Tag: education

Calls grow for fix to emer­gency alerts

Rural com­munit­ies seek changes as com­mu­nic­a­tion reg­u­lator looks to extend reach of sys­tem

The James Bay Cree Communications Society says the 2023 Quebec wildfires exposed flaws in the National Public Alerting System, noting that no federal or provincial alerts were received during the evacuation of the Cree community of Mistissini.

This article was written by Jim Bronskill and was published in the Toronto Star on December 27, 2025.

Rural muni­cip­al­it­ies, Indi­gen­ous organ­iz­a­tions and civil soci­ety groups are call­ing for changes to ensure people in remote parts of Canada receive emer­gency alerts dur­ing a crisis.

The sug­ges­tions to the fed­eral com­mu­nic­a­tion reg­u­lator are aimed at clos­ing gaps in the National Pub­lic Alert­ing Sys­tem — more com­monly known as Alert Ready — which deliv­ers urgent mes­sages about everything from miss­ing chil­dren to tor­nadoes.

The Cana­dian Radio­tele­vi­sion and Tele­com­mu­nic­a­tions Com­mis­sion requires cell­phone ser­vice pro­viders, cable and satel­lite tele­vi­sion com­pan­ies and radio and tele­vi­sion broad­casters to send out emer­gency alerts.

The CRTC soli­cited com­ments from inter­ested parties on aspects of the sys­tem, includ­ing wire­less pub­lic alert­ing gaps across Canada, dis­tri­bu­tion of alerts in Eng­lish and French and the pos­sible addi­tion of Indi­gen­ous and other lan­guages.

The CRTC review comes as the fed­eral gov­ern­ment works on a broader over­haul.

The recent fed­eral budget prom­ised $55.4 mil­lion over four years start­ing in 2026­27, and $13.4 mil­lion ongo­ing, for Pub­lic Safety Canada to sup­port a new National Pub­lic Alert­ing Sys­tem model.

In a sub­mis­sion to the CRTC review, the Saskat­chewan Asso­ci­ation of Rural Muni­cip­al­it­ies said many rural areas and high­ways in the province lack reli­able cel­lu­lar ser­vice. “This means emer­gency alerts from NPAS don’t always reach those who need them most — farm­ers, trav­el­lers, Indi­gen­ous com­munit­ies, and those liv­ing remote from urban centres,” the brief said.

The asso­ci­ation called for improv­ing the sys­tem by work­ing with inter­net ser­vice pro­viders to upgrade crit­ical infra­struc­ture and address cel­lu­lar cov­er­age gaps, espe­cially along high­ways and remote roads.

In its brief, Rural Muni­cip­al­it­ies of Alberta sug­gests requir­ing wire­less pro­viders to meet min­imum geo­graphic cov­er­age levels in sparsely pop­u­lated areas, where alerts struggle to reach res­id­ents.

The James Bay Cree Com­mu­nic­a­tions Soci­ety poin­ted to the 2023 Que­bec wild­fires as an example of the National Pub­lic Alert­ing Sys­tem’s short­com­ings.

No fed­eral or pro­vin­cial alerts were received dur­ing the evac­u­ation of the Cree com­munity of Mis­tissini, the soci­ety said in its sub­mis­sion to the CRTC.

The soci­ety said it worked with the Eeyou Com­mu­nic­a­tions Net­work — a major­ity Cree­owned tele­com­mu­nic­a­tions car­rier — and the Cree Nation Gov­ern­ment to issue veri­fied updates in Cree and Eng­lish via FM radio and livestream on social media plat­forms, becom­ing a trus­ted inform­a­tion source for thou­sands of res­id­ents.

“Canada’s pub­lic­alert­ing frame­work must evolve from con­sulta­tion to co­gov­ernance — ensur­ing that every com­munity can receive life­sav­ing inform­a­tion in a lan­guage they under­stand, through sys­tems that endure when power and con­nectiv­ity fail,” the soci­ety’s brief added.

“A truly national alert­ing sys­tem must make local voices part of its design, not its work­around.”

The Eeyou Com­mu­nic­a­tions Net­work called on the CRTC to ensure pub­lic alert­ing policy reflects the real­it­ies of north­ern and Indi­gen­ous regions, where loc­ally built and gov­erned net­works already carry essen­tial pub­lic safety com­mu­nic­a­tions.

“Strength­en­ing NPAS requires recog­niz­ing the role of Indi­gen­ousowned car­ri­ers, estab­lish­ing north­ern­appro­pri­ate stand­ards, and ensur­ing that fund­ing mech­an­isms align with oper­a­tional needs in remote com­munit­ies,” the net­work said in its sub­mis­sion.

The CRTC asked par­ti­cipants in the review about the feas­ib­il­ity of cre­at­ing a national mobile app, avail­able for down­load across Canada, as a pos­sible solu­tion for redu­cing gaps in wire­less pub­lic alert­ing. The Pub­lic Interest Advocacy Centre told the com­mis­sion there are cer­tain lim­it­a­tions and con­cerns when it comes to the cre­ation and oper­a­tion of such an app.

“Firstly, it is unclear whether and how effect­ive this national app will be in issu­ing timely emer­gency alerts, par­tic­u­larly in the rural and remote regions,” the centre’s sub­mis­sion said.

It added that such a fea­ture would require access to a phone or other digital device, which may not be pos­sible for low­income people.

The Cana­dian Red Cross said alerts must reach every­one, includ­ing people in remote areas, those without reli­able inter­net or cel­lu­lar con­nectiv­ity, indi­vidu­als without access to mobile devices and people with dis­ab­il­it­ies.

“They must also be cul­tur­ally appro­pri­ate and aligned with trus­ted local com­mu­nic­a­tion chan­nels,” the organ­iz­a­tion’s sub­mis­sion said.

Com­mu­nic­a­tions firm BCE Inc. advised the CRTC to avoid cre­at­ing expens­ive new pub­lic alert­ing sys­tem oblig­a­tions for dis­trib­ut­ors of mes­sages.

