Last summer, Lauren Wright was planting lentils in a field outside of Saskatoon. The air was thick with wildfire smoke and, as temperatures climbed, a co-worker was hit with a sudden asthma attack. 

Rushing to the truck for an inhaler, Wright remembers fighting blurred vision, their head pounding from the smoke exposure. The episode is etched in Wright’s memory — not for the sudden moment of panic, but as a lasting reminder that summer life on the Prairies had morphed into something both unfamiliar and dangerous. 

Both of Wright’s parents were raised in northern Saskatchewan, their father on a farm and their mother in a small town. While Wright was the first in the family to grow up in the city, they spent much of their childhood canoeing, fishing and working the family farm during harvest.

A multi-year drought dropped water levels on the river where they used to fish and canoe. Some summers, extreme heat would make it nearly impossible to play sports or go on camping trips. Drought sunk crop yields. Then the wildfires came, and with them, forests burned and smoke filled the air. 

“I really started to understand, you know, what was going on in my city, my country and how climate change was very much a current reality rather than a distant future problem,” Wright said. 

“It’s really a culmination in the change of my way of life, the way of life that my family has lived for so many generations.”

The 22-year-old is among 15 young Canadians whose experiences with heat waves, floods and wildfires form the backbone of a legal case that has wended its way through federal court since 2019. After a series of appeals and amended pleadings, the landmark constitutional challenge — known as La Rose vs. His Majesty the King — will finally be heard at a federal courthouse in Vancouver starting Oct. 26.

Over a four-week trial, lawyers and multiple experts are expected to submit evidence that the federal government’s Net-Zero Emissions Accountability Act — which legally binds Canada to absorb as much carbon pollution as it emits by 2050 — is not ambitious enough, and so violates the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. 

The court challenge claims the government’s plan to curb emissions is not in line with the best available science. As a result, the plaintiffs claim it fails to safeguard the life, liberty and security of Canadians, a direct breach of Section 7 of the Charter.

Plaintiffs hope a win would take the politics out of climate policy

Canada’s climate is already warming nearly twice as fast as the global average. Canada could see 5 C of warming by the end of the century if governments around the world do not pursue emissions reduction with more effort than laid out in current climate policies, warned federal scientists in September.

The claim warns of a continued rise in heat-related illnesses, life-threatening diseases, allergies, asthma, exposure to dangerous pollutants and death. As permafrost melts, shorelines destabilize and rivers run dry, ecosystems will suffer, leading to severe consequences — both for spending on public infrastructure and the livelihoods of Indigenous communities who rely on fishing and hunting, according to the claim.

Children are already at higher risk from heat and smoke, and the court challenge emphasizes they will disproportionately suffer in a world where climate-driven disasters become more common and more extreme. 

The plaintiffs, who hail from nearly every corner of Canada, have already seen the destructive power of water and fire tear into the places they call home.

At 21, Haana Edenshaw of the Haida Nation Tsitts Gitanee clan has witnessed sea-level rise damage her family home on Haida Gwaii. 

In 2018, wildfire destroyed Montay Jesse Beaubien-Day’s home in Telegraph Creek, B.C. Today, climate change has limited his Wet’suwet’en and Tahltan families from harvesting wild food like salmon, moose and berries. Multiple studies have shown those food sources have also been impacted by everything from fishing and logging to the exploration and extraction of gas. 

Further north, Kira Young and her family were among 20,000 people evacuated from Yellowknife when fire threatened the territorial capital in 2023. Court documents describe ash falling from an orange sky and fires burning alongside the highway as they fled. 

Abandoning home is a familiar feeling for Sadie Vipond, who in 2013 was evacuated to higher ground when the Bow River flooded her neighbourhood in Calgary.

“I was only seven years old at the time. I had to be woken up by my grandmother and told we had to evacuate,” she told The Narwhal. “I was really scared for my home and family.” 

The plaintiffs’ individual experiences will inform a multi-pronged argument, one that claims Canada’s Net-Zero Act “sets targets and requires development of plans” but fails to require any reduction in carbon pollution.

Canada produces a fraction of total global emissions but has one of the highest per-capita emissions profiles in the world. It is also the world’s fourth largest producer of oil and gas. 

The scale of carbon pollution coming from Canada could grow even more in the coming years as Prime Minister Mark Carney’s government seeks to fast-track several new fossil fuel export projects. That includes a clutch of major liquefied natural gas terminals, as well as the Pacific Link oil pipeline meant to boost bitumen shipments from Alberta’s oilsands to B.C.’s West Coast. 

If the court sides with the plaintiffs, the federal government would need to re-write their net-zero policies to be in line with the Charter. The decision would not force the federal government to pursue a specific climate policy, but it would almost certainly challenge the notion that confronting climate change is a purely political question that can be bumped down Ottawa’s list of priorities, David Wu, one of the lead lawyers in the case, said.

“If there is a shift in the politics of the day, the government can’t just wave away its climate change commitments,” Wu told The Narwhal.

“It raises these broad constitutional questions about whether governments have an obligation to protect their citizens.” 

Feds argue Canada has ‘little or no control’ over climate change 

Federal lawyers pushed back against claims Canada has failed to fulfill its international climate obligations under the 2015 Paris Agreement, whether through its Net-Zero Act or in collaboration with provinces. 

In court documents, Ottawa contends the 15 young people have failed to establish a causal link between federal legislation and their alleged harms from climate change. Submissions from government lawyers state Canada’s plan to lower emissions is consistent with its international commitments, including the 2015 Paris Agreement. 

Canada’s actions at the federal level have “little or no control over the ultimate impacts of globally-fuelled climate change,” the government claims.

Ottawa also argues the court lacks the “institutional competence” to evaluate the scientific, economic and political complexities of global climate change policy. It also ignores the separation of political and legal powers within Canada’s democratic system by attempting to have the courts weigh in on a government decision.

