This article was written by Mike Hager and was published in the Globe & Mail on December 31, 2025.
Atmospheric river washes out highway on the archipelago off B.C.’s north coast
Just an hour after Chris Ashurst finished a morning of frigid crosscountry skiing, an atmospheric river descended upon Haida Gwaii from the south, swinging the temperature 15 degrees “almost into T-shirt weather” and setting off a massive melt that nearly led to calamity on the craggy archipelago off B.C.’s north coast.
That was Sunday morning. By the evening, Mr. Ashurst, a volunteer emergency co-ordinator for the North Coast Regional District, was one of more than 2,000 residents stranded on the north half of the main island when the lone highway was washed out by a flood.
The provincial government and local First Nations leaders said Tuesday afternoon that the rains had let up enough for repairs to begin on the main coastal highway and a single lane reopened later in the evening.
The authorities had prepared to install a temporary bridge over the washed out portion, but water levels dropped enough Tuesday for them to begin to install a culvert.
However, for more than two days, the north end of the main island was cut off from the southern half, which is home to the ferry and airport that transport people, food and fuel from the mainland.
Mr. Ashurst and his partner had planned to catch a ferry Monday morning for a ski trip on the mainland. They set out in their pick-up truck at 5:30 a.m. to take a logging road that curled around the island to the ferry terminal in Skidegate, but a kilometre onto the path they stopped at a puddle nearly half a metre deep.
Then, a logger in a bigger truck backed up toward them and said the path ahead had fallen trees and water flowing across it at double that depth.
“He was like, ‘nobody’s going that way,’ so we went back,” Mr. Ashurst said.
No major injuries were reported during the flooding and aftermath, though the emergency room in the north side’s largest community of more than 2,000 people, Masset, has been shutting down periodically because of staffing shortages.
Still, two days of being severed from civilization tested residents on the north half of the island, with stores being emptied of dairy and other essentials and the region surviving on one functioning gas pump, Mr. Ashurst said.
“We get zero groceries up here without the road – it all comes on the ferry – so I’m not going to town. We’re going to eat the food in our pantry until this all passes,” Mr. Ashurst added. He has lived outside Masset for 22 years.
No properties have had to be evacuated, but roughly 10 families stranded from getting to their homes by the flooding are being given vouchers for food and, in some cases, accommodation, according the provincial Emergency Management and Climate Readiness Ministry.
On Dec. 27, the Ministry of Water, Land and Resource Stewardship issued a flood warning for Haida Gwaii and the region surrounding the north coast port city of Prince Rupert, with up to 15 centimetres of rain expected through Monday.
Billy Yovanovich, Chief Councillor of the Skidegate Band Council, said members in the southern part of the main island were also helping house their northern neighbours in need.
His elected council oversees the village of Skidegate in the south and another council oversees Masset in the north, both working within the governance structures of the wider Haida Nation.
“It is just such an extreme oneoff, both communities have been really helpful,” he said.
Mr. Yovanovich said his main concern with flooding is the ongoing erosion of Haida Gwaii’s shores, which his nation is trying to fight through various projects.
Yet, his biggest takeaway from the past few days is that everyone on the ground co-operated beautifully, a fact he says may surprise some convinced that reconciliation in B.C. with Indigenous people has gone awry after recent court rulings on competing property rights.
He noted that this fall the B.C. Supreme Court cemented the Haida Nation’s agreement with federal and provincial governments to take over Aboriginal title to all one million hectares of Haida Gwaii, once known as the Queen Charlotte Islands.
“We’re still able to coexist: Nothing’s going to change that way. We’ll still all work together during crises and during day-today living,” he said.
This article was written by Jared Lindzon and was published in the Toronto Star on November 8, 2025.
Through manufacturing challenges and order delays, creditor protection and restructuring, Sam Bruneau says Taiga Motors’ original thesis — that snowmobile and Jet Ski riders want an electric alternative, and that Canada is the best place to build them — hasn’t wavered.
“The product types, the vertical integration, doing it all under one roof and doing it in Canada,” he says. “That has remained the same as our original business plan in 2015.” That year, Bruneau teamed up with Paul Achard and Gabriel Bernatchez — engineering classmates and teammates in extracurricular electric race car design competition McGill Formula Electric — to make that dream a reality.
After designing a prototype electric snowmobile from their shared apartment in Montreal and hauling it around North America in a rented pickup, the cofounders found a market eager for a quieter, safer, more sustainable alternative.
In 2021, Taiga went public via a special purpose acquisition company (SPAC) that put its value at more than half a billion dollars. In 2022, it began manufacturing electric snowmobiles and personal watercraft from its Montreal facility and, by 2023, the company employed about 300 workers.