“This cau­tion is par­tic­u­larly rel­ev­ant for tele­vi­sion and radio sta­tions, which are facing severe and well­doc­u­mented fin­an­cial chal­lenges,” the com­pany’s brief said. “Any increase in reg­u­lat­ory costs or admin­is­trat­ive bur­den risks fur­ther cut­backs or clos­ures to local sta­tions, and thus, any new oblig­a­tions should be well thought out before imple­ment­a­tion.”

A June 2025 memo pre­pared for the fed­eral deputy min­is­ter of pub­lic safety warned the cur­rent arrange­ment for the alert­ing sys­tem is no longer viable due to a decline in the num­ber of cable and satel­lite tele­vi­sion sub­scribers.

Tribal nations in Alaska press for role in Canadian resources talks

  • This article was written by Nathan Vanderklippe and was published in the Globe & Mail on November 20, 2025.
The Red Chris mine expansion in northwestern British Columbia is among the projects designated by Prime Minister Mark Carney for fast-track approval.

A group of Alaska tribal nations has gone to the B.C. Supreme Court to demand a seat at the table in Canadian resource development – including a mine expansion that is among the nationbuilding projects Ottawa has selected as pivotal to economic development.

The Alaska groups argue that their historical use of what is now northwestern B.C. makes them Aboriginal peoples of Canada under the Constitution Act, saying that status should guarantee them the same rights to consultation as Canadian Indigenous groups.

The petition for judicial review, filed Wednesday, adds a potential new complication to Canadian plans to bolster a domestic economy buffeted by U.S. tariffs. Now, a different set of U.S. interests is seeking the ability to constrain those plans.

The Alaska legal challenge is part of an escalating effort by U.S. tribal groups to assert rights in Canada in the wake of the 2021 Desautel decision, in which Canada’s Supreme Court found that the Lakes Tribe in eastern Washington state should be considered Aboriginal peoples of Canada, given their historical use of land that is now B.C.

In the years since, several U.S. groups have used the decision to assert themselves in Canadian affairs.

The Confederated Tribes of the Colville Reservation, which includes the Lakes Tribe, has demanded the right to shape how its history is taught in B.C. schools. In northwestern Washington, the Lummi Nation says it should have a say in major infrastructure construction in the Vancouver area, including a port expansion and highway improvements.

Those claims have created conflict with Canadian Indigenous groups. Earlier this year, Osoyoos Indian Band Chief Clarence Louie warned that Canadian leaders must “wake up” to a creeping erosion of sovereignty as U.S. groups seek to advance claims.

In June, the province of British Columbia declared, in an order-in-council, that Alaska tribal groups cannot be a “participating Indigenous nation” in the review of six mining projects.

But “that itself is illegal” under the provincial Environmental Assessment Act, argues John Gailus, a B.C.-based lawyer acting for the Alaska tribes. The petition filed in B.C. seeks to have that order quashed, and asks the court to either find that several Alaskan tribes are participating Indigenous nations in a mining review − or force the province to make such a decision.

Those tribes have a legitimate expectation to consultation, Mr. Gailus said, because they fit the definition of Aboriginal peoples of Canada as defined by the Desautel decision.

But the Province of B.C. has not included them in formal consultation processes. Instead, it has provided notification of developments in the permitting process.

“We’re getting these notices but there’s nothing we can do about it. We are powerless,” said Esther Reese, president of the Southeast Alaska Indigenous Transboundary Commission, or SEITC, which counts 14 member tribes.

Ms. Reese is Tlingit, and her clan traces its lineage to the Stikine River, in whose watershed the Red Chris mine is partly situated. That gold and copper mine began production in 2015, yielding concentrate that is shipped to Asia for smelting. The mine is seeking to transition to underground mining, a change that could allow it to boost Canada’s copper output by 15 per cent according to Newmont Corp., its majority owner.

The Stikine flows from a region of Northern B.C. dubbed the Sacred Headwaters before crossing into Alaska, reaching saltwater not far from Wrangell, where Ms. Reese is tribal administrator.

In September, Red Chris was among the projects designated by Prime Minister Mark Carney for fast-track approval as part of a bid to bolster a Canadian economy battered by U.S. tariffs. Mr. Carney noted the participation of the Dease Lake, B.C.-based Tahltan Nation as a partner in Red Chris, calling the project “an important step in reconciliation and further developing the potential of Northern B.C.”

Canada’s prioritizing of the mine has made it a greater priority for groups in Alaska, Ms. Reese said.

“The fact they’re fast-tracking that mine and we don’t have a say makes this even more of an emergency for us,” she said. A catastrophic mine failure, she said, would jeopardize “our whole way of life. We’re salmon people.”

Earlier this year, Skeena-Wild Conservation Trust, an environmental advocacy group, found that mine tailings are seeping into the environment at a higher rate than predicted, raising risks to fish and to the dam’s structural stability.

Newmont, in response, said it had installed new seepage interception systems and was updating its dam safety review. The company declined to comment

Mining companies in B.C. have already reached out to tribal groups in Alaska through the SEITC, providing “ample opportunity to provide input into the assessment process” for several current projects, said Michael Goehring, president of the Mining Association of B.C. He accused SEITC of receiving funding for its legal action from “Earthjustice, a large pro-bono law firm based in the U.S. that is more interested in stopping BC mining than advancing an appropriate level of consultation for the Tribes.”

Earthjustice has worked closely with SEITC on other legal challenges, but Mr. Gailus said the group is not funding the current court application.

In a statement, the B.C. government said its environmental assessment office “will continue to fulfill its constitutional obligations by consulting with U.S. Tribes when there is a credible assertion of Aboriginal rights under the Canadian Constitution and a potential for these rights to be impacted by a proposed project.”

It’s not clear, however, who has the authority to declare that a U.S.-based group meets that criteria.

“Government has to make that decision,” Mr. Gailus said.

But, he added, the Alaska tribes under the SEITC are Tlingit, Haida and Tsimshian, each of which is also an Indigenous group based in Canada.

“All three of those are Aboriginal peoples of Canada,” Mr. Gailus said. So do the Alaska groups “have a right to be consulted because they are Aboriginal peoples of Canada? We say yes.”

