Maritimes treated to summer heat while parts of Canada could use some rain
CTV Atlantic meteorologist Kalin Mitchell says there is summer-like warmth in the Maritimes while parts of the Prairies are hot and smoky.
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CBC
32 minutes ago
- CBC
Fishermen spot pod of killer whales off Cape Breton
Lobster fishermen in northern Cape Breton got an up-close glimpse of a pod of killer whales this week, a sighting that a marine biologist says is on the rise. Bernie Lamey was hauling lobster traps on Monday not far off Cape Smokey, a famous Cabot Trail landmark, when a couple of orcas started circling the boat. Within 10 minutes, the fishermen had spotted about a dozen. The orcas seemed to be in a playful mood. "They came around our boat, bumped into the boat, rolled around, showed their bellies, [came] up and had a little look at us," he told CBC's Information Morning Cape Breton. "They almost looked like they were more interested in us than we were of them. It was pretty spectacular." Lamey said he knew right away they were killer whales by their distinctive black-and-white colouring. "That's a pretty hard whale to miss," he said. "We get to see all kinds of marine life out there.... Looking down in the water and seeing something that's only three feet away from you that's the size of your boat is pretty impressive." At least one whale stayed several hundred metres away, but Lamey said he knew it was an orca, too, because its dorsal fin was nearly two metres tall. "The fact that they were killer whales and the fact that there was 10 or 12 of them there at one time and they decided to stay and play for a few minutes was just an experience that I'll never forget." Elizabeth Zwamborn, a marine biologist and a professor at Trinity Western University in B.C., runs an annual survey of pilot whales off northern Cape Breton. They're black like orcas, but don't have white patches on their cheeks and have smaller dorsal fins. It's possible to mistake juvenile white-beaked dolphins as juvenile orcas because they're both black and white, but Zwamborn said the videos and photos she's seen this week off Cape Breton are definitely killer whales. Zwamborn said only one orca has been seen inshore in the 27 years the study has been running. They're more commonly spotted farther out in the North Atlantic off Newfoundland and Labrador or in the Arctic. Climate change is affecting the ocean's temperature, bringing North Atlantic right whales into the Gulf of St. Lawrence. Belugas have also left the Gulf and headed to Cape Breton, but it's not clear why they wandered so far from home. This year, orcas have been seen off Cape Breton near Money Point, Cape Smokey and Flint Island, Zwamborn said. It could be the same pod, or it could be more than one.
CBC
2 hours ago
- CBC
Sherbrooke, Que., faces growing pains as it looks to expand its cycling network
On her daily rides through Sherbrooke, Que., Laurence Williams often finds herself cruising along a bike path — until it suddenly comes to an end. A self-described "utilitarian cyclist," who uses her bicycle for all her transportation needs, Williams says it's possible to get around the city by bike. But it's not always easy. "Sometimes you have a beginning of a bike path and then it just stops," Williams says, adding that this kind of interruption is common on the cycling network in the city, located 150 kilometres east of Montreal. Aside from being inconvenient to someone who is looking for the fastest route to a given destination, Williams feels that the variability in what kinds of infrastructure exist for cyclists also makes her commutes more dangerous, because it is harder to know what is coming up around the next corner. "When you use your bike on a day-to-day basis, you want your route to be quick, to be safe and predictable," she says. Williams argues that in a city like Sherbrooke where there appears to be political will for bike and environmentally friendly initiatives, she expects it to be easier to make progress. "In a context where ecological transition has been mentioned as a priority for the City of Sherbrooke and a context where more than 50 per cent of our citywide greenhouse gas emissions are directly related to transportation, we really need to go faster." 'A big challenge' for the city In May, Sherbrooke highlighted 16 areas where expansions to the cycling network have been planned. Over the next three years, the hope is to bridge a number of significant gaps in the existing system. According to Anne-Sophie Demers, a division chief for sustainable and integrated mobility with Sherbrooke's Strategic Territorial Development Service, the goal of these priority areas is to improve the connectivity between different parts of the network. "It is a big challenge for our team because the context and situation is never the same," Demers says. Demers and her team have been charged with trying to determine how best to implement safe and functional bike paths on existing roads without disrupting the needs of existing traffic. It is an urban planning puzzle, she said, because some roads are simply not large enough to accommodate both drivers and cyclists on fully protected bike lanes. Despite those difficulties, Demers says that the city has been in conversation with local cycling groups to try to find the best options available in the hopes that a more secure cycling network will open the door to more cyclists. The city is also trying to improve access to bikes in other ways. Demers notes that there is currently work underway for the installation of Bixi bike-sharing stations similar to the system that has been in place in Montreal for more than a decade "We think it has the potential to transform mobility in Sherbrooke." The initial Bixi system in Sherbrooke is expected to have 250 bicycles at 25 stations, with 80 per cent of the fleet being e-bikes. Although no official start date has yet been announced, Demers says the system should be operational by July. A city with a lot of potential "The arrival of e-bikes has literally changed the landscape of who's able to cycle," says Magali Bebronne, director of programs at Vélo Québec. The cycling advocacy group is one of the parties Demers's team has turned to for support and data in its planning process. Vélo Québec conducts regular research into the state of bicycle adoption in several different Quebec cities, including Sherbrooke. For a city as hilly as Sherbrooke, Bebronne says bikes equipped with an electric motor are a game changer for cycling accessibility. That, combined with the known benefits of public-access bicycle programs like Bixi, creates an interesting opportunity for increased adoption of cycling as a way of getting around in the city. Vélo Québec also publishes a portrait of cycling in the province every five years and, although the 2020 report was carried out in unusual circumstances due to the COVID-19 pandemic, research showed that just over half of all Quebecers were using a bicycle and 2.1 million people were using one as a regular mode of transportation. Bebronne says the group is currently in the process of preparing the 2025 edition. Bebronne also challenges the idea that using bikes in this way is uniquely a "big city" phenomenon. "In smaller cities, people actually live closer to where they work," Bebronne explains, noting that Vélo Québec's last study of Sherbrooke showed that about 44 per cent of the population live within five kilometres of their work.