But shortly after going public, Taiga began running into rough patches. Bruneau says rising interest rates, supplychain issues and a global chip shortage hobbled the startup as it sought to create and source new parts for a new product category. By 2024, Taiga Motors had laid off all but 70 staff, suspended production and filed for creditor protection, burdening its earliest and most passionate supporters — including employees, investors and depositpaying customers — with financial losses.
“It’s a terrible feeling to disappoint so many who were rallying behind Taiga,” Bruneau says. “The core thesis was working, we were getting there — just a year or a year and a half behind schedule — and that has a huge impact on the financials of companies in the public markets.”
In October 2024, Taiga Motors was thrown a buoy by British electric boat entrepreneur and investor Stewart Wilkinson. Now, Taiga is attempting a comeback, announcing its latest watercraft — the threeseater Orca WX3 — at the Monaco Yacht Club in early September, alongside its entry into the European market.
The Star caught up with Bruneau, who remains Taiga’s CEO and public face, from its Montreal headquarters to understand what went wrong, why he’s so certain the future of leisure crafts is electric, and why the company deserves a second chance.
Did you ride snowmobiles growing up?
We didn’t own a snowmobile, but I did some touring with friends and family. Growing up in Quebec, you tend to spend a lot of time in the snow. I did a lot of skiing as a kid, and through that you see a lot of the friction between outdoor communities.
How so?
We all have the same goal — to enjoy these beautiful outdoor spaces — but the machines are loud, and quite polluting. It’s similar with Jet Skis in the summer. People want to enjoy the water and, unfortunately, the gas ones are extremely loud and can be used in dangerous ways.
Did you pursue an engineering degree to address that tension?
I never really pictured entrepreneurship. I got into engineering because of a passion for sustainable energy. I wanted to do something to protect the environment, but I assumed I would be doing research into fusion energy or something.
How did Taiga come about?
When I started at McGill in 2010, Tesla was just starting to take off and major manufacturers were starting to invest in electric cars, but nobody was working on this space that felt very close to home.
My cofounders and I are all from different parts of Quebec, but all had the same passion for the outdoors and technology. We realized we could do what Tesla did; start with a clean sheet and reinvent the snowmobile as an electric vehicle.
If someone else was already working on it, we probably wouldn’t have done it, but we saw this big problem and knew people wanted a solution.
Is it really that big of a problem for the environment?
Because they are used on a smaller scale, governments impose less stringent regulations.
Cars are required to have catalytic converters, which remove a lot of the nasty byproducts of combustion engines, but snowmobiles and Jet Skis don’t. Their fourstroke engines pollute as much as 40 cars on a perkilometre basis.
For Jet Skis, those particulates and hydrocarbons go straight into the waterways. There might be less of them, but each has a much bigger and more direct environmental impact.
What are the benefits?
The silent operation is a gamechanger for riders and everyone around them. They run about 30 times quieter than gas alternatives at full throttle. That allows you to really enjoy nature; all you hear is wind and water or snow. It feels more like sailing or skiing, and you can enjoy the fresh air without the exhaust smell.
Electric engines offer instant torque, so faster acceleration. It’s also a lot safer, especially for rental providers and tour operators, because you can set specific speed limits, and track where they go.
In 2026, we’re introducing geofencing, which allows for the ability to restrict access or speed in specific areas using GPS. For a family, that means you can control where your teen can ride, and how fast.
In Toronto, there’s been a lot of concern over Jet Skis disrupting local wildlife or getting too close to busy shorelines, so limiting Jet Skis to certain speeds or areas could be gamechanging.
We’re already having discussions with customers about opening restricted waterways to electric vehicles in areas that currently ban personal watercrafts.
What about the downsides?
There are two main ones for all EVs: the upfront cost is about 20 to 30 per cent higher, and there is less range.
On the price side, it becomes costefficient over time. Not only are you not paying for gas, but ownership costs are lower. There are no oil changes, or coolant, or winterization requirements. For fleet owners, you can save upwards of $7,000 across the lifetime of the vehicle, because it’s used every day. For individuals, the total cost of ownership is $3,000 to $4,000 less.
As for range, our watercrafts get about two hours on a full charge. Unlike a car, most riders aren’t worried about the occasional road trip. Longdistance riders are about 10 per cent of the Jet Ski market and 20 to 30 per cent on the snowmobile side. The snowmobiles get about 100 kilometres of range, and with fast chargers becoming more available it’s becoming easier to stop for a quick coffee and charge.
What challenges did the company run into following its 2021 SPAC?
