Hot and dry conditions are expected to continue as wildfires throughout Western Canada have forced evacuations affecting thousands and affected air quality as far east as northern Ontario.
"Prayers are needed for rain," said Chief Wilfred Hooka-Nooza of Dene Tha First Nation in northwestern Alberta.
Hundreds of people were forced to flee Chateh, a community that is part of the First Nation, earlier this week as a blaze approached.
Hooka-Nooza said the wildfire has now crept within 13 kilometres of the community and workers are using bulldozers to build a fire guard to keep the flames at bay.
"The wind is in our favour at the moment, blowing in a different direction, but it could change," the chief said.
Roughly 2,500 people are fighting the fires throughout Alberta and 24 of 87 active wildfires were considered out of control as of midday Tuesday.
Wildfires have also been a concern for Alberta's neighbours, including the Northwest Territories, where the K'atl'odeeche First Nation and town of Hay River, about 120 kilometres from the Alberta boundary, are under evacuation orders.
A convoy of vehicles was allowed to leave a northern Saskatchewan village early Tuesday morning after Buffalo Narrows issued a mandatory evacuation order.
Mayor Sandy Ericson posted on social media that poor air quality due to the smoke and the loss of electricity made it unsafe to stay.
In British Columbia, the city of Fort St. John, about 200 kilometres northwest of Grande Prairie, Alta., also issued an evacuation alert for its roughly 21,000 residents in response to a wildfire that's more than 130 square kilometres in size.
The British Columbia Wildfire Service hopes calmer winds in the province's northeast will give it some reprieve to assess the blazes.
An unusual May heat wave has spurred rising wildfire risk across the West. Another 37 heat records were set in B.C. on Monday and 18 were tied or broken in Alberta.
Hooka-Nooza said the heat has been unprecedented and early in the season, which has left the land in his region very dry.
"I have never seen that before way back then, in the years I used to do wildfire fighting," the chief said.
"I have never seen something this early into the spring."
This report by The Canadian Press was first published May 16, 2023.
Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre says he does not regret calling Prime Minister Justin Trudeau 'wacko,' and now his MPs are renewing calls for the House of Commons Speaker to resign, this time over ordering the Official Opposition leader to leave the chamber.
The highly contagious norovirus is spreading across Canada, with some symptoms overlapping with other viruses. CTVNews.ca spoke with a health expert to find out how you can tell you have norovirus, the most common form of stomach flu, and what to do if you have it.
The investigation continues into a collision that killed two grandparents and their infant grandchild during a high-speed police chase on the wrong way of Highway 401 east of Toronto.
A month after eight Norwegian Cruise Line passengers were stranded in Africa when their ship left without them because they were late getting back, a U.S. couple – ages 84 and 81 – were also left behind by the cruise line in Spain.
A prosecutor in Massachusetts won't seek criminal charges against anyone, two years after four newborns were found in a freezer in a South Boston apartment.
Stress and anger can have a negative impact on cardiovascular health, studies have shown. New research points to just how the mechanism may work.
Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland will be tabling yet another omnibus bill to pass a sweeping range of measures promised in her April 16 federal budget, though left out of the legislation will be the government's proposed capital gains tax change.
An Ontario woman says that she was shocked when fines from 20 years ago suddenly tanked her credit score last week, but the situation may not be as unusual as it seems, according to at least one debt expert.
Police say they continue to search for an armed man who allegedly threatened people in Dartmouth, N.S.
The investigation continues into a collision that killed two grandparents and their infant grandchild during a high-speed police chase on the wrong way of Highway 401 east of Toronto.
The provincial government is facing harsh criticism after a decision to revoke free parking for cancer patients at some hospitals in Saskatchewan.
Police say they continue to search for an armed man who allegedly threatened people in Dartmouth, N.S.
Richard Martin is spending this year's fishing season on land after he says a Royal Newfoundland Constabulary officer broke his left leg in three places during a protest last month that shut down the provincial legislature.
Cheryl-Lee Spence and her children have been displaced by flooding on Peguis First Nation multiple times.
A low complex will continue to bring moisture into southern Alberta Wednesday.
A prosecutor in Massachusetts won't seek criminal charges against anyone, two years after four newborns were found in a freezer in a South Boston apartment.
U.S. President Joe Biden may eventually ban TikTok, but he's moving to give something back to the young people who dominate the popular social media app — a looser federal grip on marijuana.