“It’s an argument we’re expecting,” Wu said. “We’re not asking the court to dictate climate policy.” 

“What we’re asking the court to find [is] that Canada has infringed our clients’ rights, and they, the government, need to do better to ensure that those rights are protected.”

Both sides’ arguments have yet to be tested before a judge.

Vancouver trial to test international climate law

The La Rose trial is the latest in a wave of climate litigation supported by the non-profit Our Children’s Trust. Of the nearly 100 rights-based climate change cases currently being brought worldwide, about half are backed by the U.S.-based group, Kelly Matheson, the group’s deputy director of global strategy, said.

The organization has seen some success. One court challenge it supported in Hawaii led to a settlement which pushed the state to aggressively decarbonize its public transportation sector. And in 2024, the Montana Supreme Court sided with 16 young people who had sued the state for violating their right to a “clean and healthful environment” guaranteed under Montana’s Constitution. 

What sets the Canadian case apart is that it is among the first in the world to make it to trial following a handful of major international rulings. Chief among those is a 2025 advisory opinion from the International Court of Justice that found states have a general duty under international and human rights law to protect the world’s climate system for present and future generations. 

Canada’s legal system is not bound by the international court’s ruling. But it can be used to inform judges’ interpretation of constitutional rights. One federal judge has already cited the case in ongoing litigation involving two Wet’suwet’en Hereditary Chiefs who challenged Ottawa over the full balance of carbon pollution produced by its policies. 

“It’s so rare for these cases to go to trial,” Matheson said of the La Rose case. “It will have persuasive weight all over the world — in part because Canada is a big emitter.” 

Elsewhere in Canada, seven young people led by Sudbury teenager Sophia Mathur sued the Ontario government in 2019 after the province clawed back its own climate targets.

And in June, Mathur joined two other young people to launch a parallel legal challenge against the federal government’s Net-Zero Act. That case, which has yet to go to trial, claims Ottawa abandoned or weakened its interim emission reductions plan, thereby failing to adhere to the 2050 plan.

The La Rose case makes a much broader claim, arguing the Net-Zero Act is weak enough on its own to be unconstitutional, said Andrew Gage, a lawyer with West Coast Environmental Law.

Whatever the outcome, many of the young plaintiffs will finally have their chance to tell their stories. When the case was first filed seven years ago, Wright was still in high school and struggled with the thought that they had the responsibility to represent the experiences of an entire generation. In the years since, Wright said they have found ways to be grounded in their own stories.

“I’m a good snapshot of life here in the Prairies,” the 22-year-old said. “I really have grown to see it as a privilege of being able to show people what is happening in the place that I love so much. And to tell them why it matters.”

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A group of students, residents and environmental advocates gathered in Winnipeg on Friday afternoon to discuss Indigenous sovereignty and the future of northern Manitoba.

The event at the University of Manitoba was the final stop on the Arctic Crossroads tour, an Indigenous-led public engagement campaign highlighting the potential impacts of proposed major infrastructure projects on northern First Nation communities. The tour also stopped in Nisichawayasihk Cree Nation, Churchill and Brandon, Man., this week.

Event host Clayton Thomas-Müller — a local climate activist, author and member of Pukatawagan Cree Nation — said concerns raised by attendees run counter to Premier Wab Kinew’s assertion earlier this year that there is no Indigenous opposition to a proposed liquefied natural gas (LNG) pipeline to Churchill.

“There is a ton of Indigenous concern, as well as fear to speak out,” Thomas-Müller, the Arctic and Hudson Bay campaigner for Climate Reality Project Canada, said in an interview ahead of Friday’s event. 

“A lot of folks in Churchill are arm’s length away from government-funded agencies — the ecotourism industry is very much wrapped up in both federal and provincial interests and funding streams — and so folks don’t want to speak out.”

The federal and provincial governments want to introduce year-round shipping and build an offshore LNG terminal at the Port of Churchill, which is owned by the Arctic Gateway Group. The proposal to expand the deep-water Arctic port includes a new energy corridor, an all-weather road, critical mineral storage and an upgraded rail line through northern Manitoba.

In an emailed statement, Environment and Climate Change Minister Mike Moyes described the Port of Churchill expansion as a historic opportunity and said his government is committed to working closely with Indigenous and northern communities on the project. He pointed to provincial and federal efforts to establish a national marine conservation area in western Hudson Bay as a way to balance economic growth and environmental stewardship.

Feasibility studies related to the port expansion have flagged concerns about the impact of increased shipping on Hudson Bay’s sensitive marine ecosystem and resident species, including polar bears and beluga whales.  

During the tour, participants expressed worries about the cumulative effects of climate change and increased industrial activity on access to traditional hunting, trapping and fishing grounds, Thomas-Müller said. 

“There’s no Safeway up where I come from in Pukatawagan, and a lot of our people still depend on country foods,” he adds. Pukatawagan is one of 29 First Nations with an ownership stake in the Arctic Gateway Group.

Attendees also raised concerns about the social implications of the proposed northern resource projects.

“A community member in Churchill said one of his biggest fears is Churchill becoming one giant ‘man camp,’ and what that would mean for the safety of not only his sisters but future women and girls in the community,” panelist Kakeká ThunderSky, an Anishinaabkwe member of Poplar River First Nation, said.

The National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls found high rates of violence against Indigenous women connected to work camps, or “man camps,” associated with the resource extraction industry.

In Winnipeg, ThunderSky also emphasized the importance of thinking about the multigenerational impacts of energy and mining projects. “Whatever we do to the land, we do to the children,” she said.

Questions and comments from those in attendance ranged from tactics for engaging future generations in resource-development resistance to Treaty Rights to self-care.