Com­plete reset

How 2005’s Hur­ricane Kat­rina changed city’s edu­ca­tion sys­tem

Chris Dier was just starting his senior year of high school in neighbouring Chalmette when Katrina hit. He's now a history teacher at Benjamin Franklin High School in New Orleans.

This article was written by Sharon Lurye and was published in the Toronto Star on August 31, 2025.

Twenty years ago, Hur­ricane Kat­rina changed the face of edu­ca­tion in New Orleans forever. The school sys­tem was utterly des­troyed and then utterly trans­formed, becom­ing the first and only all­charter school dis­trict in the coun­try.

Kat­rina made land­fall on Aug. 29, 2005, and The Asso­ci­ated Press asked three sur­viv­ors to reflect on what it was like to be a stu­dent or a teacher dur­ing that tumul­tu­ous period.

For some, con­nec­tions they developed with edu­cat­ors who helped them through the crisis inspired careers as teach­ers. Their exper­i­ences also offer les­sons for teach­ers and schools going through nat­ural dis­asters today.

What fol­lows are the edu­cat­ors’ accounts in their own words, con­densed for pub­lic­a­tion:

A storm evacuee found caring teach­ers in Texas

Chris Dier, a his­tory teacher at Ben­jamin Frank­lin High School in New Orleans, was just start­ing his senior year of high school in neigh­bour­ing Chal­mette when Kat­rina hit. He evac­u­ated to a hotel, then a shel­ter for Kat­rina sur­viv­ors in Texas.

I remem­ber wak­ing up to my Aunt Tina banging on the hotel door. I remem­ber she said, `There are hun­dreds of bod­ies every­where,’ that the levees broke. I’ll never for­get get­ting that knock on the door that let me know everything has changed, everything is dif­fer­ent.

There was an eld­erly couple that came to the shel­ter and talked with us, and they offered us their trailer so we could actu­ally have a space to live. We stayed in that trailer for the remainder of the year, and I fin­ished my high school in Texas, Hende­r­son High School.

One of the reas­ons I wanted to become a teacher was because of how these teach­ers treated us at our low­est points. I remem­ber Coach Propes, the soc­cer coach who got us soc­cer cleats and took care of us in that way. I remem­ber Mrs. Rains, the Eng­lish teacher who had us in our class and had all the sup­plies ready. I remem­ber Ms. Pel­lon, the Span­ish teacher who also had sup­plies for us. Mr. McGin­nis, he would come in in the early hours to tutor me in chem­istry because I missed weeks of school.

They made me feel wel­come. They made me feel like I belong. They made me feel that I was part of a lar­ger com­munity, as opposed to just a stat­istic.

The last thing I wanted to do grow­ing up was be a teacher, because I saw how my mom was a teacher and all the time and effort she put into her craft. She would be cook­ing with her left hand and grad­ing papers with her right hand. I wanted more in life. But Kat­rina changed me in that way, because I saw how these teach­ers respon­ded.

Everything we talk about is `before Kat­rina’ and `after Kat­rina.’ Now I have `before COVID’ and `after COVID.’ I star­ted see­ing the par­al­lels right away, right when the schools closed down, March 16 (in 2020).

The ques­tions that (stu­dents) had, those same ques­tions I had after we evac­u­ated dur­ing Hur­ricane Kat­rina. I remem­ber think­ing, `Are we really never com­ing back to school?’

I went home that week­end and wrote an open let­ter to seni­ors, offer­ing some sup­port and advice. I wrote about what it’s like to lose your senior year. I said that folks will down­play the situ­ation, because they don’t know what it feels like to have their senior year stripped. But I do know. I try to tell them that they’re not for­got­ten: Teach­ers are think­ing of them. We care for them.

A new school left a stu­dent miss­ing New Orleans’ `love and atten­tion’

Jahquille Ross has been an ele­ment­ary school teacher and prin­cipal and now works for the edu­ca­tion non­profit New Schools for New Orleans. When Kat­rina hit, he was an eighth grader at Edna Karr Mag­net School on the West Bank of New Orleans.

We decided after watch­ing the news on Fri­day to leave Sat­urday. I just remem­ber being on the high­way forever. Lit­er­ally forever. I lived with my brother and my sis­ter­in­law dur­ing that time, because my mother had passed away when I was 12, in 2003. We were head­ing to Alex­an­dria, where my sis­ter­in­law is from. I just remem­ber being hungry for a long time.

It was dev­ast­at­ing to see what all was tak­ing place in New Orleans on national TV dur­ing this time. When you saw the large amount of people, the impact of the water and the flood­ing and the dam­age that was done because of the wind, it was like: Oh, we’re going to be in Alex­an­dria a while.

At that time, `a while’ to me was like, maybe another week or two. And that wasn’t the case.

It was one, two, three, four schools in one year. Exhaust­ing. It was hard to make friends wherever I went, because I was unsure at that time, how long are we gonna be in a par­tic­u­lar set­ting? Places just don’t feel like New Orleans.

We moved to Plano, Texas, for about six months. Really nice area, really nice people. There were more white people than I’ve ever seen before at school. I felt the racism a little bit more. It was more pre­val­ent from stu­dents.

I was not per­form­ing aca­dem­ic­ally at the level that I had nor­mally been in New Orleans. Just try­ing to stay afloat in my classes was a struggle. The teach­ers didn’t really go out of their way. They were strictly, like, `This is the les­son, this is the mater­ial, this is when the test is.’ I just didn’t get the love and atten­tion I was accus­tomed to in New Orleans.

I came back to New Orleans in March or April. It felt good to be back home. I had my friend base from middle school. I had friends from ele­ment­ary school. I was back amongst fam­ily and eld­ers, like my grandma, my auntie, my cous­ins, every­body. We lived 10, 15 minutes within each other, which is really good. We had neigh­bour­hood­based school­ing, you know, prior to Kat­rina.

It changed the tra­ject­ory of my life. I did not want to always become an edu­cator. With my mother passing away, it was school that groun­ded me. It was the teach­ers and lead­ers inside of those school build­ings that sup­por­ted me, pushed me and encour­aged me.

