Central Okanagan Emergency Management (COEM) says any residents in the evacuation zone of the Quilpituk Creek wildfire need to leave immediately.

The organization said it has become aware that some residents remained behind and said that an evacuation order is not a suggestion, it is a life-safety measure.

“Evacuation Orders are issued when there is a risk to life and safety,” COEM said in a release.

“They are based on current and anticipated conditions and are intended to ensure residents can leave safely while egress routes remain viable. Choosing to remain in an Evacuation Order area puts yourself, your family and first responders at risk.”

Crews are making progress on the Quilpituk Creek fire, which is burning north of West Kelowna, but crews warn that conditions can change quickly.

The fire is currently mapped at 1,139 hectares.

“Forecast winds may increase fire activity in some areas over the coming days, and residents should not assume they will have time to evacuate if conditions change,” the COEM stated.

“Residents who remain in Evacuation Order areas should not expect consistent or timely access to emergency services. Wildfire activity, road closures, damaged infrastructure and safety concerns can limit or prevent access for paramedics, firefighters, police and other responders.”

Multiple evacuation orders and evacuation alerts remain in effect due to the Quilpituk Creek wildfire.

The COEM is also warning that deliveries are not permitted in the evacuation order areas, which includes food, fuel, generator supplies, packages and other personal items.

They also stated that people who choose to remain despite the order should not expect power or drinking water service. While restoration work is underway, those efforts are focused on supporting the wildfire response and preparing for the safe return of evacuated residents when conditions allow.

© 2026 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.

Work is underway on the construction of two new neighbourhoods in Calgary, east of Stoney Trail, called Hollins and Halstead — north and northeast of the East Hills shopping area on the east side of Stoney Trail.

Developers broke ground on the 54-hectare (133 acres) project on Friday.

The plans call for a mix of retail and housing — single-family homes along with semi detached multi-family townhomes, offering enough housing for 4,100 people. The developers say they hope to see people start moving in by the middle of next year.

Another key part of the project is the extension of Memorial Drive which currently ends just east of 68 Street Northeast in the communities of Abbeydale and Applewood Park.

The plan is for a four-lane extension of Memorial Drive over Stoney Trail and the Rotary Mattamy Greenway, east to 84 Street Northeast, connecting the new communities in the east with the rest of Calgary.

The city describes it as “closing a critical gap in Calgary’s east-west transportation network.”

Construction began in early August with initial roadwork and the installation of underground utilities and is expected to be completed by the end of 2028.

The estimated cost of the project is $105 million.

© 2026 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.

A Winnipeg family is voicing frustrations after they say their terminally-ill mother and grandmother was left on a stretcher in the hallway at the Health Sciences Centre emergency department for 20 hours.

Theresa Chanowski says her mother, Colleen Titanich, was diagnosed with cancer last year and is now stage four. Her mother lived at home with her, but on Monday she called paramedics after realizing her mother could no longer walk.

“I kept her (at home) as long as I could but I realized that she couldn’t walk and I knew I had to make that call, and that’s a hard call to make,” Chanowski told Global News.

“You’re knowing that you’re going to make that call, and they’re not coming home.”

But Chanowski says a stressful situation only became worse when her mother arrived at the emergency department at HSC. She says the ER was crowded, loud, and filled with disruptive patients, police, and security.

She says her mother was in pain and confused.

“I’m like, that’s my mother, you are not going to make her some number, and let her be in pain, hallucinating,” she said through tears.

“I mean (the cancer) went from her lungs to her brain to her spine to her blood to her bones…. And that is how you treat my mother?”

Chanowski says her mother was listed as low-priority and waited for hours.

“By the time they actually got her the bed she had been in the hallway for 20 hours. 20 hours. A lady who is 70 years old, full of cancer,” she said.

“And here these people are walking in with cough due to a cold or with addictions issues or withdrawals and right away, oh, top priority there.”

Chanowski says there appeared to be numerous patients in the emergency with addictions issues or going through withdrawal. She says she feels there should be a better triage process or different urgent care facility solely dedicated to patients with withdrawal symptoms or addictions issues.

She also says her mother got a bed and was transferred to palliative care after she contacted the health minister’s office.

“It shouldn’t have had to take me to get that angry, and start making phone calls and saying there is something wrong here,” Chanowski said.

Manitoba Nurses Union president Darlene Jackson says scenarios like these prompt more patients who leave emergency departments without being seen by a doctor, which exacerbates the issue.