ThunderSky, the northern and rural coordinator for Climate Action Team Manitoba, was joined on the panel by Indigenous youth organizers and land defenders from Ontario and British Columbia who have advocated for better government consultation and opposed industrial development projects in their home communities. 

“It’s important to bring people who have had these experiences and have gone through similar things in their territories, to share and talk about what the reality is and what it actually is like and to push back on these narratives,” ThunderSky said. “We’re not alone in this.”

Denzel Sutherland-Wilson hails from the Gitxsan village of Anspayaxw in northwestern B.C. and is a member of the Fireweed Clan of the house of Git’luuhl’um’hetxw’it. He was arrested by the RCMP’s Community-Industry Response Group — a unit tasked with policing resource extraction protests — in 2021 while resisting the construction of the Coastal GasLink pipeline on unceded Wet’suwet’en territory. 

Sutherland-Wilson sought to share what he learned during that experience with Manitoba audiences. He believes Indigenous solidarity will be integral as Prime Minister Mark Carney seeks to fast-track major national projects through Bill C-39, the Build Canada Strong Act. First Nation leaders across the country have opposed the bill, which would centralize Indigenous consultations and limit the timeline for environmental assessments.

“We need to find creative and new ways to resist on our own terms,” Sutherland-Wilson said. “We have to have our own people’s safety and security [in mind]. We have to develop strong protocols and … collectives that are accountable to one another, rooted in our own culture, in our ceremonies and our ways of life.”

Thomas-Müller hopes this week’s speaking tour inspires political engagement locally and nationally. Climate Action Team Manitoba has launched a petition opposing the LNG pipeline to Churchill. 

“We need to go back to the drawing board and create economic plans that don’t create sacrifice zones across the country … disproportionately in Indigenous communities, in our lands that we depend on,” he said.

Eva Wasney is a reporter covering environmental issues in Manitoba. Her position is part of a partnership between The Narwhal and the Winnipeg Free Press.

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On Canada Day, parts of Ottawa were hit with a one-in-200-year storm. Nearly four months later, it’s still having an impact as the polls open for Ontario’s municipal elections.

As much as 167 millimetres of rain, more than an average month’s worth, fell in a matter of hours on the southwest corner of the city on July 1. Combined with high winds, the storm closed roads and downed power lines. City staff admitted the sudden deluge overwhelmed neighbourhood drainage systems, and more than 7,000 people reported their basements had flooded. It was a big contributor to what became Ottawa’s wettest summer on record.

But it was all heavily concentrated in one part of the city — so localized, in fact, that Environment and Climate Change Canada didn’t even clock it in its system for monitoring climate-driven extreme weather, a spokesperson confirmed to The Narwhal. That system only looks at rainfall across the broader region, which didn’t record the same degree of rainfall levels that day.

The lopsided impact demonstrates how climate change doesn’t affect everyone equally.

Some residents are more exposed to climate risks, like those who live along shoreline, or in neighbourhoods that don’t have robust enough sewer systems to handle huge amounts of stormwater.

That’s a big issue for Ottawa, as both heavy rains and flooding are expected to be significant risks across the city in the future, as the climate keeps heating up from fossil fuel use.

A 2020 report commissioned by the City of Ottawa and the National Capital Commission predicted that climate change will bring “more intense precipitation.” This will increase the risk of flooding and stormwater overflows, and “municipal planning must account for climate impacts, including future flood risks,” the report noted.

“The real surprise isn’t the storm. The surprise is that we are still treating these events as unexpected rather than preparing for the climate reality we know is already here,” Community Action for Environmental Sustainability Ottawa said in a statement following the storm. 

“Every flood, every heat wave and every major storm is another reminder. Climate action isn’t only about preventing a dire, far-off future, it’s about protecting our communities today.”

Many Ottawans have spent months dealing with the mess the storm caused, removing ruined furniture and mould, while also dealing with the complexities of insurance that left some people out of pocket. Meanwhile, the city has been investigating flooding impacts and studying what can be done to fix the situation.

The issue has spilled over into the Oct. 26 municipal elections. All four leading candidates in Ottawa’s mayoral race have promised to do something to protect residents from future flooding.

Ottawa mayoral candidates talk flooding

According to Jeff Leiper, a three-term city councillor who is running for mayor, the Canada Day storm was another example of the extreme weather, energized by climate change, that has pummelled the city in recent years. There have been multiple tornadoes, heat waves, flooding, toxic wildfire smoke and a derecho storm.

“On the whole, we have a good idea that we need to make our infrastructure considerably more resilient to more extreme storms,” he told The Narwhal in an interview. “But we are not at the point where we have funded making our infrastructure appropriately resilient.”

Leiper has announced a $50-million plan to fix sewers and other infrastructure in the three Ottawa wards hit hardest by the Canada Day storm. His plan would also increase grants to those impacted by flooding, create a new team to help residents with insurance claims and relief programs, waive permit fees for flood repairs and increase municipal staff responding to 3-1-1 calls during major storm events. 

Ottawa Mayor Mark Sutcliffe, who has held the title since 2022, is running for a second term. He plans to prioritize $500 million in funding for “infrastructure that make[s] our communities stronger in the face of extreme weather,” including heavy rains which cause flooding. He said he would “expand the application of a climate lens for infrastructure investments.” A spokesperson for his campaign told The Narwhal he will make “all necessary investments” to fix infrastructure “in the areas directly impacted by the July 1 storm.”

Sutcliffe’s plan includes upgraded storm sewers and ditches, with priority “given to addressing infrastructure gaps in flood-prone communities as guided by expert recommendations.” 

The campaign spokesperson said they disagreed with Leiper’s assertion that climate infrastructure hasn’t been funded. Ottawa’s 2026 budget includes $94 million in capital contributions “that apply a climate lens to projects across the city.”

