Beyond Local

"The majority of our public-health resources have been directed to the COVID-19 response, as has been necessary, that has come at the cost of not fully working on other threats, like for example opioid deaths," Hinshaw said.

The new money will include $82 million to fund about 1,300 social-infrastructure projects to enhance workplaces and community spaces, and $14 million to help organizations build grassroots capacity

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is widely expected to pull the plug on his minority Liberal government later this month for an election in mid to late September.

“We’re entering a new territory with more fire activity in our future all over Canada… people who have been fighting fires for 30 to 40 years say they haven’t seen anything like it.”

Trees the farmers have been tending for up to seven years could now be damaged and seedlings for future crops have also been decimated because of the heat, said Sally Aitken, who teaches forestry at the University of British Columbia.

The backlog is creating overcrowding, he added, causing the animals to become aggressive, which isn't good for their health. If they can't be properly slaughtered and processed they will be euthanized instead, said David Duval, head of an association of pork producers.

“I don’t know if we’re going to see a heatwave of that magnitude and duration any time soon, but the expectation is as our climate changes, we are going to see more extreme heatwaves more often in summer time.”

"I'm very angry about what happened, I called for help and they killed my son," Marie-Mireille Bence, the victim's mother, said.

Woman, 26, from Peers, Alta., attacked in remote area northwest of Swan Hills.

It could be "mayhem" to go through a cycle of drought, wildfires, heavy rains, and drought again, said François-Nicolas Robinne, "because the pressure on the water resource would become so high that I can't even imagine what it would mean in terms of water supply for communities."