Prime Minister Justin Trudeau looks over a map outlining the McDougall Creek wildfire with Loyal Wooldridge, chair of the Regional District Central Okanagan, as his daughter Ella-Grace looks on in West Kelowna, B.C., Friday, Aug. 25, 2023. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Marissa Tiel
Here is a roundup of stories from The Canadian Press designed to bring you up to speed on what you need to know today…
Wildfire-affected residents to learn fate of homes
Residents of British Columbia’s Shuswap region forced from their homes by a destructive wildfire just over a week ago will soon learn the fate of their properties.
Derek Sutherland, director of the emergency operations centre for the Columbia Shuswap Regional District, says staff will start reaching out to residents today.
He told a briefing Sunday that the estimated number of properties destroyed by the Bush Creek East wildfire is unchanged at 131, with another 37 sustaining damage.
Sutherland says the regional district is planning to open a resiliency centre in Salmon Arm to support displaced residents “now and well into the future.”
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NWT premier: PM made ‘commitments’ during meeting
After saying last week she was angry Northerners don’t receive the same services from the federal government as people in the rest of Canada, Northwest Territories Premier Caroline Cochrane says the prime minister made “specific commitments” to address the issue this weekend when they met to discuss firefighting efforts.
Cochrane said in a social media post following her meeting with Justin Trudeau in Edmonton on Saturday that she thanked him for the federal support the territory has received, especially military aid, in light of the wildfires and evacuations that have forced two thirds of the N.W.T’s 45,000 residents to leave their homes.
She said Trudeau made several commitments, which included speeding up the Employment Insurance process for N.W.T. residents and providing an advance under the Disaster Financial Assistance Arrangements to aid with cash flow.
He also committed to collaborating with the territory on plans for possible air evacuations of communities without road access, Cochrane said, as well as to prioritizing the development of road infrastructure, enhancing satellite redundancy and assisting the N.W.T in addressing the impacts of climate change.
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Here’s what else we’re watching …
Inquest into death of disabled teen to begin
A coroner’s inquest into the death of a disabled teen who was in the care of an Ontario school for blind children is set to begin today.
Samuel Brown, who was born with a genetic condition that left him blind, deaf and non-verbal, died five years ago at the age of 18 while attending the W. Ross Macdonald School for the Blind in Brantford, Ont.
His family has said medical experts disagreed about what led to his death and alleged he was in good health the weekend before he died.
The inquest is expected to examine the circumstances around Brown’s death and a jury could make recommendations aimed at preventing future deaths.
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Racism to blame for unequal health care provided to Indigenous women: study
A study by the Public Health Agency of Canada says racism and the lack of primary care providers mean off-reserve First Nations, Métis and Inuit women and girls have poorer health overall compared to their non-Indigenous counterparts.
It says those in the three distinct groups reported higher prevalence of diagnosed chronic diseases and worse mental health, including mood disorders or anxiety.
Researchers noted Canada’s colonial history of residential schools, forced or coerced sterilization and destruction of traditional lands in the study that includes data for all females aged 15 to 55 from the annual Canadian Community Health Survey between 2015 to 2020.
That amounted to six-thousand women and girls from the three groups and nearly 75-thousand non-Indigenous females, all in their reproductive years.
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This report by The Canadian Press was first published Aug. 28, 2023.
