Sheshatshiu youth protesting proposed Gull Island project by walking 130 km to site
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CBC
an hour ago
- CBC
'It's like a ghost town': Waskesiu businesses take hit after wildfire pre-emergency alert
Social Sharing A restaurant owner in Waskesiu, Sask., says wildfire smoke near Prince Albert National Park is causing confusion and panic, and hurting local businesses during their busiest time of year. Poor internet connection? CBC Lite is our low-bandwidth website. Erin Barber, who owns Happy Campers Bar and Grill in the lakeside resort community, said she supports public health advisories, but believes a recent emergency alert about smoke was misunderstood by many as a fire evacuation notice. "There's no fire evacuation going on," Barber said. "So as far as we are all concerned, the media has created widespread panic and we are now losing out as businesses." Parks Canada issued a wildfire pre-emergency alert on Sunday evening due to the Buhl Fire burning about 40 kilometres away from the Waskesiu townsite, located about 200 kilometres northeast of Saskatoon. The alert warned of deteriorating air quality and visibility from smoke, and encouraged people with lung conditions, young children or elderly residents to consider leaving temporarily. Barber said her restaurant has seen a sharp drop in business since the alert. She said many visitors packed up and left the community Monday morning, even though there has been no official evacuation order and no immediate threat to the townsite. "It was busy. It was like a normal summer day," she said. "And now it's like a ghost town." Barber said she understands why vulnerable people might choose to leave, but that public messaging should have been clearer. "There will be an emergency alert that goes out that every single person will get if there's any risk to the townsite," she said. "That hasn't happened." 'Not as bad as people would think': Waskesiu Trading Company Further up the road, the general manager of the Waskesiu Trading Company said the smoke in Waskesiu is not as bad as people perceive. "We're still actually able to just barely see across the lake there right now,"Jason Carroll told CBC early Tuesday morning, lifting his phone to show what looked like a light fog in the air. He said the community had "nice clear skies" Monday until smoke kicked in toward the afternoon, "but still not as bad as people would think." The pre-emergency alert was a surprise to Carroll, who said conditions are much worse elsewhere. "I've talked to some people over the phone who are in Prince Albert," said Carroll. "The smoke is actually a lot worse there than what it is here." While the business is still running as usual, it is a lot quieter than is typical on a day in July. "It's like how it is in spring and fall," said Carroll, who has baked at the business over the last five summers. "Definitely a dip down for sure compared to usual." Carroll said the alert won't take as large of a toll on his business, which often serves food to firefighters in these kinds of situations, as it will for non-food related businesses like the local gift shop and liquor stores. He said there could have been better communication around what the alert really means. "I feel like from my understanding the alert was more for the smoke, for people with, you know, asthma, the elderly, stuff like that," Carroll said. "[Tourists] are worried about the fire rather than the smoke." David Archer, co-owner of the Waskesiu Trading Company, echoed the need for better communication from Parks Canada. He said the wildfire travelling in the community's direction is not likely, based on previous years. "Winds tend to move westerly in this part of this area," Archer said. He said there should be daily updates to better inform businesses and visitors. "People plan their vacations months in advance," he said. "Let them continue with their life and make informed decisions." Parks Canada speaks on evacuation confusion Greg Walker, an incident commander for Parks Canada, said the alert was issued as fire encroached into Prince Albert National Park. "Although there's no immediate threat to the communities of Waskesiu and the nearby outlying ones, there still is a threat from the wildfires up to the northeast of the park," Greg Walker said on CBC's Saskatoon Morning Tuesday, He said the park may not be a stranger to wildfires, but weather conditions are different this year. "There's a long standing drought in this area of the country. And so the wildfire activity and extreme fire behaviour that's happened throughout the province of Saskatchewan, Manitoba this year is related to that," Walker said. Walker said Parks Canada wants to be proactive in its evacuation efforts. He said a pre-emergency alert makes things run smoother if a full evacuation order is issued. "If we evacuate, there will be congestion. There will be people with special needs, will be susceptible people," Walker said. "The other pieces, the air quality and the smoke is going to affect some people." In the meantime, Parks Canada has brought in specialists, including the Saskatchewan Public Safety Association, to present a unified front in fighting the fire. "We expect the communications to improve. We'll dedicate a number of people to that and the communications will become quite a bit more regular," Walker said.