We had just set up production, had a big order book, lots of optimism about the product, getting those first parts from suppliers, and things were looking good.
Then we started having problems, starting with the supplychain crisis. Automakers stopped production because they couldn’t access microchips, and we started getting calls from suppliers saying those companies were taking our shipment because they buy $5 billion, and we were ordering $1 million.
We’re also creating these complex parts for the first time and there’s a high bar for safety and reliability — everything needs to be tested and validated — and it’s hard to pivot. If the market changes, or supply chains collapse, it has a longlasting impact.
The team did everything possible to keep production on track, but there were delays and customers got frustrated, so investors got frustrated. As a public company, that created challenging market dynamics.
Which proved more challenging, the technology or the market?
On paper, the technology is a lot more complicated — there’s a lot of new IP — but on an emotional level, the market. Technology is math, which is predictable; the market is human, which isn’t.
What happens now that you’ve been acquired?
We just launched a new model in Monaco — a more versatile, larger personal watercraft — and we’re still executing that same road map. The core plan hasn’t changed.
We’re currently at 80 employees, and we’re hoping to scale to 150 by the end of next year. We’re a private company once again, just focused on execution. So far, we’ve sold about 1,500 vehicles — about half snow, half watercraft — and we’re aiming for about 200 a month through next year.
We’re seeing tremendous interest from the European market, which is further ahead on electric adoption, but everything will be designed and built here in Canada. We’re also working with a group of companies to leverage our technology in the wider boating space and enable more manufactures to go electric.
What about your initial backers?
The earlystage venture investors understood the risks and while they were disappointed, they remain supportive. Many of them were impact investors, and they’re happy we’re able to continue.
Many of our customers were relieved, too, because they want this in the market. Even though deposits have technically been wiped in the restructuring, we’re going to honour those as best we can.
Taiga has seen extreme highs and lows. Are you now in the middle?
We’re trying to find a road with fewer wild swings. A restructuring is the worst thing you can experience in business, and we’re taking a more cautious approach so we can survive another 10 years.
The reality is that changing an industry takes time, it’s about perseverance and sustainable growth, but we still need to push more aggressively than an established company. We’re trying to do something that no one else is doing, so it’s going to be uncomfortable at times.
“The silent operation is a gamechanger for riders and everyone around them. They run about 30 times quieter than gas alternatives at full throttle. That allows you to really enjoy nature; all you hear is wind and water or snow. It feels more like sailing or skiing, and you can enjoy the fresh air without the exhaust smell.
This article was written by Jamey Keaten and was published in the Toronto Star on November 2, 2025.
BLATTEN, SWITZERLAND When a devastating landslide all but swallowed his Swiss village and top pled his threegeneration familyowned hotel in May, Lukas Kalbermatten was overwhelmed by a sense of emptiness before the emotions hit. But he choose not to dwell on them long, and snapped into action to rebuild.
The hotelier’s response sums up a mindset of many of the 300odd residents of Blatten: They could have left their bucolic village in the southern Lötschental valley for dead — but instead decided to try to see it come alive again one day, and are taking steps to rebuild.
Authorities evacuated villagers and livestock, but a 64yearold man was killed as 9 million cubic metres of ice, stone and earth tumbled down from the Kleines Nesthorn peak on May 28. The landslide left a trail about 2 1/2 kilometres wide and 100 metres high in places. It all came down in about a halfminute, coating the valley in plumes of dust. More than 90 per cent of village homes and buildings were destroyed.
“A lot of people were emotional of course, but I didn’t get much too emotional,” Kalbermatten said. “I was really realistic and the emotions, they came later after three or four days.”
Kalbermatten, whose website for his Hotel Edelweiss in Blatten shows it halfsunk in a pea soupgreen pond created by the disaster, joined up with other local families to set up a temporary hotel at the summit of a gondola lift in the neighbouring village of Wiler — one of three villages in the valley where most Blatten residents relocated.
“For tourism in this valley it’s also a catastrophe because we don’t have enough beds for all the tourists,” he said Tuesday. “The most important for us is to do something quickly.”
Laurent Hubert, coowner of the Nest und Bietsch horn hotel and restaurant near Blatten, said that it was “pulverized” last May. His wife, Esther Bellwald, is spearheading the new hotel with Kalbermatten.
“This project is a bit of the light at the end of the tunnel,” Hubert said in kneedeep snow near the con struction site, with crews in short sleeves working fast under sunny skies for a planned Dec. 18 opening of the “Momentum” hotel.
A 30 centimetre dump of snowfall over last weekend gave the valley its white wintertime gleam again.