“I think that is absolutely horrifying,” Jackson said.

“What we’re seeing is when people are coming back to the emergency department, they’re coming back much more sick and needing much more care.”

Health Minister Uzoma Asagwara says fixing the wait times is something that will take time.

“We would love for these challenges to be fixed much more quickly. We would all love to see those wait times addressed much faster,” Asagwara said.

“But the reality of it is, we did not get to a place where those wait times were high overnight and we’re not going to get out of it quickly either.”

© 2026 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.

Hot and dry conditions across B.C.’s Interior are keeping firefighters on high alert this weekend.

The Bradley Creek wildfire has not grown significantly over the past few days, but crews are still working to prevent flare-ups and keep the area safe as thousands of people remain out of their homes.

It is believed more than 200 homes and structures have been lost due to the Bradley Creek wildfire, which is still mapped at 2,853 hectares. About 30 homes belong to Okanagan Indian Band members.

B.C. Wildfire crews say hotspots are still active within the fire perimeter.

Crews and structure protection teams are working around the clock, while tree fallers are removing dangerous trees along Highway 97, and contractors are working to repair BC Hydro infrastructure.

In Vernon, more than 2,600 evacuees have now received support through Emergency Support Services.

Smoke has helped moderate fire behaviour but is also creating new challenges for firefighters in the air.

“In terms of fire behaviour, it can aid in that effort, but for aviation resources, visibility is quite poor, so it’s unsafe for our aviation resources to fly and to operate,” Sarah Hill, a BC Wildfire information officer, said.

The BC Wildfire Service says that early Friday evening, the thermal trough will slide to the east of the fire zone and will generate increased gustiness and downslope winds. Winds may shift to northerly for a time.

© 2026 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.

The City of Edmonton is closing the 184 Street overpass bridge over Yellowhead Trail for three months so rehabilitation work can be completed before this year’s construction season ends.

The city said the bridge closure, starting the week of Aug. 10, will reduce the overall construction time and help extend the overpasses’ life, as it has not been renovated since it was built in the early 2000s.

The project includes renewing the bridge deck, repaving the asphalt and installing an upgraded waterproofing system, said the city in a release.

The city said the ramps on and off Yellowhead Trail, and access to and from 184 Street, will still be open during construction — but drivers will need to use other routes to cross over the Yellowhead.

The city suggested using Anthony Henday Drive, along with the 156 Street and 170 Street overpasses, instead.

In a release, the city said ETS bus stops and business, pedestrian and area access will remain the same, but on-demand transit travel time may be impacted.

The overpass in northwest Edmonton will reopen sometime in the fall, but the exact date is not yet known.

© 2026 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.

The Township of Southwold has declared a state of emergency after heavy rainfall caused flooding and forced multiple road closures in southwestern Ontario.

The township, located south of London, declared the emergency Friday morning, saying public safety is its top priority as crews respond to flooding across the municipality.

In a news alert, officials urged residents not to drive through flooded roads and said public works crews are monitoring conditions as water continues to recede.

Several roads remain closed, including sections of Burwell Road, McDiarmid Line, Oneida Road, Mill Road, Scotch Line, Hunter Line and Union Road. The intersection of Sixth Line and Lawrence Line is also flooded.

Repairs will begin Saturday morning, with crews deployed starting at 6 a.m., the township said.

Emergency remediation work is underway on Thomas Road and in Fingal, while full restorations are expected to take up to two weeks.

Residents affected by basement flooding are being asked to place damaged items at the roadside for collection. The township said details on pickup will be released Monday.

Environment Canada has also issued a special weather statement across much of southwestern Ontario, warning that some areas have already received between 50 and 100 mm of rain and could see additional rainfall before the system moves out later Friday.

Southwold is at least the third Ontario municipality to declare a state of emergency because of flooding in the past week.

–with files from The Canadian Press

© 2026 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.

More trees in Edmonton have been infected with Dutch elm disease (DED), two years after the first case was detected in 2024.

The trees in both the downtown area and Delwood neighbourhood mark the 15th and 16th confirmed cases, the city said on Friday.

Dutch elm disease is caused by a deadly fungus that spreads through elm roots and by a specific species of bark beetle that carry the fungus from tree to tree.

The city said the disease poses a significant threat to Edmonton’s urban forest, with approximately 90,000 elm trees making up 22 per cent of the city’s open space and boulevard tree inventory.