I had some pivotal edu­cat­ors in my life who played a big role in my edu­ca­tion and my jour­ney. In return, I felt like I could do that for other chil­dren of New Orleans. I chose to go into ele­ment­ary edu­ca­tion, so that stu­dents in their early years of edu­ca­tion would have the oppor­tun­ity to be edu­cated by a Black male.

Flood­ing wiped out schools — and memor­ies

Michelle Gar­nett was an edu­cator in New Orleans for 33 years, mostly in kinder­garten and pre­K, before retir­ing in 2022. She was teach­ing kinder­garten at Park­view Ele­ment­ary in New Orleans when Kat­rina hit and had to evac­u­ate to Baton Rouge.

When we were able to come back to the city, going back to my ori­ginal school, Park­view, it was dev­ast­at­ing to see the school just com­pletely des­troyed. That memory, I wouldn’t want to go through that again if I could be spared of that.

My mother was a classroom teacher, and she had given me a lot of things. Just memor­ies you just can’t get back. My mother was a little bit of an artist, so she drew a lot of the story­book char­ac­ters for me. My dad also gave me a cas­sette tape with the song “Know­ledge is Power” that I used to play for my kids. I lost the tape he had given me. So, you know, sen­ti­mental things. Every­body in the city lost a lot.

My classroom was just moul­ded and water warped and it smelled and it was just hor­rific. I can say, nobody could sal­vage any­thing from that par­tic­u­lar school. It was just all — all was lost.

We were all in Baton Rouge together as a fam­ily, 23 of us strong in my daugh­ter’s house. Sib­lings, cous­ins, aunts and uncles. On top of the 23 people in my daugh­ter’s house, she was eight months preg­nant at the time. But we were happy. Every­body was safe, and we had to accept things that we couldn’t change.

I loved what I did. Got into it strictly by neces­sity. My second daugh­ter, who is now deceased, had a very rare form of mus­cu­lar dys­trophy. Orleans Par­ish hired me as my own child’s spe­cific aide. She was only in school a short time from Decem­ber to May and the next month, two days after her sixth birth­day, she passed. I was asked to con­tinue work as a child­spe­cific aide. Dur­ing that pro­cess is when I got the pas­sion and desire to go back to school, to be cer­ti­fied in edu­ca­tion.

We think we choose a path for ourselves, and God puts us in the place where he wants us to be. Teach­ing is where I needed to be. And I abso­lutely enjoyed it.

Jahquille Ross has been an ele­ment­ary teacher and prin­cipal and now works for the non­profit New Schools for New Orleans. When Kat­rina hit, he was an eighth grader at Edna Karr Mag­net School on the West Bank of New Orleans.

Prime Minister says Bill C-5 will honour modern treaties: Inuit group president

This article was written by Emily Haws and was published in the Globe & Mail on July 25, 2025.

Prime Minister Mark Carney, centre, walks with Duane Smith, left, chair and CEO of the Inuvialuit Regional Corp., and Natan Obed, president of the Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami, to a meeting of the Inuit-Crown Partnership Committee in Inuvik, NWT, on Thursday.

The president of the national group representing Inuit says he has been assured by Prime Minister Mark Carney that the federal government’s major-projects legislation will respect all modern treaties and consider the Inuit full partners in projects.

Natan Obed, who heads Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami, and Mr. Carney co-chaired a meeting of the Inuit-Crown Partnership Committee on Thursday to consider the Building Canada Act, also known as Bill C-5.

The Prime Minister “was unequivocal in stating that this legislation will not interrupt the processes that have been set up under our modern treaties when it comes to environmental assessment, when it comes to project reviews,” Mr. Obed said.

He added they have focused on gauging what types of projects Inuit communities are interested in building, as well as how both sides can identify projects together and implement them.

“I’m really optimistic about the ability for Canada to respect our agreements in this implementation phase of Bill C-5,” Mr. Obed said. “Still, these are early days, and we look forward to the conversations ahead.”

The Inuit-Crown Partnership Committee includes Inuit leadership and federal ministers and meets regularly to discuss key priorities. Along with Bill C-5, Thursday’s meeting discussed Arctic security and sovereignty, as well as infrastructure.

The Inuit summit was the second of three Mr. Carney promised with Indigenous rights holders after facing backlash over Bill C-5. Last week’s involved First Nations chiefs, who gave the legislation and Mr. Carney mixed reviews.

The third meeting, with Métis leaders, is taking place on Aug. 7, according to the Métis National Council.

The Building Canada Act allows the federal cabinet to deem projects to be of national interest and then exempt them from various laws in order to speed up approvals and construction.

Indigenous communities have voiced concerns about the law potentially affecting their treaty rights. The federal government has said that groups affected by proposed projects will be fully consulted at key stages.

Unlike First Nations, all four of the Inuit regions have signed modern treaties, which provide more certainty over land use and economic development, according to Gary Wilson, a political science professor at the University of Northern British Columbia. For example, he said that treaties include different categories of land that come with different rights.

In June, Mr. Obed told senators that Bill C-5 risks creating the conditions for the treaties to be infringed upon, and therefore it was possible that projects could end up before the courts.

Now, he says he has received reassurances Bill C-5 will not contravene modern treaties, and there will be full partnership of Inuit within these processes.

Before the meeting got under way, Mr. Carney made public remarks assuring the committee that Bill C-5 would respect treaty rights.

“It fully respects treaty-based environmental assessment processes. In fact, those will be essential for anything that we move forward,” Mr. Carney said.

“What the act does is it creates conditions for the federal government to be more effective and efficient in our part of the partnership.”

He also said there’s much work to be done on closing infrastructure gaps and improving social services in the Arctic, and warned that the region’s security is under threat.

Several cabinet ministers, including Northern Affairs Minister Rebecca Chartrand and Indigenous Services Minister Mandy Gull-Masty, also attended Thursday’s meeting.

First Nations chiefs skeptical ahead of Carney meeting

This article was written by Emily Haws and Jeff Gray, and was published in the Globe & Mail on July 17, 2025.

