Thousands of people remain stuck without power Christmas Day in Canada as dangerous winter storm conditions are well into their third day in some areas, also forcing the cancellations of planes and trains.
Alberta, Saskatchewan, P.E.I., New Brunswick and Newfoundland and Labrador are the only regions not affected by an Environment Canada weather warning or statement as of 8:30 p.m. ET on Sunday.
A person walks through the Central Experimental Farm during strong winds and snow squalls in Ottawa on Saturday. Wintry, stormy conditions are persisting into Christmas Day in parts of Canada. (Spencer Colby/The Canadian Press)
Christmas Day without power
As of early Sunday evening, Hydro One was reporting more than 32,000 customers without power in Ontario, down from 54,000 earlier in the day, while Hydro-Québec was showing more than 83,000 customers still in the dark.
In an afternoon update on the situation, Hydro-Québec chief executive officer Sophie Brochu said the utility’s goal is to reconnect everyone who lost power on Friday by Sunday night, but that’s not a guarantee for everyone because of “difficult decisions to work in.”
For people who lost power after Friday, the wait may be longer.
“We’re asking people to prepare themselves for maybe a few days before being connected back. The big issue with this storm is that we have a lot of loss of power, but for small pockets of customers,” Brochu said.
She warned people without electricity not to cook with propane inside homes or to attempt heating homes using unsafe methods.
Snow, cold and outages in days ahead
Several provinces are expecting unpleasant weather conditions and power outages to continue into the week.
British Columbia released a weather statement early Sunday forecasting snow and freezing rain in the province’s Southern Interior until Tuesday.
Saskatchewan’s heavy snowfall eased up on Sunday, but Environment Canada said that chilly weather would affect regions into Boxing Day, with more snow to come on Tuesday and Wednesday.
The environment agency’s website also listed snow squall watches for several Ontario regions, most in effect for Monday with some continuing into Tuesday.
Niagara region digs out
Meanwhile, residents in Fort Erie, Ont., and surrounding areas in the southern Niagara region woke up Sunday morning to the task of digging out from the snow and assessing the storm damage.
“Yesterday was just a nightmare,” Fort Erie Mayor Wayne Redekop told CBC News on Sunday, describing winds powerful enough to snap utility poles and knock trees over on to power lines and roadways.
“It got to a point where on Friday night, around midnight, that the winds were so high [and] the snow was so great that it was dangerous for anybody to be out — including workers trying to repair damaged hydro lines.”
The Niagara region declared a state of emergency on Saturday evening in the face of power outages and impassable roads; Chatham-Kent in southwestern Ontario also declared a state of emergency Saturday after road conditions led to multiple crashes and left hundreds of people stranded.
Neither region had lifted the state of emergency as of Sunday night, according to their websites.
“Right now, we’re focused on trying to get power back to those individuals who have not had power, some for now more than 48 hours,” Redekop said.
Niagara Power said in a tweeted statement it started the day with 14,000 customers without power, but that 9,600 customers were still without power as of 4 p.m. ET.
Abandoned vehicles are left covered in snow in Fort Erie, Ont. after a powerful blizzard swept over southwestern Ontario in recent days. (Nicole Toth/Submitted)
A 24-hour warming centre opened mid-day Sunday at the Fort Erie Leisureplex, with transit services and other vehicles transporting people in need to the facility.
Two border crossings in the Niagara region reopened Sunday. The Niagara Falls Bridge Commission, on its website, said the Rainbow and Lewiston-Queenston bridges were reopened to traffic in both directions, though the commission is warning travellers of longer wait times.
The Whirlpool bridge, for NEXUS card holders only, remains closed in both directions. The Peace Bridge, operated by the Buffalo and Fort Erie Public Bridge Authority, also remains shut.