In recent months, work crews have restored electric ity and telecommunication lines to the Blatten area, and used backhoes to dig a drainage canal.
This article was written by Binaj Gurubacharya and was published in the Globe & Mail on October 6, 2025.
Nepalese army personnel prepare to rescue survivors after a flood in Jhapa district, Nepal, on Sunday.
Landslides, a lightning strike and flooding triggered by severe rainfall killed at least 44 people in Nepal on Sunday, with five others reported missing, authorities said.
Those killed included at least 37 people in the eastern mountain district of Illam, where whole villages were swept away by landslides, Nepal’s National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Authority said. Several other people are still missing.
Heavy rainfall was reported since Friday in the district, which borders India and is known for growing tea.
Six people in the same family were killed when a landslide crushed their home while they slept, Illam’s assistant administrative officer Bholanath Guragai said.
Rainfall was hampering efforts to reach the villages and many roads were swept away or blocked by the landslides.
The government said helicopters were also evacuating people needing medical evacuations and ground troops were helping move people to safer areas.
One more person was killed in a landslide in a neighbouring district.
Three people in another district were killed as they were struck by lightning, while three more people died in flooding in southern Nepal.
Nepal’s government issued a severe rainfall warning in the eastern and central parts of the country from Saturday to Monday, while shutting down major highways. All domestic flights were grounded on Saturday by aviation authorities because of heavy rainfall and poor visibility but were reopened on Sunday.
The major highways connecting the capital, Kathmandu, with other areas were closed by the authorities as some parts were blocked by landslides and others were shut as a precautionary measure.
By Sunday evening, one route was partially opened for traffic.
The blockage of roads and transport came as hundreds of thousands of people were returning to Kathmandu after celebrating Dashain, the biggest festival in the Himalayan nation. Thursday was the main day of the two-week festival when people travel to their home villages to be with their families.
Highways were clogged with vehicles on Sunday, as the government assessed the situation.
In Kathmandu, some areas near the river were flooded but no major damage or casualties were reported.
The government had declared a national holiday until Monday because of the heavy rainfall.
Flooding and landslides last year around the same time killed 224 people and left 158 injured.
Neighbouring India, which surrounds landlocked Nepal on three sides, has offered to help.
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, said on socialmedia platform X that the loss of lives and damage caused by heavy rains in Nepal are distressing.
“We stand with the people and Government of Nepal in this difficult time,” he said. “As a friendly neighbour and first responder, India remains committed to providing any assistance that may be required.”
There was no comment from Nepal on the offer.
The weekend’s heavy rainfall arrived at the end of Nepal’s monsoon season, which usually begins in June and ends by mid-September.
The blockage of roads and transport came as hundreds of thousands of people were returning to Kathmandu after celebrating Dashain, the biggest festival in the Himalayan nation.
Experts warn years of repeated drought, heat raise risk of falling branches
This article was written by Nono Shen and was published in the Toronto Star on August 24, 2025.
Sometimes it happens without any more warning than the sound of cracking.
A tree physiologist said that several years of repeated drought in British Columbia mixed with heat stress increased the likelihood of branches breaking off, and this could even happen on a “perfectly calm day” without any breeze.
The consequences can be tragic — on July 31, a mother and her fivemonthold son were killed by a falling tree on the beach at Cumberland Lake Park campground on Vancouver Island.
Then on Aug. 10, a woman was badly injured when part of a large tree fell on her at Pipers Lagoon in Nanaimo, also on the island.
Peter Constabel, a professor in the biology department at the University of Victoria, said he had seen photos of that tree, and he thought it looked like there was some rot inside it.
“It’s the drought that specifically causes this, and somehow it stresses the tree and drops the branch, or the branch falls. If you get cumulative droughts, of course, it’s gonna weaken the tree overall,” said Constabel, who specializes in the tree health.
British Columbia has suffered years of repeated drought, although conditions are currently rated normal on Vancouver Island, which received heavy rain last weekend.
Constabel said he had seen branches of maple trees and oak trees falling off on the University of Victoria campus, even on a windless day.
“It’s just hot and dry for a long time, and the branch just breaks off. It’s really kind of counterintuitive,” said Constabel, adding that the water in the cell walls in the wood helps stabilize a weakened tree.
Simon Fraser University biological sciences professor Jim Mattsson said he had recently witnessed big branches fall from a Douglas fir on Burnaby Mountain.
“If someone had been hit by that, that could be quite serious,” said Mattsson, adding that a prolonged period of drought can wear down even a Douglas fir, which is usually very droughtresistant.