Another mayoral candidate, Neil Saravanamuttoo, an economist, plans to replace sewers, prioritize infrastructure investments in existing neighbourhoods and carry out flood mitigation measures like creating stormwater ponds and planting trees. He is also promising “city-run neighbourhood retrofits,” where the city arranges the bulk of the buying and financing, and also helps residents apply for federal rebates.

“The Canada Day flooding was a wake up call for Ottawa,” Saravanamuttoo’s platform states. “Weather events that we thought were once-in-a-century events are now happening every few years, and we are seeing the significant cost that flooding can impose on Ottawa households.”

Alex Lawson, a business owner who is another contender for mayor, said he would review the city’s process for responding to disasters and produce a report that examines maintenance records for sewers, street by street. 

A spokesperson for the Lawson campaign, Laura Kurkimaki, also said Lawson has experience navigating disaster response from his time on the board of West Carleton Disaster Relief, and he believes the city’s emergency response plan puts “too much pressure on volunteer organizations.”

City staff, mayor dispute minister’s comments on flood response

Leiper said he felt the city’s response to the flooding was “far too slow” and that as mayor, he would have “visited the flooded sites earlier and more frequently.”

At an Oct. 6 meeting of the Ontario legislature’s Justice committee, Chandra Pasma, the NDP MPP for Ottawa West–Nepean, the riding which includes the affected area, also criticized the provincial response. 

“Why was no help sent to Ottawa, despite the city’s request to actually help people clean out their homes and make them safe to live in again?” she asked.

“In the situation in Ottawa, the flooding and the rain happened on July 1. We didn’t receive a request for assistance until July 9,” Ontario Emergency Preparedness Minister Jill Dunlop said. “When we did have the request for assistance from Ottawa, we did work with some of our partner organizations.”

Sutcliffe’s campaign disputes both the minister’s timeline and Leiper’s comment about the city’s response. 

The campaign’s spokesperson told The Narwhal that Sutcliffe and his office had spoken with city staff and emergency officials the day of the storm, and that the following day, July 2, he “spoke personally with residents and councillors in the affected areas.” 

“Over the course of the following days he continued to contact affected residents, visit them on site and direct city officials to provide immediate solutions,” the spokesperson said. He then spoke with Dunlop, Ontario Premier Doug Ford and Municipal Affairs Minister Rob Flack on July 2 and 3, the spokesperson added.

A city general manager also told CBC News city staff were in touch with the provincial emergency operations centre immediately following the floods and maintained contact “nearly daily.”

Dunlop’s office did not respond to a request for comment from The Narwhal. 

Ottawa is just one of 414 municipal governments holding elections across the province, with 2,800 elected positions to be filled, according to the Association of Municipalities of Ontario. Local governments are responsible for administering the vote. Find your municipality’s contact information here.

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For the first time in nearly a century, B.C. has a Conservative government.

Lorne Doerkson’s BC Conservatives won a majority government, defeating David Eby’s incumbent NDP. It’s a stunning win for the Conservatives after a chaotic couple of months, culminating in Eby’s decision to call a snap election almost two years ahead of schedule. 

Doerkson, a low-profile MLA first elected in Cariboo—Chilcotin in 2020, became the party’s interim leader one day before the snap election was called. 

On the campaign trail, Doerkson presented himself as a mild-mannered former rodeo rider and grandfather, promising to bolster B.C.’s economy while cutting taxes, reducing regulations and courting investment. The Conservative campaign platform mentions climate just once, stating “climate decisions” should be based on three principles: protecting people from extreme weather, reducing emissions in B.C. and beyond and delivering measurable results. 

In the end, a majority of voters threw their support behind the Conservatives, handing the former opposition party the reins of the province for the next four years.

“Together, we seized this opportunity, you guys, and together we voted for a better British Columbia,” Doerkson told an electric crowd in Vancouver. During his victory speech he promised to “supercharge” the province and “cut red tape like it’s never been cut before.” 

Despite choosing to call an election while the Conservatives were in chaos, the BC NDP will now form the official opposition. Eby held on to his Vancouver—Point Grey seat but in his concession speech offered his resignation as party leader. 

The BC Greens maintained their seat count with party leader Emily Lowan winning the Saanich North and the Islands riding where she was seeking a seat in the legislature. Incumbent Green MLA Jeremy Valeriote was re-elected in West Vancouver—Sea to Sky.

Here’s a breakdown of some of the promises Doerkson and the Conservatives made on the campaign trail.

The end of DRIPA and a new approach to Indigenous Rights

One of Doerkson’s first public statements after becoming interim leader of the BC Conservatives was to declare his intention to repeal B.C.’s Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples Act, or DRIPA.

The pledge, which is a top priority for the Conservatives, appears in the party’s platform under a section titled “protect private property rights” — despite the fact that the act doesn’t deal with private property.

During the campaign, Doerkson was vague about what his government’s next steps would be after repealing the act. Ditching the law will not eliminate the B.C. government’s consultation obligations with First Nations or eliminate friction related to Indigenous Rights and Aboriginal Title. Even in a post-DRIPA province, the constitutionally guaranteed rights of First Nations can be hashed out in the courts, as they have been for decades.

“Simply just repealing it isn’t going to do anyone any service,” Dallas Smith, president of the Nanwakolas Council, told The Narwhal in an interview during the early days of the election campaign.

The Conservative platform promised to pass a law requiring information about Aboriginal Title claims and ongoing negotiations to be made public. The proposed law would also publicize information about legal actions and agreements related to First Nations Rights and Title.

The party’s platform also promises to “restore equal access to Crown land and provincial parks,” a pledge that appears to target annual temporary closures of Pipi7íyekw/Joffre Lakes Park, which restrict visits to members of Líl̓wat and N’Quatqua First Nations, whose unceded territories encompass the park. These reconnection periods have been taking place since 2023 and are intended to allow the nations to conduct traditional harvesting, as well as ceremonial and cultural practices.