CBC
2 hours ago
- CBC
Potholes are costing Canadians billions. But there are some solutions
Dylan Langille is very familiar with the swerves it takes to dodge the potholes of Halifax. "I could probably close my eyes on my commute back to my house, and I could avoid the pothole because they've been there for so long," Langille told the Cost of Living. "What are you supposed to do when there are potholes every 10 feet here." Langille, 30, is a radio announcer and content creator. He's milked the pothole hate on his TikTok account, including attempting to fish and golf using local potholes. "Just like putting on real green, I came up short," he said. Langille is one of many Canadian drivers who have to deal with potholes on a daily basis. It has municipalities spending millions on maintenance, and drivers making frequent trips to the mechanic. But there are some new solutions emerging to this old and growing problem — from using artificial intelligence to monitor for the holes, to changing the road surface itself. How the holes form The main culprit for all the potholes in Canada is all the freezing and thawing roads go through, says Nemy Banthia, a professor of civil engineering at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver. Moisture from rain and melting snow seeps under the road and freezes. That causes the ground to expand. When it gets warmer during the day, the ground shrinks back down, leaving a bulge in the road. Then, when people drive over it, it cracks. "As the wheels go over it, they will take some of this broken off material and a pothole is formed, right there and there," said Banthia. WATCH | What does the weather have to do with how bad potholes will be? What does the weather have to do with how bad potholes will be? 2 months ago Duration 1:46 If you need someone to blame for those pesky potholes that emerge in spring, look no farther than Mother Nature. The weather in Manitoba has a significant impact on how bad the roads will be when the temperature warms up. Watch CBC Manitoba weather specialist Riley Laychuk explain why. And it's getting worse, for a number of reasons. Banthia says that climate change has contributed to more of these rapid freeze and thaw cycles, and brought more intense rain. Plus, there are about a million more registered vehicles in Canada now than six years ago. "And we have not kept up on the innovation side to manage our pavements," said Banthia. What it costs The economic impact of potholes is being felt across the country. According to a 2021 study published by the Canadian Automobile Association, Canadian drivers incur extra costs of $126 annually per vehicle because of poor road quality, which totals to $3 billion for Canadian drivers every year. That includes vehicle repairs, higher maintenance, and other operating expenses, the study says. And municipalities are paying big bucks, too. In Edmonton, the city spent $5.9 million on pothole repair back in 2015. That budget is up to $11 million this year, which is the highest of any major city in Canada. In 2024, crews repaired a total of 537,305 potholes. They've fixed 91,020 so far this year. "I wouldn't say that Edmonton is the pothole capital of Canada, but I think we probably are the pothole filling capital of Canada," said city councillor Andrew Knack. In Saskatoon, city crews repaired over 50,000 potholes in 2024, according to the City of Saskatoon's Roadways Department. That's 52 per cent more than the previous year. But the increased cost isn't just because there are more potholes. Materials and labour also cost more. And Matthew Fair says it's something that needs to be dealt with, and not just because it can come with a big bill. He is the head of maintenance operations in Durham, Ont., which means it's his job to make sure the potholes get fixed. "If you hit a large enough pothole, it's public safety. Like you can lose control, it can cause an accident," said Fair. Can we fix it? People have tried all sorts of clever ways to draw attention to the plight caused by potholes. In New Brunswick, a concerned citizen filled in holes with soil and flowers, which were promptly run over. In the U.K., a British man built a pair of denim-clad wooden legs and erected them in the middle of a rain-filled hole. In Durham, they use AI software called CityRover. Installed on a smartphone and mounted on the window of their maintenance vehicle, it can detect and log potholes that need fixing. "If they are not detected and left too long, it can lead to larger, more expensive types of restorations to the roadway. So if we catch these potholes early, it saves us money in the long run," said Fair. But according to Banthia, there are long-term solutions too. "We need to start building roads with more innovation in them so that not only these things last longer, they also have lower carbon footprint," said Banthia. He says one of those solutions is to create roads that are crack-resistant. In Surrey, B.C., they tried a more flexible type of pavement that will potentially last much longer. Then there are what's known as "self-healing roads" — a technology that might sound like science fiction, but it's real, says Banthia. He's worked with Chawathil First Nation near Hope, B.C., and the village of Thondebhavi, in Karnataka, India, where they used a fibre-reinforced concrete that's designed to fill in the cracks as they form, creating a more long lasting road. The road in Thondebhavi was paved in 2015, and when Banthia went for a visit last year, he said the road was completely crack- and pothole-free. Banthia hopes more places in Canada will apply some of these innovations. He understands that the first-time costs for these are higher, but he says it could save money long term. "If we can actually do something so that we can not target just innovation but also make sure that our first-time costs are lower, I think that would actually make the technology far more attractive for the industry," said Banthia.