Dry spells can leave trees in a weakened state, Mattsson said, reducing photosynthesis and growth, cutting their energy or sugar reserves, and lowering production of chemical defences.
All of these can cause a chain reaction increasing trees’ susceptibility to insects and fungal diseases, causing trees to rot inside, weaken and potentially topple over, said Mattsson. “When you have seasons of repeated drought, and people may not even notice that they have several years of drought stress, they will drop the leaves, they drop the needles, and so on.”
Mattsson has frequently visited Vancouver Island for his research and said western red cedars that are common on the island are quite susceptible to drought, with roots fairly close to the surface.
As summer get hotter, more stress is added to these trees.
“So, that can be enough to kill them in a year or two,” said Mattsson, “Just because they’re dead doesn’t mean that they’re going to fall over right away. They usually have to be weakened by rot, primarily insects and fungal rot.”
Constabel said maple trees and western cedar are not very droughttolerant, and hikers should be cautious while passing them. Trees in an urban setting are particularly vulnerable, as they are more likely to be exposed to the sun, with soil compacted and their root systems might not be as healthy as trees in a natural environment.
“That makes it harder for the tree to stay healthy, and also could potentially weaken the tree, then it would drop a branch in a drought,” said Constabel.
A Spanish region touts success with a pilot project that pits hungry livestock against underbrush that could deter spreading of infernos
This article was written by Albert Gea and Horaci Garcia, and was published in the Globe & Mail on August 20, 2025.
The herd of some 300 goats wandering from town to town is part of a pilot project set up in the city of Mataró.
Amid a symphony of tinkling bells, some 300 black, brown and dappled goats trot along a paved road in Spain’s northeastern Catalonia region, stopping every now and then to nibble with gusto on the dry shrubs lining the edge of a forest.
The herd wandering from town to town is part of a pilot project set up in the city of Mataró, which forms part of a broader European Union-funded effort to mitigate the risk of wildfires.
José Antonio Ricis, Mataró’s local councillor in charge of agriculture, said the project was a success and was “here to stay.”
Each summer, scorching heat sparks wildfires in countries across southern Europe ravaging vast swathes of land as climate change intensifies. In Catalonia last year, despite being in the third year of the worst drought in a century, the number of outbreaks decreased, with the regional government attributing the decline to improved fire prevention measures, of which goats are just one part.
Goats are known for their voracious appetites, even feeding on thorny plants such as cactuses or thistles, making them ideal for clearing brush and other combustible materials to create natural firebreaks.
The practice of using livestock to clear flammable undergrowth dates back centuries, but some farmers are turning away from machines favoured in modern times and back to goats and other animals in search of more sustainable farming techniques. In Spain’s Galicia region, wild horses perform the job.
Whistling in short bursts, Francesc Teixidó and Pedro Alba, both 38, instruct their working dogs to get the goats moving along the perimeter of a residential area in wildfire-prone Maresme county, hugging central Catalonia’s coast. The two business partners recently decided to combine their respective flocks and embrace the nomadic goatherding life.
Mr. Teixidó’s story began 14 years ago with a small experiment in goat herding in the Barcelona suburb of Badalona. However, others in the original group soon grew tired of the demanding lifestyle, and Mr. Teixidó was left alone with his modest flock of seven goats. “At first, it wasn’t even a profession. I did it as a hobby, to learn,” says Mr. Teixidó, who had worked as a skiing, sailing and windsurf instructor before.
“When you’re an instructor, you’re also looking after a group of children or adults and have to try to make sure they behave as well as possible,” he quips, adding that he prefers his current sense of freedom.
Mr. Alba also left a very different life behind: He had been a touring musician, but then the pandemic hit and travel restrictions became the norm. Faced with an unintended career change, he prioritized finding a job in which he could also spend time with his young son, so he started by buying a few goats from Mr. Teixidó after meeting him at a party.
Aside from the ability to bring his child along, Mr. Alba says he loves to consume high-quality milk and meat, but he intensely dislikes dealing with the red tape.
The goatherders are paid by individual municipalities who use their services and by cheesemakers who particularly prize milk from the roving goats. However, these income streams also mean they have to deal with more bureaucracy related to tax and health regulations.
The constantly moving animals graze on a wide variety of plants and don’t require supplemental feed such as lucerne – resulting in a sweeter, fattier and more protein-rich curd with a higher yield and flavours that change with the season, the pair explain. “What seemed like a handicap at first became our main strength,” Mr. Teixidó says, referring to the goats’ lack of fixed abode.
Most of the income from milk sales and the municipalities that pay for the wildfire prevention program is spent on getting better equipment.