Under a BC Conservative government, reconciliation with First Nations will focus on “practical co-operation, clear and fair treaty agreements and economic opportunities,” the platform says. It emphasizes opportunities for First Nations to benefit from projects through revenue sharing and ownership opportunities.

LNG, fracking and fossil fuels

The Conservatives have promised to make B.C. an “energy superpower” by doubling liquefied natural gas (LNG) production by 2032 and tripling it by 2035. With LNG Canada the only LNG export facility currently operating in B.C., the province is already on track to more than triple the province’s LNG production by 2035 with five additional LNG projects currently in development.

On the campaign trail, Doerkson lamented the number of LNG projects proposed under the BC Liberal government of the 2000s and 2010s and said his party is keen to see if any can be revived.

The Conservative energy platform also pledges to get rid of B.C.’s industrial carbon tax and replace it with new rules that it says would ensure B.C.’s gas exports are competitive with the United States and Qatar.

A BC Conservative government would take a new approach to tallying B.C.’s greenhouse gas emissions, one that runs counter to the 2016 Paris Agreement. The Conservative platform proposes taking credit for “emissions avoided through cleaner B.C. exports,” using the example of exported gas replacing coal. 

Doerkson has also promised to use deregulation as a tool to spur economic development, partly by bringing back a ministry dedicated to getting rid of rules, processes and laws it deems burdensome or unnecessary. For every new regulation a Conservative government makes, it would axe two existing regulations, according to Doerkson.

Energy, electrification and renewables

Beyond boosting natural gas and LNG production, the BC Conservatives are promising to boost B.C.’s energy self-sufficiency, a commitment that would mean building a considerable amount of additional energy generation capacity. The province currently balances its energy needs through a mix of energy imported from other jurisdictions (mostly Alberta and western U.S. states) and locally generated power.The strategy, basically, is to use local sources when they are cheap and convenient and buy imported power — such as solar-generated power from California — when it is plentiful and cheap. To date, the strategy has worked out well, though recent drought conditions have put a squeeze on those margins.

The Conservatives are committed to boosting B.C.’s energy production “from every available source,” according to its platform.

Boosting biomass production is a key part of the Conservatives’ energy pitch. The party is proposing to increase the use of logging and mill waste to make renewable fuels. On renewables, the Conservatives support wind, solar and small-scale hydro power “where economics and reliability make sense,” as well as geothermal projects where a business case can be made — i.e. with little investment from the provincial government.

Notably, the 2026 B.C. Conservative platform did not mention nuclear power, an energy source the party touted as part of the solution to B.C.’s energy crunch during the 2024 election.

Beyond increasing exports, a Conservative government would consider opening the door to more natural gas power production in B.C. by making it eligible for BC Hydro’s call for energy project proposals. 

The Conservatives are also promising to “restore choice in energy for home heating and cooking” — a commitment to attacking restrictions and bans on natural gas use implemented by local governments — and overhaul B.C.’s Energy Step Code, which sets energy efficiency standards for new buildings.

Logging and old-growth forest conservation

On the campaign trail, the BC Conservatives promised to do many of the same things the NDP government did to bolster the province’s floundering forestry industry — secure support from the federal government to offset the impact of U.S. tariffs on softwood lumber, boost policies aimed at getting more woodfibre to mills and provide cash for mills to upgrade their operations.The Conservatives’ forestry platform promised to make more trees available for harvest — but does not address how the party would ensure companies actually harvest the maximum amount allowed, something that has not happened in years due largely to the dwindling availability of economically viable trees to log. The Conservatives are also promising to focus on streamlining permitting, reduce costs for forestry companies and support value-added manufacturing.

Conservative forestry policies would double government revenue from stumpage fees by 2028-29, according to the campaign platform. The 2026 provincial budget did not include a specific revenue estimate for stumpage but estimated total forestry-related revenues will increase 3.3 per cent per year through 2029.

The BC Conservative platform claims conservation is a conservative value but doesn’t offer many specific conservation-focused commitments. The party pledges to increase enforcement in parks and wilderness areas with more conservation officers in the field, and to establish sustainable fish and wildlife population objectives.

The platform promises a science-based approach to wildlife management with input from hunters, anglers and First Nations. It also repeats a 2024 campaign commitment to develop a made-in-B.C. species-at-risk law. The Conservative platform doesn’t mention B.C.’s existing commitment to protect 30 per cent of lands and waters by 2030, known as 30-by-30. In May 2024, former BC Conservative leader John Rustad told The Narwhal he would abandon the goal.

 What now?

When the B.C. legislature began its summer break at the end of May, the BC NDP held 47 seats, the BC Conservatives held 39, and the BC Greens held two. There were five independent MLAs, all of them formerly members of the BC Conservative caucus.

The BC Conservatives had just elected a new leader, Kerry-Lynne Findlay, a former Conservative Party of Canada MP and cabinet minister. Findlay won the leadership race to replace John Rustad, who resigned as the party’s leader in December 2025 after weeks of caucus infighting. Findlay’s victory was narrow; she won 51 per cent of party members’ votes, barely beating out second-place finisher Caroline Elliott. Elliott is set to head to the legislature after winning the West Vancouver—Capilano riding for the BC Conservatives.

The BC Conservatives had a spectacularly chaotic summer. Findlay’s leadership lasted just 113 days, ending in her resignation on Sept. 20. Before she stepped down, 13 MLAs had left or been removed from the BC Conservative caucus and one more — Abbotsford—Mission MLA Reann Gasper — stepped down to allow Findlay to secure a set in a by-election.

Doerkson was appointed the party’s interim leader the day after Findlay stepped down.

After Eby’s snap election call, the by-election was cancelled, Findlay exited the party and 10 of the 13 MLAs who had left the caucus signed up to run again. 