Indonesia's Mount Ruang volcano erupted Tuesday for a second time in two weeks, spewing ash almost two kilometres into the sky, closing an airport and peppering nearby villages with debris.
Duelling groups of protesters clashed Wednesday at the University of California, Los Angeles, grappling in fistfights and shoving, kicking and using sticks to beat one another. Hours earlier, police burst into a building at Columbia University that pro-Palestinian protesters took over and broke up a demonstration that had paralyzed the school while inspiring others.
Warsaw's main synagogue was attacked with firebombs in the night by an unknown perpetrator, but sustained minimal damage and nobody was hurt, Poland's chief rabbi said Wednesday.
Donald Trump on Wednesday will use a one-day break from his hush money trial to rally voters in the battleground states of Wisconsin and Michigan, a day after he was held in contempt of court and threatened with jail time for violating a gag order.
Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre says he does not regret calling Prime Minister Justin Trudeau 'wacko,' and now his MPs are renewing calls for the House of Commons Speaker to resign, this time over ordering the Official Opposition leader to leave the chamber.
While several MPs and senators say they were only recently made aware of China-backed hackers targeting them, the Communications Security Establishment, one of Canada's intelligence agencies, says it shared information about the incident with parliamentary officials in June of 2022.
Testy exchanges between the prime minister and his chief opponent ended with the Opposition leader and one of his MPs being ejected from the House of Commons on Tuesday -- and the rest of Conservative caucus walking out of the chamber in protest.
The highly contagious norovirus is spreading across Canada, with some symptoms overlapping with other viruses. CTVNews.ca spoke with a health expert to find out how you can tell you have norovirus, the most common form of stomach flu, and what to do if you have it.
The provincial government is facing harsh criticism after a decision to revoke free parking for cancer patients at some hospitals in Saskatchewan.
The first scientist to publish a sequence of the COVID-19 virus in China said he was allowed back into his lab after he spent days locked outside, sitting in protest.
A wealthy Silicon Valley-backed campaign to build a green city for up to 400,000 people in the San Francisco Bay Area has submitted what it says are enough signatures to qualify the initiative for the November election.
Surmising even the physical appearance of a dinosaur - or any extinct animal - based on its fossils is a tricky proposition, with so many uncertainties involved. Assessing a dinosaur's intelligence, considering the innumerable factors contributing to that trait, is exponentially more difficult.
A northern Ontario beekeeper is sounding the alarm after discovering most of her bees had died earlier this year.
The name of the project has not been officially released although it’s widely believed to be the Netflix series FUBAR.
Rachel McAdams has been nominated for a Tony Award for best actress in a play for her Broadway debut, while Canadian choreographers Rick Kuperman and Jeff Kuperman earned a nod for their work on "The Outsiders."
Prolific Canadian jazz composer, educator and clarinetist Phil Nimmons has died at the age of 100 after a musical career that included Canada's highest artistic honour.
Former U.S. president Donald Trump has secured an additional US$1.8 billion worth of shares in Trump Media, according to a regulatory filing this week.
Wednesday marks the official start date of the long-awaited $34-billion Trans Mountain oil pipeline expansion project.
Grocery and drugstore retailer Loblaw Cos. Ltd. raised its quarterly dividend by 15 per cent as it reported its first-quarter profit and revenue rose compared with a year ago.
A month after eight Norwegian Cruise Line passengers were stranded in Africa when their ship left without them because they were late getting back, a U.S. couple – ages 84 and 81 – were also left behind by the cruise line in Spain.
The City of Toronto is lowering adoption fees until Sunday to find homes for a number of dogs with “ridiculous, bizarre and terrible names” living in the North York crowded shelter.
A lot of heterosexual male clients are coming into my practice admitting they picked their partner without considering sexual attraction.
The Nashville Predators kept their season alive with a 2-1 victory over the Vancouver Canucks in Game 5 of their first-round playoff series Tuesday.
Major League Baseball fans had an unexpected buzz on Tuesday after a swarm of bees delayed the Arizona Diamondbacks vs. Los Angeles Dodgers game for around two hours.
Matthew Knies scored at 2:26 of overtime as the Toronto Maple Leafs topped the Boston Bruins 2-1 on Tuesday to avoid elimination in Game 5 of their first-round playoff series.
Rolls-Royce is vastly expanding its factory in Chichester, England. The BMW subsidiary is adding five new buildings with construction planned to start next year.