Ultimately, neither of them is in it for the money. “If you count the hours, it doesn’t add up,” Mr. Alba says. “We do it because we believe in another way of life and of managing the land.”
In Catalonia last year, despite being in the third year of the worst drought in a century, the number of outbreaks decreased, with the regional government attributing the decline to improved fire prevention measures, of which goats are just one part.
This article was written by Ben Finley and John Seewer, and was published in the Globe & Mail on August 19, 2025.
Hurricane Erin forced tourists to cut their vacations short on North Carolina’s Outer Banks even though the monster storm is expected to stay offshore after lashing part of the Caribbean with rain and wind on Monday.
Evacuations were ordered on a couple of barrier islands along the Carolina shore as authorities warned the storm could churn up dangerous rip currents and swamp roads with waves of 4.6 metres. Tropical storm and surge watches were issued Monday for much of the Outer Banks.
Tourists and residents waited for hours in a line of cars Monday at Ocracoke Island’s ferry dock – the only way to leave other than by plane.
“We definitely thought twice,” said Seth Brotherton, of Catfish, N.C., whose weeklong fishing trip ended abruptly. “But they said ‘mandatory’ and that pretty much means, ‘get out of here.’ ”
Forecasters are confident that Erin will turn north and away from the eastern U.S., but it’s still expected to strengthen in the coming days and whip up wild waves and tropical-force winds along the coastal islands, Dave Roberts of the U.S. National Hurricane Center in Miami said.
The storm intensified to a Category 4 on Monday with maximum sustained winds of 225 kilometres an hour while it pelted the Turks and Caicos Islands, and the southeast Bahamas, according to the centre. By Monday night, sustained winds had dropped some to 210 km/h with Erin about 1,120 kilometres southwest of Bermuda and about 1,290 kilometres southeast of Cape Hatteras.
Government officials in the Turks and Caicos Islands said all services were suspended on three of its islands and ordered residents there to stay home. Some ports also closed.
On North Carolina’s Outer Banks, coastal flooding was expected to begin Tuesday and continue through Thursday.
The evacuations that began Monday on Hatteras Island and Ocracoke Island came at the height of tourist season on the thin stretch of low-lying barrier islands.
A year ago, Hurricane Ernesto stayed hundreds of kilometres offshore from the U.S. Eastern Seaboard yet still produced high surf and swells that caused coastal damage. This time there are concerns that several days of heavy surf, high winds and waves could wash out parts of the main highway, the National Weather Service said. Some routes could be impassible for several days, authorities warned.
This is the first time Ocracoke has been evacuated since Hurricane Dorian struck in 2019, leaving behind the most damage in the island’s recorded history.
Tommy Hutcherson, who owns the community’s only grocery store, said the island has mostly bounced back. He’s optimistic this storm won’t be as destructive. “But you just never know. I felt the same way about Dorian and we really got smacked,” he said.
Scientists have linked the rapid intensification of hurricanes in the Atlantic to climate change. Global warming is causing the atmosphere to hold more water vapour and is spiking ocean temperatures, and warmer waters give hurricanes fuel to unleash more rain and strengthen more quickly.
Daniel Pullen, a professional photographer who lives on Hatteras Island, said he’s already lost three days of work shooting family portraits because of the evacuation order.
But Mr. Pullen, who lives in Buxton, doesn’t plan to evacuate because he could be stuck off the island for days and even weeks if the main road, Highway 12, washes out.
“It’s a bit like Russian roulette,” Mr. Pullen said. “Do you stay and take the chance of it hitting you? Or do you leave and take the chance of getting stuck off the island for weeks at a time? I would say the majority of Hatteras Island residents can’t afford to stay in a motel for a week or two weeks.”
Erin, the year’s first Atlantic hurricane, reached a dangerous Category 5 status Saturday with 260 km/h winds before weakening.
This article was written by Temur Durrani and was published in the Globe & Mail on August 8, 2025.
Steve Maly, co-owner of outdoor sports store 3 Mile Outfitters in Halifax, pets his dog Colby on Thursday. He says rumours of a possible ban on outdoor activity owing to wildfire risk have circulated for some time.
Standing along the rocky shores of Cape Breton Island, Jonathan Kanary is trying not to feel completely defeated. The manager and backcountry guide of a Nova Scotia adventure-tourism company, Live Life In Tents, has been turning away customer after customer, many of whom drove across the country or flew overseas to be there.
Nearby, atop the Mabou Highlands walled by the Atlantic Ocean, Capes 100 – a world-renowned trail race – has been cancelled this weekend, with organizers issuing deferrals and partial refunds for dozens of participants, while mile-marker signage is being haphazardly taken down by hand.