“I think David Eby is going to regret this,” Doerkson said at a Vancouver press conference following the snap election call. “Because this election actually offers an opportunity for hope and for real change.”

He was right. The Conservatives won a historic victory, though Doerkson’s future as premier is uncertain. His party’s constitution bars interim leaders from running to become a permanent leader, though the constitution can be changed. Tweaking the rules to allow Doerkson to remain premier will require the support of two-thirds of party members at an annual general or special general meeting. The Conservative Party’s board of directors committed to “pursue the appropriate means” to keep Doerkson as party leader in the event of an election win.

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In Kaska territory, summer turns toward fall earlier than in much of British Columbia. Pressed up against the Yukon border, where the Alaska Highway cuts across the landscape, it’s a place where leaves start changing colour in August, and by September, snow already dusts the mountaintops. Seasonal change has always held meaning for Kaska, and this year autumn was supposed to mark something new: the final few steps in their effort to protect a massive swath of their territory, called Dene Kʼéh Kusān. 

But when BC NDP Leader David Eby called a snap election in late September, Kaska Nation leaders say it stalled that process. Now, they’re worried the election could derail, or at least slow, the entire multi-year planning process for the roughly three-million-hectare protected area. 

“We’re disappointed an election call has once again interrupted our discussions with the government as we had hoped to achieve a protection designation within the last political mandate,” Liard First Nation Chief Harlan Schilling said in an emailed statement.

Liard First Nation is one of four nations that make up the broader Kaska Nation, whose traditional territory stretches across northern British Columbia and southern Yukon. Two decades ago, the nation created the non-profit Dena Kayeh Institute to protect its language, culture and lands. In June 2019, the institute announced plans to create a massive Indigenous Protected and Conserved Area to protect one of the province’s largest intact wilderness areas. It is called Dene Kʼéh Kusān, which, translated from the Kaska language, means “always be there.”  

“Dene K’éh Kusān is a vision that includes all British Columbians. It will protect some of Canada’s most important wildlife habitat and create world-class opportunities for hunters, anglers, naturalists and backcountry recreationalists,” Schilling said.

In June 2024, the British Columbia government signed an agreement with the Kaska nations to undertake land-use planning in its territories. In the coming years, the ministry explained, the government, the nation and other stakeholders would sit down for a comprehensive land-use planning process that would formalize provincial protections for Dene Kʼéh Kusān. That process stalled a few months later when the province went to the polls in October 2024, but picked up again after the election. On July 2, 2026, the province issued a press release announcing public consultations on the new protected area. 

“This work shows what’s possible when we all come together to protect the places that matter most,” Tamara Davidson, then-minister of environment and parks, said at the time. 

That process was supposed to conclude this fall, with Schilling expecting to finalize protections for the area before the end of the year. Now, the election has stalled the process. He’s worried about the lasting impact the delay could have, especially since a temporary ban on mineral staking inside the area is set to expire in January.“The current pause on mineral staking in Dene K’éh Kusān is set to expire just three months after the election,” he said. 

Neither NDP nor Conservatives have pledged support for IPCAs during election

Since the election was called, polling shows the BC Conservatives with a narrow but consistent lead over the BC NDP. Projections from 338Canada point to a likely change in government, with the Conservatives currently expected to win the most seats. 

Tim Burkhart, director of landscape protection at the conservation group Yellowstone to Yukon, said in an emailed statement the next government will have “a generational opportunity” to protect the unique wilderness area, but added time is running out, given the scheduled expiry of the mineral tenure pause. “The window to act is closing,” he said. 

“The years of planning, broad stakeholder endorsement and public engagement are done, and there is consensus to secure this wild legacy forever,” Burkhart, whose group supports the Kaska project, said. 

“We want to ensure all parties know protecting this unique wilderness is important for British Columbians and Canadians,” Schilling said.

No major party directly addresses Dene Kʼéh Kusān in its platform, but the BC NDP has reaffirmed a commitment to meet the pledge to protect 30 per cent of B.C. lands and waters by 2030, known as 30-by-30, and “work with First Nations on this goal.” As of December 2025, 15.9 per cent of the province was protected areas, according to the federal government. Since Dene Kʼéh Kusān covers around four per cent of the province, it would go a long way toward closing the gap.

The BC Conservatives have made no specific promises or platform announcements on conservation in this election. They have promised to repeal the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples Act, which the previous government cited as part of the reason it entered land use planning with Kaska. And in May 2024, former BC Conservative leader John Rustad described the 30-by-30 conservation goal as “nonsense” and pledged to scrap it if he formed government. 

The Narwhal reached out to the BC Conservative and BC NDP candidates running in the riding of Bulkley-Stikine, where most of Dene Kʼéh Kusān would sit, but neither responded. The BC Green Party is not running a candidate in the riding. 

For now, Schilling and others working on protecting the region will have to wait until the votes are counted on Oct. 24 to figure out the path forward.“We’re hopeful the next government will see the importance of this initiative and bring it to completion,” Schilling said.

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When Senator Michèle Audette questioned the Canadian government over its latest plan to fast-track industrial projects, she started by speaking in Innu-Aimun.

For the senator, an Indigenous women’s rights advocate who was a commissioner in the National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls, speaking the language was a way to centre her Innu community’s past, as Canada tries to shape its future.

“It was to remind, in that important space, that there was a moment when the government had tried to erase us through legislation and policies,” Sen. Audette, who comes from the First Nation of Innu Takuaikan Uashat Mak Mani-Utenam in eastern Quebec, told The Narwhal in an interview.

The people she was reminding were a trio of federal ministers who had appeared at a special Senate hearing on Oct. 6 to answer questions about Prime Minister Mark Carney’s Bill C-39, the Building Canada Strong Act.