On a three-lane test track along the Monongahela River, an 18-wheel tractor-trailer rounded a curve. No one was on board.
An Ontario man who took out a loan to pay for auto repairs said his car was repossessed after he missed two payments.
A police officer on Montreal's South Shore anonymously donated a kidney that wound up drastically changing the life of a schoolteacher living on dialysis.
Since 1932, Montreal's Henri Henri has been filled to the brim with every possible kind of hat, from newsboy caps to feathered fedoras.
Police in Oak Bay, B.C., had to close a stretch of road Sunday to help an elephant seal named Emerson get safely back into the water.
Out of more than 9,000 entries from over 2,000 breweries in 50 countries, a handful of B.C. brews landed on the podium at the World Beer Cup this week.
Raneem, 10, lives with a neurological condition and liver disease and needs Cholbam, a medication, for a longer and healthier life.
The lawyer for a residential school survivor leading a proposed class-action defamation lawsuit against the Catholic Church over residential schools says the court action is a last resort.
Mounties in Nanaimo, B.C., say two late-night revellers are lucky their allegedly drunken antics weren't reported to police after security cameras captured the men trying to steal a heavy sign from a downtown business.
A property tax bill is perplexing a small townhouse community in Fergus, Ont.
When identical twin sisters Kim and Michelle Krezonoski were invited to compete against some of the world’s most elite female runners at last week’s Boston Marathon, they were in disbelief.
A town hall meeting was held in White Rock Tuesday night in response to the RCMP’s efforts to maintain safety after a deadly stabbing attack.
Days after dozens of London Drugs locations closed due to a "cybersecurity incident," a spokesperson for the company says an update on the stores' status is expected Wednesday morning.
If your summer plans include hiking Quarry Rock or eating a famous doughnut, you may want to leave your car behind.
An Ontario woman says that she was shocked when fines from 20 years ago suddenly tanked her credit score last week, but the situation may not be as unusual as it seems, according to at least one debt expert.
Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre is demanding that Prime Minister Justin Trudeau reject Toronto's request for drug decriminalization.
The investigation continues into a collision that killed two grandparents and their infant grandchild during a high-speed police chase on the wrong way of Highway 401 east of Toronto.
Calgary police have laid charges in the death of a woman in the community of Redstone last month.
Wednesday marks the official start date of the long-awaited $34-billion Trans Mountain oil pipeline expansion project.
A program providing low-income Calgarians and Edmontonians a financial break on their monthly transit passes is losing millions of dollars in annual support from the provincial government, city councillors confirmed Tuesday.
Ontario Provincial Police say two people were killed after a car and a transport truck collided in the westbound lanes of Highway 417 near Limoges, Ont. on Tuesday afternoon.
A group of students have launched an encampment at the University of Ottawa (uOttawa) calling on the institution to cut financial ties with Israel, despite the school warning that such action would not be tolerated.
The Ontario Provincial Police (OPP) says an Ottawa driver is facing charges after being caught going 199 km/h on Highway 417 Tuesday night.
A judge is expected to render a decision Wednesday morning on whether the pro-Palestinian encampment at McGill University can stay or not.
A 42-year-old woman was killed before her body was found in a fire in Montreal's Pointe-aux-Trembles district, according to Montreal police.
The minimum wage in Quebec is going up today from $15.25 to $15.75 an hour.
A driver was hospitalized after hitting a parked semi's trailer on Manning Drive early Wednesday morning.
Warmer and drier weather will return to the Edmonton region by the weekend.
The Edmonton Oilers have made the case they can rely on their defending to win games.
An independent committee released its first report Wednesday on how governments and the RCMP are responding to the inquiry into the 2020 mass shooting in Nova Scotia that claimed 22 lives.
Police say they continue to search for an armed man who allegedly threatened people in Dartmouth, N.S.
Halifax Regional Centre for Education is weighing in on recent threats at Halifax-area schools.
The Winnipeg Police Service is set to give details on an investigating into a high-level drug network.
Cheryl-Lee Spence and her children have been displaced by flooding on Peguis First Nation multiple times.
A Steinbach writer has launched an online fundraiser to install a plaque at the Steinbach, Man. home where Miriam Toews spent her teen years.
The provincial government is facing harsh criticism after a decision to revoke free parking for cancer patients at some hospitals in Saskatchewan.
The Saskatchewan Roughriders selected offensive lineman, Kyle Hergel, with their third overall pick in the first round of the 2024 Canadian Football League (CFL) draft Tuesday night.