But they have no other option: With unusually little Maritime rainfall this season, the province has announced a ban on most summertime activities in wooded areas to prevent wildfires.
As growing flames continue to ravage several provinces, scorching more than 6.8 million hectares of land this year and forcing thousands of people from their homes, Nova Scotia Premier Tim Houston is taking precautionary measures.
Earlier this week, he placed a moratorium on hiking, camping, fishing, mining, forestry and all other backcountry pursuits. Some beaches and parks may be accessible, though all trail systems are closed, and private landowners in the woods are not allowed to host guests on their properties. Those in violation will face a $25,000 fine.
Set to last until at least mid-October, unless dry conditions improve, the ban will also apply to national parks. As of Friday, that includes pathways and boat services on Cape Breton Highlands and Kejimkujik National Parks, along with most historical sites such as the Fortress of Louisbourg, Melanson Settlement and Fort McNab, Parks Canada told The Globe and Mail.
For many Canadians on the East Coast, the new restrictions mean summer as they know it is over and out.
Steve Maly, co-owner of 3 Mile Outfitters, a Halifax-based outdoor sports store situated on the popular Chain of Lakes Trail, believes most people expected the announcement.
“Rumours about the ban had been spreading already. But what was a shock was just how much of a sledgehammer approach it became,” he said. “Just think of a possible outdoor activity, and you’ll find it to now be restricted.”
The Halifax Regional Water Commission told The Globe it is asking customers to conserve water now so that they can avoid having mandatory restrictions imposed later. The utility added that it has not been able to replenish water in reservoirs for weeks.
Mr. Maly has watched those water levels change. He has also seen dust billow behind runners on provincial trails where it would never have been before.
“It’s hard not to notice how bone-dry everything here is,” said the manager, who also operates a coffee shop attached to his store, the 5K Café. “So, I obviously understand why they needed to do this. But I would have hoped they learned more from past years.”
Although Nova Scotia has faced only roughly 100 smaller wildfires this season, each of which were quickly extinguished, Newfoundland and Labrador is contending with a rapidly deteriorating situation this week.
Around 1,500 people have been evacuated from their communities on Newfoundland’s Avalon Peninsula, as Premier John Hogan has called upon the Canadian Armed Forces to help with multiple out-of-control blazes. At least 900 of those evacuees were added to the list late Thursday because of a 21-kilometre wildfire near Ochre Pit Cove and Salmon Cove, a short drive from St. John’s.
In announcing the restrictions for Nova Scotia, which are far more severe than in other provinces, Mr. Houston was blunt: “This situation sucks. Summer is one of the best times,” he told reporters Tuesday.
But he said he has been “losing sleep” about what’s happening elsewhere in Canada. On top of that, his government has received briefings that suggest there is no significant rainfall forecast in the near term, he added.
“As tinder-dry conditions continue to persist from one end of the province to the other, the risk of wildfires increases. And the risk is very, very high right now.”
Some councillors at the Halifax Regional Municipality are worried about how the restrictions will affect encampments for homeless people, many of which are in wooded areas.
Rachel Boehm, executive director of community safety for the council, said she is working toward communicating with people at encampments through outreach workers and printed flyers. But she told Tuesday’s council meeting it would take more time.
Travel and activity in the province was also restricted in 2023, when more than 16,000 people were displaced because of two large blazes near Halifax that destroyed hundreds of homes.
Those restrictions were set to last for a month, but were lifted after a week, as conditions improved.
Lorraine DeLuca lived less than 10 kilometres away from the fires in 2023. “It was incredibly scary, and I know none of us ever want to see anything close to that again,” she said.
Ms. DeLuca, Halifax-based president of the Chebucto Hiking Club, has cancelled all plans for the next few weeks.
“But I certainly don’t think these restrictions are heavyhanded,” she said. “Anything that is non-essential that we can cut, I say we do it for preventative action.”
Sara Chappell, co-founder of the Roots and Boots Forest School, agrees. “Still,” she added, “there is a lot of confusion out there.”
The board chairperson of the non-profit recreational camp said she has tried repeatedly to ask the province about whether their locations near Fall Rivers and Lewis Lake, N.S., need to close.
“If we don’t hear anything back by Friday, which we haven’t yet, we’ll have to cancel the last two weeks of summer camp and parents will have to make last-minute arrangements,” Ms. Chappell said.
On Cape Breton, Mr. Kanary said he’s in the same boat.
“We’re looking at about 40 per cent of our bookings being cancelled, and I’m talking about our company doing things in an area that isn’t even remotely in an active fire zone,” he said, adding he’s called every provincial line to seek clarity on the matter.