CBC
2 hours ago
- CBC
OC Transpo introducing monthly fare cap for Presto users
OC Transpo is introducing monthly fare capping for Presto cards, extending the money-saving payment feature to pay-per-ride passengers who are already eligible for discounts. The new fare cap starts Aug. 1, according to a memo from outgoing OC Transpo general manager Renée Amilcar on Tuesday. The feature will prevent Presto card holders from spending more than the cost of a monthly pass on individual fares. For example, a passenger paying the $4 adult fare will ride for free for the rest of the month once they've spent $135, the price of a monthly pass. Otherwise, they could end up paying for a monthly pass they don't fully use, or spend more paying per ride than they would on a pass. The feature was introduced for riders who pay with credit cards and mobile wallets in the late summer of 2023, and debit cards in the spring of 2024. However, certain discount fares for youth, seniors and lower-income customers have only been available to passengers using Presto cards. Now they, too, can take advantage of the fare cap. Riders are asked to keep tapping their Presto cards after they've reached the monthly cap to prove they've paid, and to allow for more accurate ridership tracking, according to Amilcar, whose time as general manager ends Friday.
CTV News
5 hours ago
- CTV News
VIA Rail to mark 120 years of The Ocean route with event in Halifax
VIA Rail is celebrating a significant milestone on Tuesday in Halifax. The Ocean, Canada's oldest passenger rail service, began its route between Halifax and Montreal in July 1904. People are invited to attend a one-day celebration marking 120 years of service and explore the train and the refurbished Halifax Station. 'It carried people for two world wars, countless immigrants, new arrivals in Canada who took the train, we populated the country using the train from east to west, so it's got a long history and a very interesting history,' Mario Peloquin, CEO of VIA Rail, told CTV Atlantic's Todd Battis. The Ocean has had a reported 100,000,000 passengers over its lifespan. 'We're very thankful to the federal government for continuing to support the renewal of VIA Rail. So the latest announcement in budget 2024 was to buy a brand-new fleet of cars for the coast-to-coast-to-coast passenger cars for the whole country,' Peloquin said. Peloquin added he's optimistic about the future of rail travel in Canada, and he's not the only one. 'When you talk to people, younger generations like the train a lot more than any other mode of transport, also a lot of the younger generations don't really want to be driving a car,' he said. 'Taking the train is the way to go, more comfortable, easier to access, and so on, and just the ride itself is the beginning of a vacation or a long, productive trip, depending on what kind of travel you're doing.' Peloquin said the corporation is working hard on its new strategic plan and the future looks bright for passenger rail in Canada. 'We're seeing the ridership numbers continue to go up, including on The Ocean here, the last year saw over a thousand additional riders in each direction and the numbers keep going up as we speak, so people are interested,' he said. However, there hasn't been much improvement with delays caused by freight train traffic taking priority on the tracks. 'It's a very complex issue as you can imagine, the infrastructure is owned by private companies, freight railroads. We have to have agreements with them to operate our passenger trains between the increasing traffic, freight traffic, all throughout Canada, and so for that reason it is very complicated,' said Peloquin. 'They run the economy, they carry the economy of the country, we carry the passengers that travel by train, so the mix of the two is quite complex, but we're continuously working with them in collaboration to increase what we can do and how we can do it better while keeping their interests of course in mind.' Peloquin said VIA Rail does well with on-time performance on the portions of the tracks it owns. 'We do very well on those aspects that we can control. The other part unfortunately with the mix of freight traffic, which is going up all the time, you see it in Halifax with the container ships that keep arriving, they need to travel to the rest of the country, so more freight trains mean more difficulties in being on time,' he said. 'I talk with the railroads regularly about doing what they can to help us keep on time, we're having some complex issues right now, including, for example, in central Canada the extreme heat causes slow restrictions to happen because we're running on rail and steel gets hot, we need to keep things safe.' The federal government's new Canada Strong Pass allows children aged 17 and under to travel for free on VIA Rail when accompanied by an adult. Peloquin said it has been going well so far. 'It's been going on for a few weeks and right now our numbers show an additional 20,000 or so additional passengers because of the Canada Strong Pass, so the people in Canada really like the fact that parents can bring their children with them or people between 18 and 24 can travel with a 25 per cent discount, we've seen a real uptick in passengers taking the opportunity,' he said. Tuesday's VIA Rail event in Halifax kicks off at 11:30 a.m. Admission is free and a limited number of spots will be available for walk-ins between noon and 8 p.m. For more Nova Scotia news, visit our dedicated provincial page
