'It was only when I noticed that I did not get sod and everyone else had gotten theirs and their grading was complete that it raised questions.' Brenden Haldane A look at the damage inside Brenden Haldane home in Embrun, Ont. (Katelyn Wilson/CTV News Ottawa) Haldane, along with the owner next-door Josée Greaves, say they weren't aware of any grading issues when they bought from Saca Homes in February and April 2024. 'I would have never purchased this property had I been aware that there were deficiencies from the beginning,' said Greaves. CTV News reached out to Saca Homes for comment but was directed to the municipality and developer for questions, saying, 'The developer, who Saca Homes buys lots from, puts in this infrastructure and it then gets reviewed by the municipality.' Embrun, Ont. flood damage Flood waters destroyed this semi-detached home in Embrun, Ont. and displaced seven people from their home in March 2025. The homeowner is seeking accountability after learning about grading issues on the property after taking ownership. (Andrew Greaves/Provided) A grading report from October 2023 shows their lots had not yet met grading and drainage standards, months before they moved in. The grading didn't pass final inspection by the Township of Russell until November 2024, now the homeowners are questioning if it should have passed in the first place. 'It's very frustrating that all of those little things that they were aware of were just hidden and not told to us,' said Greaves. Emails from the builder show work was still being signed off on after the homeowners took possession, including the installation of a retaining wall on Haldane's property. In one exchange from October 2024, Saca Homes tells Haldane, 'The developer is responsible for the grading issues on your lot. We are waiting on the good to go signal from them. Their engineers need to sign off on the grading plan and the retention wall. Once that is done, the city planner must sign off on it as well.' 'I just thought putting the retaining wall was a preventative measure… I didn't think that my house was going to flood at all, let alone to that extent. For five to six feet of water to enter the home is completely abnormal,' Haldane said. 'Here we are, brand new home that is pretty much a year old now and it's condemned, it's absurd.' Embrun flooding The aftermath of the flooding inside the basement unit on Wednesday, March 16, 2025 (Genevieve Lavoie/Provided) Embrun home The aftermath of the flooding inside the basement in March 2025. (Genevieve Lavoie/Provided) The township's insurer alleges it's not at fault, saying, 'Our investigation is now complete, and we have found that the Township of Russell was not responsible for the storm water management system at the time of the loss.' Pointing to the storm water management system for the flooding, the township alleges the developer 1437137 Ontario Inc. has, 'Not yet applied for approval of the storm water management system; therefore, the storm water management system is still under their jurisdiction.' But according to the engineering report, while the blocked catch basin was a culprit, it also says, 'The elevation of this building and the inadequate grading relative to the neighbour's and adjacent terrain caused this scenario where this accumulation of water adjacent to the foundation was possible.' Embrun house The day of the flooding last month on Monday, March 17, 2025 (Andrew Greaves/Provided) While insurance is covering some of the damage next door, Haldane says he's been left high and dry, while getting quotes of upwards of $250,000. 'The fact that the house needs to be pretty much elevated, there's only two ways to do that. Either you lift the house, redo the foundation and put it back or you just completely tear it down,' he said. 'Whether it be the builder, whether it be the municipality, whether it be the insurance company, whether it be the developer, somebody needs to take responsibility.' CTV News reached out to the Township of Russell for comment but did not hear back.
National Post
an hour ago
- National Post
Half a century ago, 'Andy the Cat' helped build Sudbury's Superstack
Article content As workers begin to chip away at the Superstack, slowly dismantling it from the top down, a Val Caron retiree is thinking back on the time he spent climbing with it into the clouds as a member of the original construction crew. Raising the mega chimney went remarkably fast, given the scope of the task at hand. The metre-thick base started to take shape in the spring of 1970 and, by the end of that summer, the concrete shell — which split the horizon like a giant dinner candle — was basically complete. (It would also need a steel liner, however, and would not go into operation until 1972.) 'You could go one foot an hour pouring concrete, and even faster as it tapered off,' said Andre Gallant. 'I was working 12-14 hours a day, but it was a good experience. How many times do you get to go up that high?' The stack would ultimately reach 1,250 feet, exceeding the level of the observation deck on the CN Tower. Gallant, in his early 30s at the time, would be among the group gathered at its dizzying peak to celebrate the occasion. 'I was there when they poured the last bucket of concrete,' he said. 'We put up a Canada flag at the top when we were done.' Some guys, including Gallant, also scrawled a few words on the structure. 'I took a paint crayon and printed out the names of my wife and three kids on that white ring you see at the top,' he said. A welder by trade and member of the Ironworkers local in Sudbury, Gallant's main job was to manage the placement of the steel rods required to reinforce the concrete. More than 1,000 tons of this rebar — with rods ranging in size from a half-inch to nearly an inch-and-a-half — went into the structure, according to an Inco Triangle article from the time. 