Kids find a spot to cool off as heat wave settles on southern Ontario
This article was written by Allie Moustakis and was published in the Toronto Star on July 29, 2025.
The Environment Canada heat warning is here to stay, Toronto.
After a sizzling weekend, temperatures held steady near the mid30s Monday, with humidity making it feel significantly hotter. Environment Canada said the humidex hit 41 by the afternoon, and overnight lows of 22 C offered little relief from the sticky conditions.
Cooler temperatures are expected to arrive on Wednesday, bringing an end to the multiday heat event.
The heat warning covers all parts of southern Ontario, stretching from along Lake Erie and Lake Ontario in the west all the way to Cornwall in the east.
A previous heat warning was also issued for Toronto and other parts of the province last Thursday, when temperatures hit the mid30s and similar humidex values in the 40s. The current warning is expected to remain in place through Tuesday.
Dozens of Toronto residents were walking on shaded sidewalks, enjoying lunch on patios and sitting on public wooden benches along Lake Ontario on Monday afternoon.
The sun will be out again on Tuesday when temperatures are expected to hit a daytime high of 30 C. The humidex will sit at 38 C with a UV of nine again. Clouds will roll in at night, bringing with them a 40 per cent chance of showers and a low of 21 C.
With the heat warning expected to be over by Wednesday, the city will see a high of 28 C, a 30 per cent chance of showers and some clouds overhead. The night will be cool and cloudy with a low of 20 C.
By Thursday, temperatures will reach a high of 25 C and a low of 17 C with sunny and clear skies in the day and night. Friday will be sunny with a daytime high of 25 C. Skies will remain clear at night and overnight lows will drop to 11 C.
Temperatures will stay relatively similar over the weekend.
Environment Canada continues to advise caution during extreme heat events, especially for older adults, people with preexisting health conditions and those who are at greater risk.
To help residents beat the heat, several outdoor pools in the city will remain open late, with extended hours at Alex Duff, Fairbank, McGregor Park, Monarch Park, North Toronto, Smithfield and Sunnyside until 11:45 p.m. Halbert Park pool will also stay open until 9 p.m.
This article was written by Felicia Fonseca and Jaimie Ding, and was published in the Globe & Mail on July 15, 2025.
A wildfire that tore through a historic Grand Canyon lodge and raged out of control Monday had been allowed to burn for days before erupting over the weekend, raising scrutiny over the National Park Service’s decision not to aggressively attack the fire right away.
The wildfire along the canyon’s more isolated North Rim, where most visitors don’t venture, was burning quickly with no containment, fire officials said. No injuries had been reported, but more than 70 structures were lost, including a visitors centre and several cabins.
At first, the fire didn’t raise alarms after igniting from a lightning strike on July 4. Four days later, the Park Service said the fire was being allowed to burn to benefit the land and fire crews were keeping close watch.
“There are no threats to infrastructure or public safety at this time,” the park said on Facebook.
Then three days later, on Friday, fire officials and the park service sent out warnings to “evacuate immediately” as the fire grew by nearly eight times within a day to more than 3.6 square kilometres.
Arizona Governor Katie Hobbs called for a federal investigation into the park service’s handling of the fire.
“The federal government chose to manage that fire as a controlled burn during the driest, hottest part of the Arizona summer,” the governor said in a social-media post Sunday.
She will be meeting with leadership in the U.S. Forest Service and the U.S. Department of the Interior soon to learn more about the decisions made in managing the wildfire, Hobbs’ spokesperson Christian Slater said in an e-mail.
Authorities first used a “confine and contain” strategy but shifted to aggressive suppression as the fire – one of two that firefighters are dealing with on the North Rim – rapidly grew because of hot temperatures, low humidity and strong wind gusts, fire officials said.
The Associated Press left phone and e-mail messages Monday with a park service spokesperson seeking comment about how the fire was managed.
The fire destroyed the Grand Canyon Lodge, the only lodging inside the park’s North Rim, along with employee housing and a waste water treatment plant, park Superintendent Ed Keable said Sunday.
Park officials have closed access for the rest of the year to the North Rim, a less popular area that draws only about 10 per cent of the Grand Canyon’s millions of annual visitors.
Hikers in the area were evacuated and rafters on the Colorado River, which snakes through the canyon, were told to bypass Phantom Ranch, an outpost of cabins and dormitories. Trails to the area from the canyon’s North and South rims also were closed.
From the air, plumes of black smoke could be seen rising above the canyon walls and haze filled parts of the park. From the park’s South Rim, visitors took pictures on Monday of the smoke blanketing the canyon in the distance.
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