The 243-page omnibus bill is the latest step in the government’s controversial reshaping of how major projects are scrutinized and approved in Canada. Major projects are things like mines, ports or pipelines, and can affect everything from watersheds to wildlife and can lead to changes in greenhouse gas emissions and public health.

Among other changes, the bill would centralize many Indigenous consultations under a new hub within the Impact Assessment Agency of Canada, limit environmental assessments of all projects subject to federal reviews to a maximum of one year, and consolidate all required permits into a single decision issued by a single minister after consulting with colleagues.

It would also let projects inside designated zones, deemed “regions of national interest,” bypass normal approval processes, allowing some to start before the assessment is complete and empowering the government to change or remove conditions that have already been imposed on a project. 

Carney’s government has said the bill is a response to complaints from workers, investors, communities and Indigenous groups that approval processes are too slow. It said new legislation is needed to get federal authorities to work together more effectively, so big projects are built faster.

“This in no way reduces our responsibility to assess projects against environmental standards or to fulfill our obligations to Indigenous Peoples,” Privy Council president Dominic LeBlanc, who is responsible for the government’s major projects and free trade push, told the senators.

But a wide swath of Indigenous leadership across the country has united in opposition to what they perceive as the bill’s infringement on the constitutional rights that guarantee an ability to influence decisions that affect their territories.

Many have also recoiled at the majority government’s hurry to transform its bill into law before the end of the year. Special committees in the House of Commons and Senate have been set up to examine the bill simultaneously, instead of the standard procedure where committees at each level take up a bill in succession.

“Prime Minister Carney is weaponizing the parliamentary process and his majority to force the bill through Parliament [and] override the inherent, Treaty and constitutionally protected rights of First Nations,” a joint statement from the Chiefs of Ontario, the British Columbia Assembly of First Nations, the Assembly of First Nations Quebec-Labrador and the Nishnawbe Aski Nation of northern Ontario said on Oct. 8.

“This extraordinary maneuver has one purpose: to push the most consequential economic legislation in a generation through Parliament before First Nations, or anyone else, can meaningfully scrutinize it. It is fundamentally antidemocratic.”

Senator questions Bill C-39’s introduction of ‘regions of national interest’

The Carney government has given itself broad discretion to determine what exactly is in the “national interest.”

Last year’s Building Canada Act, which first established this special designation for projects, laid out different elements the government “may consider” when determining “national interest” status.

These are: Canada’s autonomy, resilience and security; the economic or other benefits to the country, the likelihood of the project’s success, how it advances Indigenous interests and how it contributes to clean growth or tackling climate change. But the government also allowed itself to consider “any factor” it deemed relevant, and these elements are not required to all be met as a prerequisite to projects being given the “national interest” designation.

In fact, the first project the Carney government listed was the West Coast Oil pipeline, now named Pacific Link, which the Canadian Climate Institute expects will usher in 20 million tonnes per year of new greenhouse gas emissions — not exactly the type of project that tackles climate change. Meanwhile, the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis has said the economics of the pipeline are also debatable.

The new bill extends the same set of broad parameters and discretion to determining “regions of national interest.”

As she questioned the federal ministers who had come to answer questions on Bill C-39, Sen. Audette asked if their examination of these regions would include “not only the Indigenous Peoples who are directly affected by the projects but also those upstream and downstream who will feel the environmental, social and economic impacts.”

She told The Narwhal she is concerned the bill may frame Indigenous consultations over these zones as primarily being related to development. Some First Nations’ traditional territories cover vast areas and may overlap with the zones, for instance, even if their actual reserves may not.

“They’ll say, ‘Oh, there’s no First Nation, there’s no reserve on that road,’ but go back before it became Canada, we were there,” she said. “We are still there. We never surrendered.”

The government has said “national interest” regions could be anything from an industrial area to one earmarked for “energy production” or a telecommunications network. The label could even be applied without a specific project in mind, but for “future development needs.”

It said it would first carry out a regional assessment to consider cumulative impacts of development in the area, which would include Indigenous consultations, before designating a zone.

“We don’t want to be a third party or a stakeholder,” Sen. Audette said. “Even if you don’t see a reserve, we are involved, and we want to make sure that what you do, we are at the same level, on the same page.”

In his response to the senator on Oct. 6, Transport Minister Steven MacKinnon, who is also the bill’s sponsor, said First Nations would be involved “at the very beginning of the process, from the conception stage onwards.” He also said he and LeBlanc have already “experienced a lot of very positive feedback from rights holders” about the government’s new approval process for projects.

Canada’s environmental standards and shortened timelines for project approvals questioned by senators

Senator Suze Youance, a civil engineer, told the federal ministers she felt Bill C-39’s shortening of approval timelines was “causing a lot of concern among environmental groups and for certain communities.”

She asked whether the government had considered changing its proposed process “in order to find an acceptable middle ground between economic haste and environmental prudence.”

LeBlanc responded, “The way we reconcile those priorities is reflected in our commitment to act rigorously and in the fact that environmental standards have not changed, nor have our responsibilities toward Indigenous Rights holders.”

Senator Rosa Galvez, an expert on pollution and health who introduced legislation to align the financial sector with climate objectives, said that while Canada has been slow at building some projects, the reason “was not always because of environmental concerns or Indigenous Peoples’ rights. It was also due to a lack of investment.”

She said, during some previous nation-building moments in Canada’s history, reforms that were meant to simplify the regulatory process actually “brought new forms of fragmentation.”

“How will scientific independence be maintained when a specialized regulator assumes greater responsibility for environmental reviews?” she asked.

LeBlanc said the responsibility around oversight evaluation was not being diminished and that the regulators that are responsible will still work with other federal, provincial and independent agencies, and include public consultations.

“The public participation process under any of these agencies doing these reviews has not been changed,” LeBlanc said. “Public participation remains.”

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It’s a grey September afternoon, and a small group is gathered for a special behind-the-scenes visit with Assiniboine Park Zoo’s newest resident. 