'The people down below would send up a package of rods to the scaffold where I was standing on the chimney,' said Gallant. 'I would undo the hook from the crane, lay it down, and then two or three other guys would spread the rod all around the stack.' He also welded angle-iron fixtures for aircraft warning lights and performed various maintenance tasks, including greasing the wheels for the hoist. Workers travelled up and down in a small cage — it could fit four men, squeezed together — that ran inside the chimney, while concrete was hauled up in buckets and delivered to the forms by rubber-tired buggies. All this happened atop a 200-ton construction platform, elevated by a system of hydraulic jacks that supported an erection tower. Safety nets were strung below, inside the stack, but workers were often performing tasks near the edge and fall-prevention gear seems to have been optional, or at least not strictly enforced. 'They promoted (that) you have a harness with you all the time, but most of the guys didn't bother with them,' said Gallant. He was among that cavalier camp. Photos taken at the time show him navigating narrow walkways at great heights, or casually clinging to a part of the spidery superstructure, with little more than a hard hat and work boots for protection. Old habits die hard, apparently. 'A couple of years ago, I found him on top of a ladder with a shop vac in one hand, vacuuming leaves out of the eavestrough,' said daughter Rhonda. 'I couldn't handle it and had to walk away.' Gallant, now 87, admits he wasn't quite so confident in his first year as an ironworker. 'In those days, if you put a building up, you had to climb a column (a vertical I-beam or H-beam) by hand, like a monkey,' he said. 'If you asked a foreman for a ladder, they would say 'go home.'' Over time, however, he got quite adept at scaling various structures and any acrophobia he might have had to begin with was gone. A few years before he joined the crew on the Superstack, he had even acquired the nickname The Cat for his fearlessness and agility. 'I was going up to the top of an A-frame at Stobie (Mine) and the guy down below said, 'Hey Andy, you look like a cat up there,' ' he said. 'It stuck and I was Andy the Cat after that.' When the stack was nearly complete, a tornado swept through Sudbury, killing six people in the city and putting the lives of many workers on the Inco edifice at risk. Rhonda was a child at the time and recalls her mom looking anxiously out the window of their home, in the direction of Copper Cliff, as the storm was brewing. Gallant was on the job that day, but as fate would have it ended up experiencing the blow from a lower level than he would have ordinarily. 'I went up in the morning and I could tell we were going to have a storm,' he recalled. 'But when I got to the top, I realized I had forgotten my respirator (which was important on days when fumes were coming from an existing Inco chimney). I said I'm going to choke today, so I went back down on the elevator, and when I got about 15 feet from the ground, the power kicked out.' He didn't want to stay trapped in the cage, especially if some debris started flying down as a result of the tempest, so he opened the door and jumped down to a pile of gravel. 'I lay on my side, curled up, in case I was going to get hit by 2x4s and plywood.' Six workers were on the construction platform at the time, all of whom luckily survived. Many crew members weren't eager to keep working after that, however, said Gallant, so he found his hours increased in the aftermath of the scare. Quite a few people packed it in over the course of the project, he said, either because they found the shifts too demanding or the heights too scary, but he was determined to see it out. 'I had too much pride,' he said. 'I said if I quit now, it would be chickening out. After I was there, I wanted to finish it.' He also enjoyed the views from such a lofty vantage point. During the daytime, you could see clear to Silver Peak in Killarney. At night — the concrete work went 24 hours a day, Monday to Friday — there was a spectacle of lights from communities spread over a huge distance, not to mention the stars above. Some days, you couldn't see anything, as mist or smoke enwrapped the stack, and you would gag on sulphur if your mask wasn't handy. But that could be survived through a sense of purpose, decent pay, and a few moments of levity. One day, about a week before the stack was complete, Gallant — an avid golfer to this day — smuggled a five-iron up to the top, hidden inside a pant leg. He had also pocketed a ping-pong ball. The tee-off occurred on a couple of planks of wood, balanced more than 1,000 feet in the air. Gallant isn't sure where his shot landed but he's pretty sure the hollow plastic orb didn't injure anyone. His happiest memory of the job? 'That moment when it was done,' he said. 'Being able to say, I did it.' He and the other workers celebrated at the top but also when they got down to terra firma. Some of the Americans on the project had brought in bottles of bourbon and they all clinked glasses in a construction trailer. 'I don't like bourbon, but I took a shot anyway,' said Gallant. 'It would have been better if it was Wiser's (Canadian whisky).' In subsequent years, he could always look up at the stack, from pretty much any place in Sudbury he happened to be, and feel some pride and nostalgia about the time he spent making it happen. But he's not actually that upset about the fact that it is coming down. 'It was a great summer for me,' he said. 'Now it's just more work for the younger guys coming up.'