Indigenous leaders have low expectations for ‘last-minute’ summit on Bill C-5

Many First Nations chiefs say they are still skeptical heading into Thursday’s meeting with Prime Minister Mark Carney, stating that the stakes are high but their expectations are low that significant progress can be made on the Liberal government’s major-projects legislation.

Assembly of First Nations National Chief Cindy Woodhouse Nepinak said she is giving Mr. Carney the benefit of the doubt that he will deliver at the meeting in Gatineau, while British Columbia Assembly of First Nations Regional Chief Terry Teegee was less optimistic.

“I’m a bit more cynical,” said Mr. Teegee. “I mean, just look at the process you’ve seen with the last-minute agendas and everything that has come about with this C-5 legislation.”

If there is a success, he thinks it will be getting a solid commitment from Mr. Carney of how free, prior and informed consent from Indigenous groups for any activity on their traditional territories will be implemented.

While the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, which came into force in Canada in 2021, talks about the need for free, prior and informed consent, the Supreme Court ruled in March that this does not amount to a veto but a right to a robust process.

Part of Bill C-5, known as the One Canadian Economy Act, allows the federal cabinet to deem projects to be of national interest and then exempt them from various laws in order to speed up approvals.

The legislation has been met with criticism from many Indigenous groups that say they are not against development but want to ensure their treaty rights are protected. The federal government has said Indigenous people who could be affected by potential projects will be fully consulted at key stages.

Chiefs at an AFN news conference Wednesday stressed that they want to be included in any economic development and revenue resulting from the major projects. They have a range of views on Bill C-5, Ms. Woodhouse Nepinak said.

She also said that she hopes chiefs are heard at Thursday’s meeting, which was announced after Bill C-5 passed in the House of Commons despite Indigenous groups saying they weren’t properly consulted.

Mr. Carney “has to also listen to First Nations leadership – more listening, rather than talking about how they want to proceed forward,” she said.

Chiefs have made it clear that First Nations’ consent for major projects is not optional, Ms. Woodhouse Nepinak said. She also stressed she would like to see action to address the First Nations infrastructure deficit.

Speaking to reporters Wednesday, Mr. Carney said Bill C-5 is “enabling legislation” and allows for discussions about what a nation-building project is. He said the first part of that engagement is the meeting with First Nations chiefs, which will focus on how to work together and what the priorities are.

He added this is not a consultation.

Dene National Chief George Mackenzie, who is the Northwest Territories regional chief for the AFN, said chiefs are waiting to hear from Mr. Carney.

“We need to hear from the Prime Minister,” he said. “We, the treaty people, don’t want our treaty to be thrown to the side for the sake of development.”

Thursday’s final agenda, shared with The Globe and Mail by the Chiefs of Ontario, includes remarks from Mr. Carney and Ms. Woodhouse Nepinak. There are four working sessions, each lasting 60 to 90 minutes, on several topics: open dialogue on meaningful consultation; the major-projects office and the Indigenous advisory council; First Nations economic prosperity; and partnership and participation.

The final working session – called “working together” – is a moderated discussion with Mr. Carney and relevant ministers. Emily Williams, a spokesperson for Mr. Carney, confirmed that he intends to attend as much of Thursday’s meeting as possible, barring any urgent matters that could arise.

A draft agenda was sent out last week, with the final agenda sent at midnight Tuesday evening. Kahnawà:ke Grand Chief Cody Diabo said he thinks this engagement has been rushed.

“If they’re having a very difficult time organizing this, how are they going to handle billiondollar projects and all the concerns that we’re raising?” he said.

The Chiefs of Ontario also said it is disappointed that technical staff, experts and lawyers from organizations and First Nations were uninvited after they were allowed to register.

“This legislation has the potential to fundamentally change this country and it’s unrealistic and unfair that the government has technical staff and lawyers in the room, but Chiefs will not have that support,” it said in a statement.

Mr. Diabo said that support staff will be able to join the meeting virtually, making communication more difficult.

Wet’suwet’en Hereditary Chief Na’Moks, known as John Ridsdale, will also attend after receiving a last-minute invitation.

The federal government had asked chiefs to submit questions in advance via an online portal, with the ability to vote on or endorse ones that were submitted by others. As of Wednesday afternoon, 52 questions had been sent it.

“Is Canada prepared to codevelop dispute resolution mechanisms that do not require expensive court action by First Nations to protect their rights?” asked Chief Karen Bell of Garden River First Nation, which is near Sault Ste. Marie, Ont.

Earlier this week, nine First Nations in Ontario filed a lawsuit seeking to have Bill C-5 and the province’s Bill 5 struck down, calling for an injunction. Bill 5 allows for the creation of “special economic zones” where any provincial law could be suspended.

Three chiefs supporting the lawsuit said Wednesday that they planned to attend the meeting with Mr. Carney: Taynar Simpson of Alderville First Nation; June Black of the Apitipi Anicinapek Nation; and Sheri Taylor of Ginoogaming First Nation.

Ms. Black said that she would tell the Prime Minister, if she did get to speak with him, that First Nations still want to work with the federal and provincial governments.

“What I would say to Carney is that we need to work together,” Ms. Black said. “We have always worked together. And we need to continue to work together.”

Camps, day­cares adjust as wild­fires spark warn­ings

Extreme heat, poor air qual­ity draw con­cern of par­ents

This article was written by the Canadian Press and was published in the Toronto Star on July 16, 2025.

Sum­mer camps and day­cares are being forced to shift their plans amid stifling heat and poor air qual­ity caused by wild­fire smoke drift­ing across Cent­ral Canada, Prair­ies and other parts of the coun­try.

Spe­cial air qual­ity state­ments or warn­ings were in effect Tues­day for a second day across sev­eral provinces and ter­rit­or­ies, com­bined with heat warn­ings that stretched from Ontario to Prince Edward Island.

Smoky air in the Toronto area had many camps field­ing calls from con­cerned par­ents and mak­ing last­minute changes, espe­cially while the city was under a warn­ing on Monday as the Air Qual­ity Health Index hit the “very high risk” rat­ing of over 10.

Adib Razavi, dir­ector of Toronto Ath­letic Camps, said they received hun­dreds of calls on Monday morn­ing from par­ents who wanted to know how their kids’ activ­it­ies were being adjus­ted.