Both trees had signs of the disease and the city said it ran tests to confirm their suspicions.

Tree removals, coordinated by the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) and the Alberta government, will begin Friday.

The city said any elms within 20 meters of the infected trees will also be removed, as part of the city’s ongoing efforts to stop the spread.

The infected elm wood will be disposed of at the Edmonton Waste Management Centre, said the city in a release.

The city said nearby elm trees in the Downtown neighbourhood will not be removed because the infected tree roots were contained, which reduces the risk of DED spreading to other trees.

Both trees were found on city property, within one-kilometer of protocol zones that have increased monitoring and maintenance. The city said ground surveillance and more testing will start immediately in the area.

The new cases come a few days after four others were confirmed: two trees in the Glengarry neighbourhood and two trees in the Rossdale neighbourhood.

In July, three other cases were detected in trees in the Calder, Northmount and Rossdale neighbourhoods.

 

Before this summer, the city had confirmed infections in seven trees since the disease was first detected in Edmonton in August 2024.

At that time, the city said it was not possible to determine how the disease ended up in Edmonton, but said DED it is often introduced to new regions through firewood or by importing infected trees.

The city suggests residents help prevent the spread of DED by not bringing firewood from other regions back to Edmonton, removing bark beetle habitat, and calling 311 to report infected trees.

Signs of Dutch elm disease:
• From June to July, leaves on one or more branches of an infected elm tree may wilt, droop and curl. Infected leaves usually turn brown and stay on the tree
• Elm trees infected later in the summer will have leaves that droop, turn yellow and drop prematurely. It is easy to confuse these late-season infections with normal seasonal colour changes
• Peeling back the bark on infected twigs reveals brown staining in the sapwood

For more information, visit the city’s page on Dutch elm disease.

— With files from Karen Bartko and Caley Gibson, Global News

© 2026 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.

Manitoba’s government says it will let pharmacists in the province prescribe birth control.

Health Minister Uzoma Asagwara says the expanded scope of what pharmacists can do will make access easier.

The expansion on where Manitobans can get contraception comes after the province made birth control access free.

The government says pharmacists need to complete approved training before making assessments and prescribing birth control.

The training is being incorporated into the curriculum for pharmacists studying in the province.

The government says pharmacists will be able to prescribe a range of contraceptives as well as administer them through muscle injections.

“This means that people will be able to access contraception more quickly, more conveniently, and closer to home,” Asagwara told a news conference Friday.

© 2026 The Canadian Press

The Alberta Serious Incident Response Team (ASIRT) has released more details about a recent police shooting in Calgary.

ASIRT says, shortly before 2 a.m. on July 30, Calgary police officers responded to a home in the 1000 block of Bridlemeadows Manor Southwest for reports of a man who was shooting a bow and arrow in the backyard.

Officers also responded to the same home earlier in the evening, but ASIRT not released any details of why officers were called the first time.

When officers arrived the second time, ASIRT said, the man, who was not allowed to be at the home or in possession of any weapons, was located inside the home.

Police repeatedly asked the man to come outside without any weapons, but after about an hour he left the residence through the front door while carrying a bow and arrow, and ASIRT said moved towards officers in the driveway.

In the moments that followed, the officers released a police service dog and fired a “40 millimetre less-lethal impact weapon” along with a service pistol in close succession.

After firing the weapons, officers immediately administered first aid, then paramedics rushed the man to hospital in critical condition where he was later upgraded to stable condition.

ASIRT said, as part of a separate investigation, Calgary police are also pursuing criminal charges against the man in connection with the events that led up to the shooting.

ASIRT is an independent civilian-led agency with the mandate to investigate potential criminal offences involving police across Alberta, including incidents where their actions may have resulted in serious injury or death.

© 2026 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.

An angler pulled a training grenade from the Red River in Selkirk, Man., on Thursday afternoon, according to police.

After the angler retrieved the grenade from the water, the Manitoba RCMP Explosive Disposal Unit and the Canadian Armed Forces were called to the Selkirk waterfront, RCMP said in a news release.

Mounties said the grenade’s safety pin was missing.

Police determined the device was a training grenade dating back to the 1950s. Training grenades are generally inert and not capable of exploding.

Members of the Canadian Armed Forces’ 17 Wing Explosive Ordnance Disposal Flight deemed the grenade safe to transport and will take it to a facility for disposal, RCMP said.

© 2026 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.