Brian Dickie, dressed as Santa Claus, gives a thumb-up as drivers honk while he rides his bike through the snowy streets of Carleton Place, Ont., on Saturday. (Sean Kilpatrick/The Canadian Press)
A fallen tree is shown next to a road in Montreal on Saturday following a storm in the region. (Graham Hughes/The Canadian Press)
Ontario, Quebec trains cancelled on Boxing Day
A Sunday evening tweet from Via Rail said that all trains scheduled for December 26 travel between Toronto-Ottawa and Toronto-Montreal would be cancelled, two days after a CN train derailment initially forced cancellations on Christmas Day.
Ferocious winter weather grounded flights and stranded nine trains between Ontario and Quebec, in some cases leaving passengers without food or water for more than 12 hours.
Highways between the two provinces that were shut down Christmas Eve have now reopened.
As of around 9 a.m. ET Sunday, Highway 417 from Ottawa to the Quebec border had been reopened in both directions.
That stretch of highway had been closed or partially closed since 11 a.m. Saturday after a three-vehicle collision.
Conditions on Highway 401 improved overnight Saturday. Shortly after 10 a.m. Sunday, OPP said the entire highway across eastern Ontario from the Quebec border to Quinte West had been reopened.
Stranded Via Rail passengers faced cramped conditions, out-of-service bathrooms
Via Rail passengers say cramped conditions, out-of-service bathrooms, lack of food and water while stranded in big storm in hours-long delay have them considering suing.
Snow squalls expected in part of N.B.
In New Brunswick, outages have been reported in almost all parts of the province after two days of high wind gusts and heavy rain.
On Saturday, New Brunswick grappled with one of the largest outages to hit the province in decades, with over 71,000 customers without power at the peak of the outage.
A van drives through major puddles in Fredericton on Saturday morning. Parts of New Brunswick have seen flash freezes, heavy rain, freezing rain and/or snow so far this weekend. (CBC)
N.B. Power spokesperson Marc Belliveau said more than 500 crew members and 30 contractors are working on restoring power. About 3,000 customers remained without power just before 10 p.m. AT, according to the N.B. Power outage map.
Environment Canada issued special weather statements for the Fundy coast and along southeast New Brunswick, saying that snow squalls are expected throughout Sunday morning.
Roadways and walkways may become difficult to navigate and motorists should be prepared for “winter driving conditions,” according to the statements.
Deadly bus crash in B.C. Southern Interior
Among the regions that saw significant snow in British Columbia was the Southern Interior, where a passenger bus rollover on Saturday evening left four people dead, RCMP confirmed Sunday. More than 50 people were sent to hospitals; eight remained hospitalized as of Sunday afternoon, two of them in serious condition, according to the local health authority.
“While the investigation is ongoing, it is believed that extremely icy road conditions caused the rollover,” RCMP in B.C. said in a statement.
The storm that swept through the southern part of the province on Friday led to hundreds of flight cancellations and the closure of crucial arterial bridges in Metro Vancouver, as well as ferry suspensions and avalanche risk elsewhere in B.C.
Water pooling in Abbotsford as snow melts and more rain hits the Fraser Valley <a href=”https://twitter.com/hashtag/BCStorm?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw”>#BCStorm</a> <a href=”https://t.co/Eom5iDsDsB”>pic.twitter.com/Eom5iDsDsB</a>
VANCOUVER – Contract negotiations resume today in Vancouver in a labour dispute that has paralyzed container cargo shipping at British Columbia’s ports since Monday.
The BC Maritime Employers Association and International Longshore and Warehouse Union Local 514 are scheduled to meet for the next three days in mediated talks to try to break a deadlock in negotiations.
The union, which represents more than 700 longshore supervisors at ports, including Vancouver, Prince Rupert and Nanaimo, has been without a contract since March last year.
The latest talks come after employers locked out workers in response to what it said was “strike activity” by union members.
The start of the lockout was then followed by several days of no engagement between the two parties, prompting federal Labour Minister Steven MacKinnon to speak with leaders on both sides, asking them to restart talks.