“We star­ted get­ting calls at 5 a.m. and our office opens at 6 a.m.,” he said.

Razavi said many par­ents reques­ted that their chil­dren be trans­ferred to indoor activ­it­ies, with the camp modi­fy­ing out­door activ­it­ies to take place inside or in shaded areas.

“Whenever we have situ­ations like a heat warn­ing or even a thun­der­storm, we’re very hands on and we under­stand what the par­ents need,” he said, adding that the camp also took note of chil­dren with asthma and other health con­di­tions.

At Camp Robin Hood, a primar­ily out­door day camp in Markham, dozens of kids were absent on Monday, dir­ector Howie Gros­singer said.

“I think par­ents are also mon­it­or­ing those indexes quite closely,” he said, adding that the camp returned to more nor­mal capa­city on Tues­day as con­di­tions improved.

Day­cares have also been grap­pling with how to bal­ance chil­dren’s activ­it­ies and well­being dur­ing peri­ods of extreme heat and air pol­lu­tion.

The exec­ut­ive dir­ector of Tree­top Chil­dren’s Centre in Toronto said such con­di­tions “pose real chal­lenges” for her day­care, which oper­ates out of Ori­ole Park Junior Pub­lic School.

The day­care centre has spent thou­sands of dol­lars to install sev­eral air­con­di­tion­ing units and chil­dren were kept inside on Monday with the win­dows closed and AC on full blast, said Amy O’Neil.

But even as Toronto’s air qual­ity improved to a “mod­er­ate risk” on Tues­day, O’Neil said there is “no con­sensus or con­sist­ent dir­ec­tion” from pub­lic health author­it­ies on whether it’s safe for kids to be out­side. “We’re kind of being left to our own devices, which is a bit wor­ri­some,” she said in an inter­view.

A ferry pre­pares to dock Monday at Centre Island. Sev­eral camps received calls from par­ents ask­ing that their chil­dren be lim­ited to indoor activ­it­ies.

University of Calgary unveils energy science degree after petroleum program ends

This article was written by Emma Graney and was published in the Globe & Mail on July 14, 2025.

A new program at the University of Calgary is taking a broad approach to energy and all of the facets of the sector, a nod to the industry’s ever-changing global picture in the face of net-zero goals and geopolitical turmoil.

The bachelor of science in energy science, set to begin in September, is far from the siloed approach of a traditional geoscience or oil and gas degree. Instead, the multidisciplinary program includes courses in economics, communication, government policy and Indigenous relations.

The university cancelled enrolment in its bachelor of science in oil and gas engineering in 2021, after a massive decline in student interest. The plan at the time was to reallocate resources into courses that produce graduates able to glide more smoothly across different facets of the energy sector.

The new program is “not your grandpa’s degree,” said Kristin Baetz, dean of the university’s faculty of science, in an interview.

With the United States showing no signs of easing its trade war with Canada, this country will need all hands on deck to achieve Prime Minister Mark Carney’s goal of becoming an energy superpower, Prof. Baetz said.

“The only way that’s going to happen is if we have talent and a strong talent pipeline.”

Key to the program is a recognition that the global energy demand will continue to grow – in part because of a shift toward power-thirsty data centres and machine learning – and the sector will rapidly change as new technologies emerge.

Instead of niche training in petrochemical engineering, for example, the program focuses on the science of energy writ large, from subsurface energy such as oil gas to renewables and emerging forms of energy. And it includes subjects usually far outside the science education bailiwick.

“It’s more than just learning about science of energy, because how do you function in a major or even a minor energy company if you don’t understand basics about policy, economics, communications, Indigenous relations?” Prof. Baetz said.

That’s not to say fossil-fuel degrees are dead. The University of Calgary relaunched its undergraduate oil and gas engineering last year with an updated curriculum. Classes in that program will begin in September for those students who pick oil and gas as their major.

But the new program is built very differently. While the university has offered a tiny, niche energy-science concentration for the past few years, Prof. Baetz said the program was developed after dialogue with energy-industry partners in downtown Calgary, including major corporations and startups.

One thread that weaved throughout those conversations was a wish for graduates who could understand the industry in all its forms, particularly given how tightly connected the energy sector is to policy, economics and business.

Edwin Cey, head of the university’s earth, energy and environment department, has long been involved with the niche energyscience concentration that has now morphed into the full-blown course.

Conversations with the energy industry have been interesting, he said in an interview. Even though companies tend to be in a specific sector – oil and gas, for example, or solar – businesses saw a need for graduates “who would have a much broader background and could speak across sectors.”

The desire to be able to leave university as a nimble graduate who can straddle different parts of the energy industry comes from students, too.

“We did a survey of our students asking, ‘If we were to make this a larger program, how many people would be interested in it?’ And there was pretty overwhelming demand,” he said.

Offering a balance of scientific fundamentals covering multiple different energy technologies, alongside other subjects such as economics and communication, has proved popular.

Hundreds of hopefuls applied for the first energy science intake in September, but the initial cohort has been limited to 25 so the university can fine-tune the course before opening it up.

“That’s part of the nature of what graduates are asked to do in the real world,” he said. “Once they’re out there, they don’t just sit in one little niche any more.”

School daze

Teach­ers from sev­eral boards describe stifling con­di­tions without cent­ral air

Andrea Frenke pulled her daughters Liridon, 6, and Everest, 9, out of school early Monday because they were feeling ill from the extreme heat.

This article was written by Isabel Teotonio and Omar Mosleh, and was published in the Toronto Star on June 24, 2025.

Stu­dents and teach­ers grapple with heat in schools that lack cent­ral air

With Toronto in the grips of a heat wave, prin­cipal Anthony Levy spent much of Monday walk­ing the hall­ways of West Pre­par­at­ory Junior Pub­lic School doing tem­per­at­ure checks and mak­ing adjust­ments as mer­cury levels rose.

Classes on the upper level were relo­cated to the cooler base­ment, stu­dents did their work in the hall­way, recess became optional and teach­ers rotated kids through cool­ing centres, loc­ated in the lib­rary and a multi­pur­pose room.