According to new numbers released from Statistics Canada, there was a decrease in local businesses in Saskatchewan over the past year.
Nearly 1,500 Waterloo Region high school students have been suspended over out-of-date vaccination records.
A man was airlifted to a trauma centre Tuesday after a shooting in Kitchener.
A southwestern Ontario man wanted by police in a shooting investigation was arrested during a traffic stop in North Bay early Tuesday morning.
A band councillor at Red Pheasant Cree Nation says he’s considering putting up surveillance cameras around the community in the wake of a runaway grass fire that nearly destroyed several homes on Monday.
The last of 10 people convicted in the brutal killing of a 25-year-old Edmonton woman was sentenced on Friday, closing a chapter on one of the largest homicide investigations for the Saskatchewan RCMP Major Crimes Investigations unit.
The Saskatchewan Roughriders selected offensive lineman, Kyle Hergel, with their third overall pick in the first round of the 2024 Canadian Football League (CFL) draft Tuesday night.
A southwestern Ontario man wanted by police in a shooting investigation was arrested during a traffic stop in North Bay early Tuesday morning.
Terry Sutherland is trying to sell his home in Tweed, Ont., but he'll likely be hit by the capital gains tax rise.
Two residents from Manitoulin Island are charged with multiple weapons and drug-related offences following an alleged drive-by shooting in the Massey area Monday morning, police said.
The collision at the intersection of Gainsborough and Aldersbrook Roads, was forceful enough to flip a grey SUV. A black SUV was also damaged.
OPP and the Ministry of Labour are investigating after a 25-year-old individual sustained life-threatening injuries during a construction accident in Lucan Biddulph.
Simmering tensions between the Upper Thames River Conservation Authority (UTRCA) and planning officials at city hall are now out in the open.
OPP in Alliston have located an armed man after a search on Tuesday.
An Orillia man is not just celebrating a personal victory but also a win for the entire community.
A cyclist was killed in a crash in Caledon Township.
Windsor police say two children were taken to hospital after getting hit by a vehicle while retrieving a basketball.
The Windsor Police Service is launching the 2024 Anti-Noise Campaign.
The Director of the Special Investigations Unit, Joseph Martino, determined a Windsor police officer should not be charged after a man’s wrist was broken.
Floatplane operator Harbour Air will offer direct flights this summer from downtown Vancouver to Butchart Gardens on Vancouver Island, landing its seaplanes in a remote cove behind the historic horticultural attraction.
Wednesday marks the official start date of the long-awaited $34-billion Trans Mountain oil pipeline expansion project.
A proposal by British Columbia Conservative Leader John Rustad to use "biological sex" to classify participants in publicly funded sports teams and events, effectively banning transgender athletes, didn't get to first base.
Out of more than 9,000 entries from over 2,000 breweries in 50 countries, a handful of B.C. brews landed on the podium at the World Beer Cup this week.
An emaciated dachshund is now recovering thanks to a Good Samaritan who found the pup near a biking trail in Kelowna, according to the BC SPCA.
Search and rescue crews have been called in after a vehicle belonging to a missing senior was located near a rural intersection outside of Kelowna Tuesday.
The rail line from Lethbridge to Coutts is used solely for freight trains, but a new feasibility study done by Integrated Travel Research and Development looks at the potential of adding a passenger train.
Police are releasing more details about the kidnapping and robbery of a senior in Lethbridge, which included a strange request for spices, in hopes of identifying a suspect.
Thousands of people dressed as dinosaurs descended on Drumheller, Alta., on Saturday.
A group of Sault Ste. Marie YMCA supporters working to save the facility from closure received a glimmer of hope at this week’s city council meeting.
Another incident at Algoma Steel has union officials questioning safety protocols at Sault Ste. Marie’s steel plant.
The Ontario government is spending $45 million in the next three years to improve access and funding for the northern travel grant.
Richard Martin is spending this year's fishing season on land after he says a Royal Newfoundland Constabulary officer broke his left leg in three places during a protest last month that shut down the provincial legislature.
Tributes continue to pour in for Bob Cole as his family has confirmed a funeral will be held for the legendary broadcaster Friday in St. John's, N.L.
Legendary sportscaster Bob Cole was a Newfoundlander through and through, and his daughter says his connection to the province was 'everything' to him.
The Shopping Trends team is independent of the journalists at CTV News. We may earn a commission when you use our links to shop. Read about us.