MacKinnon had said that the talks were “progressing at an insufficient pace, indicating a concerning absence of urgency from the parties involved” — a sentiment echoed by several business groups across Canada.
In a joint letter, more than 100 organizations, including the Canadian Chamber of Commerce, Business Council of Canada and associations representing industries from automotive and fertilizer to retail and mining, urged the government to do whatever it takes to end the work stoppage.
“While we acknowledge efforts to continue with mediation, parties have not been able to come to a negotiated agreement,” the letter says. “So, the federal government must take decisive action, using every tool at its disposal to resolve this dispute and limit the damage caused by this disruption.
“We simply cannot afford to once again put Canadian businesses at risk, which in turn puts Canadian livelihoods at risk.”
In the meantime, the union says it has filed a complaint to the Canada Industrial Relations Board against the employers, alleging the association threatened to pull existing conditions out of the last contract in direct contact with its members.
“The BCMEA is trying to undermine the union by attempting to turn members against its democratically elected leadership and bargaining committee — despite the fact that the BCMEA knows full well we received a 96 per cent mandate to take job action if needed,” union president Frank Morena said in a statement.
The employers have responded by calling the complaint “another meritless claim,” adding the final offer to the union that includes a 19.2 per cent wage increase over a four-year term remains on the table.
“The final offer has been on the table for over a week and represents a fair and balanced proposal for employees, and if accepted would end this dispute,” the employers’ statement says. “The offer does not require any concessions from the union.”
The union says the offer does not address the key issue of staffing requirement at the terminals as the port introduces more automation to cargo loading and unloading, which could potentially require fewer workers to operate than older systems.
The Port of Vancouver is the largest in Canada and has seen a number of labour disruptions, including two instances involving the rail and grain storage sectors earlier this year.
A 13-day strike by another group of workers at the port last year resulted in the disruption of a significant amount of shipping and trade.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 9, 2024.
The Royal Canadian Legion says a new partnership with e-commerce giant Amazon is helping boost its veterans’ fund, and will hopefully expand its donor base in the digital world.
Since the Oct. 25 launch of its Amazon.ca storefront, the legion says it has received nearly 10,000 orders for poppies.
Online shoppers can order lapel poppies on Amazon in exchange for donations or buy items such as “We Remember” lawn signs, Remembrance Day pins and other accessories, with all proceeds going to the legion’s Poppy Trust Fund for Canadian veterans and their families.
Nujma Bond, the legion’s national spokesperson, said the organization sees this move as keeping up with modern purchasing habits.
“As the world around us evolves we have been looking at different ways to distribute poppies and to make it easier for people to access them,” she said in an interview.
“This is definitely a way to reach a wider number of Canadians of all ages. And certainly younger Canadians are much more active on the web, on social media in general, so we’re also engaging in that way.”
Al Plume, a member of a legion branch in Trenton, Ont., said the online store can also help with outreach to veterans who are far from home.
“For veterans that are overseas and are away, (or) can’t get to a store they can order them online, it’s Amazon.” Plume said.
Plume spent 35 years in the military with the Royal Engineers, and retired eight years ago. He said making sure veterans are looked after is his passion.
“I’ve seen the struggles that our veterans have had with Veterans Affairs … and that’s why I got involved, with making sure that the people get to them and help the veterans with their paperwork.”
But the message about the Amazon storefront didn’t appear to reach all of the legion’s locations, with volunteers at Branch 179 on Vancouver’s Commercial Drive saying they hadn’t heard about the online push.
Holly Paddon, the branch’s poppy campaign co-ordinator and bartender, said the Amazon partnership never came up in meetings with other legion volunteers and officials.
“I work at the legion, I work with the Vancouver poppy office and I go to the meetings for the Vancouver poppy campaign — which includes all the legions in Vancouver — and not once has this been mentioned,” she said.
Paddon said the initiative is a great idea, but she would like to have known more about it.
The legion also sells a larger collection of items at poppystore.ca.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 9, 2024.