“We did have a plan com­ing in,” Levy told report­ers at the school, near Allen Road and Eglin­ton Avenue West, where half the stu­dents were absent Monday. And “it’s a work in pro­gress as the heat goes up.”

Teach­ers and stu­dents across Ontario grappled with swel­ter­ing con­di­tions in schools that are sev­eral dec­ades old and lack cent­ral air con­di­tion­ing.

Monday’s heat was so extreme in Toronto that a power out­age left about 2,700 people without elec­tri­city, pools faced rolling clos­ures and the mayor vowed to intro­duce a motion this week to address what she calls “ser­i­ous gaps” in the city’s heat relief strategy.

As tem­per­at­ures soared — in Toronto it hit 36 C, but with the humi­dex felt as hot as 44 C — stu­dents were encour­aged to wear light cloth­ing, drink water, avoid phys­ical activ­ity and keep to shady areas in the school yard. And, when pos­sible, staff kept lights and com­puters turned off, closed blinds and cur­tains, opened win­dows, rotated kids through cooler spaces and used fans — some teach­ers used per­sonal fans, while oth­ers bor­rowed them from the kids’ par­ents.

The Toronto Dis­trict School Board, the coun­try’s largest, has 579 schools — 177 have cent­ral air con­di­tion­ing, 243 have a cool­ing centre (typ­ic­ally in the gym, a lib­rary or a mul­tipur­pose room), and the rest have small air con­di­tioner units in the lib­rary.

Board spokes­per­son Shari Schwartz­Maltz said schools were not closed because it would be dif­fi­cult for par­ents to find child care.

By com­par­ison, six Ontario French­lan­guage schools without air con­di­tion­ing were closed Monday and will remain shuttered Tues­day.

Sev­eral teach­ers from vari­ous boards — the Star isn’t identi­fy­ing them because they weren’t author­ized to speak — described stifling con­di­tions, not­ing many stu­dents were absent, and some left school early.

One Toronto kinder­garten teacher said the board should have closed schools without cent­ral air con­di­tion­ing, rather than treat­ing staff like “glor­i­fied babysit­ters.” At her school only the lib­rary is air­con­di­tioned, but all classes have fans provided by the par­ent coun­cil. Still, her classroom hit 30 C.

“It’s excep­tion­ally hot. We’re just try­ing to do calm, quiet activ­it­ies,” she said, adding water activ­it­ies in the shade out­side were planned for the after­noon.

One high school teacher in the Brant­ford area said Monday “was unreal, simply unable to work,” and sent a photo show­ing her classroom at 35 C.

While she even­tu­ally moved to a cooler space, “expect­ing any­one to func­tion in this heat was not real­istic. Stu­dents com­plained about not being able to think, and being stuck to seats when try­ing to stand up.”

And, she added, “you know it is hot when the toi­let seat feels like it is heated.”

Toronto mother Andrea Frenke picked up her kids, ages six and nine, from school dur­ing lunch­time because they weren’t feel­ing well. When she arrived, a hand­ful of oth­ers were also there to get their chil­dren.

“We’re talk­ing like five­year­olds and six­year­olds com­ing home and telling their par­ents, `I could barely keep my head up in class, I feel naus­eous, I have a head­ache’ … no one can learn in an envir­on­ment like this,” said Frenke.

Although one of her kids was in a classroom that had an air­con­di­tion­ing unit in the win­dow, that’s not suf­fi­cient given the body heat gen­er­ated in a class of roughly 30 stu­dents. Cent­ral air con­di­tion­ing in schools shouldn’t be a lux­ury, but is an “abso­lute neces­sity” on scorch­ing hot days.

“Some­times I just kind of laugh and cry, think­ing this is sup­posedly a very advanced developed coun­try, but we don’t have some of the most basic infra­struc­ture for the health of our future gen­er­a­tions.”

The province should require schools that don’t have air con­di­tion­ing to can­cel classes dur­ing extreme heat events, she added, while acknow­ledging this would put par­ents in a tight spot if they’re unable to adjust work sched­ules.

Emma Test­ani, press sec­ret­ary for Edu­ca­tion Min­is­ter Paul Calandra, said boards have pro­to­cols on how to deal with heat and are respons­ible for ensur­ing each school fol­lows appro­pri­ate pro­vin­cial and muni­cipal health and safety require­ments.

“The province provides over $1.4 bil­lion in annual fund­ing to school boards to help renew and improve schools, includ­ing air con­di­tion­ing,” she said. “Over the next 10 years, our gov­ern­ment is invest­ing $30 bil­lion to sup­port school con­struc­tion, renewal and improve­ment.

“We will con­tinue to mon­itor the impacts of the warm weather and work with school boards to help keep stu­dents safe.”

Heat wave in Ontario and Quebec raises alarm about dangers of sweltering schools

This article was written by Kristy Kirkup and was published in the Globe & Mail on June 24, 2025.

Alexandra Mullins and her son Emmett sit in the playground of his Ottawa public school on Monday. He was sent to the emergency room after experiencing heat exhaustion last week.

Parents, teacher unions and health groups speaking out about the dangers in education institutions that do not have air conditioning

Five-year-old Emmett Mullins, pale and warm to the touch when he returned from school on Thursday, started vomiting at home.

Emmett’s symptoms were not a result of a viral illness. He was overheated.

Earlier that afternoon, he had fallen asleep in his hot classroom watching a movie. His mother, Alexandra Mullins, was advised by Telehealth Ontario to take him to an Ottawa emergency room.

At the hospital, Emmett’s temperature and heart rate were found to be elevated, and he was dehydrated. He was given a Popsicle with electrolytes and closely monitored before he was able to return home.

Ms. Mullins has joined a growing chorus of parents, along with teacher unions and health groups, who are speaking out about the dangers associated with sweltering schools – especially during a heat wave that has gripped much of Ontario and southwestern Quebec.

Many schools, including the one Emmett attends in the nation’s capital, do not have air conditioning.

“We are already at a point where kids are going to get hurt,” Ms. Mullins said Monday. “I would be very surprised if there weren’t more kids in the city that ended up with heat exhaustion at the end of today.”

Record-breaking temperatures on Monday prompted both Ottawa and Toronto to take precautionary measures, including setting up cooling stations, with forecasters anticipating no relief in sight for days.

Christie MacDonald, the emergency services department head at the London Health Sciences Centre, said children and elderly patients are more vulnerable to health effects associated with sweltering temperatures.

Patients can experience a range of heat-related symptoms, such as feeling unwell and being unable to sweat, as well as signs of heat stroke such as confusion and chest pain.

“The heat impacts them dramatically,” said Dr. MacDonald, who advises drinking lots of fluids, and also looking out for family and community members who may not have the ability to get to a cooler area.

Ms. Mullins said that while the dangers associated with cold temperatures, such as frostbite, are commonly understood, many often think about heat as being solely uncomfortable. There is a need to address how to manage the heat because classrooms are getting warmer because of climate change, she said.

Ontario Health Minister Sylvia Jones on Monday placed the onus of action on school boards. She told reporters that school boards across the province have plans in place, including modifying classroom locations.

“I will leave it to the school boards to make sure they put the pieces in place to keep their students protected, because each school is different and unique for what they are looking at in terms of where the students are best protected,” she said.

In Ontario, there is no maximum threshold for temperature that prompts a shutdown of workplaces established by the Ministry of Labour, Immigration, Training and Skills Development. Educators are encouraged by their school board to protect themselves and their students by drinking lots of water, wearing light clothing and avoiding direct sunlight.

“People are sweltering in the classrooms with the inability to do anything to actually address it, other than go outside and sit under a tree,” said Karen Littlewood, president of the Ontario Secondary School Teachers’ Federation.

Students and teachers, she added, end up trying to survive the day in the face of scorching heat.

Some parents have opted to keep their children home. Ms. Littlewood said there are staff who cannot tolerate the heat for medical reasons and must call in sick.

“Nobody can work under those conditions,” she said. “Kids can’t learn under those conditions. People go home sick, and then you have other illnesses that are exacerbated by the fact that you have this extreme heat.”

While there is no maximum temperature to force a shutdown, Ms. Littlewood said, educators can call the ministry and action is taken if a classroom falls to 17 C during a cold spell.

Ms. Mullins also pointed to this discrepancy, saying that if a furnace wasn’t working in her son’s school in January, children would be sent home.

“It wouldn’t be given a second thought,” she said.

Schools brace for heat wave

High tem­per­at­ures hit just as stu­dents begin final exams

Children at Sts. Cosmas and Damian Catholic School in Toronto helped beat the heat by playing under a new misting station in their yard last June.

This article was written by Omar Mosleh and was published in the Toronto Star on June 22, 2025.

Daniela Men­dez doesn’t wake up her stu­dents if one nods off on a scorch­ing hot school day.

Over the years, she’s grown accus­tomed to stu­dents com­plain­ing about being tired, naus­eous, or fall­ing asleep dur­ing the most stifling stretches of sum­mer.

Men­dez, an ESL and his­tory teacher at the Toronto Dis­trict School Board, said she’s leni­ent this time of year because she recog­nizes stu­dents are exhausted and under pres­sure, espe­cially with exams under­way.

She’s expect­ing a chal­len­ging week as stu­dents and staff brace for a multi­day heat wave dur­ing which tem­per­at­ures are expec­ted to exceed 30 C, start­ing Sunday and taper­ing off mid­week.

“When there’s a lot of high­stakes eval­u­ation, it really becomes a prob­lem for stu­dents,” she said. “They want to do well and the con­di­tions are just not con­du­cive to that.”

Men­dez, who teaches at a school that is more than a cen­tury old and has no cent­ral air con­di­tion­ing, said while her admin­is­trat­ors try their best to accom­mod­ate stu­dents, there’s lim­ited flex­ib­il­ity when it comes to exam sea­son.

The TDSB’s guidelines for how teach­ers in schools without air con­di­tion­ing should man­age the heat is to use fans, turn lights and com­puters off when pos­sible, keep win­dows and doors open and rotate staff and stu­dents into cooler areas.

Stu­dents are also encour­aged to stay hydrated and reduce strenu­ous activ­it­ies.

Although stu­dents can go home if they’re not feel­ing well, some teach­ers like Men­dez are call­ing for more guid­ance on how to accom­mod­ate stu­dents dur­ing exams, or con­sider can­cel­ling or post­pon­ing them dur­ing extreme heat events.

“It would be good for there to be some guidelines that if it’s past (a cer­tain) tem­per­at­ure and there’s no altern­at­ive set­ting, something has to hap­pen,” Men­dez said.

There are no cur­rent plans to can­cel or post­pone exams, although recess at ele­ment­ary schools may be moved indoors, said TDSB spokes­per­son Zoya McGroarty. Where pos­sible, stu­dents can write exams in cool­ing centres, which may be the lib­rary or gym.

The Toronto Cath­olic Dis­trict School Board provided sim­ilar guidelines in a state­ment and said there are no cur­rent plans to change exam sched­ules.

Young chil­dren and kids who are obese, or have dia­betes or asthma, are more vul­ner­able to over­heat­ing, said Glen Kenny, a physiology pro­fessor and dir­ector of the Human and Envir­on­mental Physiology Research Unit at the Uni­versity of Ott­awa.

Over­heat­ing takes a toll on the body and can lead to reduced cog­nit­ive func­tion, he added, such as poor alert­ness, reac­tion time and con­cen­tra­tion.

Michelle Teixeira, pres­id­ent of the Toronto bar­gain­ing unit for the Ontario Sec­ond­ary School Teach­ers’ Fed­er­a­tion, said she’s hear­ing from teach­ers that cur­rent mit­ig­a­tion meas­ures, such as open­ing win­dows or mov­ing stu­dents into cool­ing centres, aren’t suf­fi­cient.

“The sad fact of the mat­ter is that many teach­ers just are used to it at this point and sort of deal with it because they have no other altern­at­ive,” she said.

“When we look at these build­ings that are in such a state of dis­repair, what does that say to our stu­dents that these are the kinds of build­ings that we send them to every day?”