“Heeeeere, bubba,” animal-care specialist Caitlin Gordon-Hall hollers from between a double layer of chain-link fencing.

After a beat, a small white face appears at the entrance of the private enclosure. The polar bear cub sniffs the air before trundling toward the fence, where his keepers have been working to encourage calm behaviour around humans ahead of his public debut today.

Gordon-Hall offers sing-song affirmations while the cub, who is nearly 200 pounds and 10 or 11 months old, observes the fawning strangers with guarded curiosity. 

The young bear is objectively cute. With his round, fluffy frame and oversized paws, he looks more like a gift-shop stuffie than an apex predator.

A low, persistent growl, however, is a reminder that his natural instincts are still intact. 

“In the wild, his mama would have taught him: if there’s people there, make yourself big, make noise,” Gordon-Hall says. 

But his mama isn’t here. The cub, whose official zoo name will be chosen by public voting, is an orphan.

It’s been an intensive period of relearning for the cub, who, prior to arriving at the zoo in August, spent his days roaming the tundra near Churchill, Man. 

Today’s 20-minute visit is part of a series of exposure sessions designed to desensitize the bear to the zoo’s forthcoming crowds. A few minutes into the exercise and the cub is busy scratching his back on the fence, seemingly content that the nearby photojournalist’s long lens and camera shutter pose no threat. 

This isn’t the first polar bear cub to make the trek from the shore of Hudson Bay to a zoo enclosure. And he won’t be the last.

The plight of polar bears in the face of climate change has been well-documented, and the fate of bears with less sea ice has meant they get into trouble with humans more often, with bears usually paying the price. Policy has shifted over the decades, but young orphan cubs still stand little chance of survival in the wild. Life in a zoo may be an imperfect solution — but it’s one that keeps the bear alive.

As the session ends, the group heads through the locked gate of the cub care centre, where a pair of zoo visitors are peering through the slats. They pepper the staff with questions: How is the cub doing? Will he be rooming with the other six bears? When will we be able to see him?

It’s been nine years since the last orphaned cub was transferred from Churchill, the “Polar Bear Capital of the World,” to the Winnipeg zoo. Public excitement in the south is palpable, while some northern residents are wary of a previously wild animal spending the rest of its life in captivity.

Orphan cub’s mother was found near the Churchill dump — which has long posed issues for polar bears

Kelsey Eliasson, a Churchill polar bear guide and filmmaker, encountered the bear and his mother when they lived in the wild. He knew them by the nicknames “Marrón” or “Maury” and “Blanca” — Spanish for brown and white, respectively. 

“She was a super clean, super white bear, and then Marrón was kind of dirty and muddy, like every cub,” Eliasson says over the phone. 

Eliasson spent several days documenting the pair this summer as they hunkered down in the rocks along the shore of Hudson Bay. During the warmer months, bears can often be found in an area east of town hunting for seals while trying to beat the heat and bugs.

Blanca, who was recognizable by a scar on her ear, looked healthy while she wrestled and rested with her cub, Eliasson says.

But in mid-August, the mother bear was found dead roughly a kilometre from the Churchill garbage dump. Her cause of death remains unknown, and the results of a necropsy are still pending, a provincial spokesperson said in an emailed statement.

Bears have been visiting the dump with more frequency since the spring of 2024, when the town’s enclosed waste transfer facility was destroyed in a fire.

“Last year it was non-stop,” Geoff York, vice-president of science and policy for Polar Bears International, a non-profit research and conservation organization, says over a video call.

Sending orphan cubs to Winnipeg zoo has a complicated history

For a long time, there were few rules governing the lives of polar bears in Manitoba. 

The provincial government frequently exported orphaned cubs and problem bears to zoos around the world until the late 1990s, when three Churchill-born bears were discovered performing in a travelling Mexican circus. The bears had been purchased from a zoo in Germany and were living in sweltering conditions without access to water.

Widespread media coverage and public condemnation led to the creation of Manitoba’s Polar Bear Protection Act, which regulates the care and treatment of polar bears in captivity. Under the legislation, the province retains ownership of captive bears sent elsewhere, and their offspring, in perpetuity. 

The act changed Assiniboine Park Zoo’s relationship with the charismatic predators as well.

The zoo has housed polar bears since at least 1939, when an orphaned seven-week-old cub, dubbed Charmichael, arrived via train after his mother was shot by a trapper on the shore of Hudson Bay, according to a Winnipeg Tribune article from the time. 

Bears remained a popular fixture at the zoo until the death of Debby, the world’s oldest known polar bear, in 2008 at the age of 41. Her concrete enclosure was deemed too small and ill-equipped by Manitoba Conservation standards to host a new bear without significant renovations.

Amendments to the Polar Bear Protection Act created rules for rescuing orphaned cubs and paved the way for the Leatherdale International Polar Bear Conservation Centre. The $4.5-million research lab and cub transition centre opened at the zoo in 2012, followed by three new polar bear habitats at the 10-acre Journey to Churchill exhibit in 2014.

Decisions to send an orphaned cub to Winnipeg are made on a case-by-case basis with input from an advisory committee of provincial appointees, zoo administrators and polar bear experts. Age is a significant consideration since polar bear cubs typically spend two years with their mothers learning to hunt and navigate. Orphans less than a year old stand little chance of survival in the wild.

Eleven cubs were transferred to the zoo between 2013 and 2017 — a pace that sparked public outrage in Churchill and pushed the Winnipeg facility’s capacity to the limit. The zoo is currently home to seven rescued polar bears, including the new cub. 

 “There’s definitely been times when we were worried about our ability to take new bears,” Stephen Petersen, Assiniboine Park Conservancy’s director of conservation and research, says, referring to space constraints.

There are few other options. The province has conducted two foster parenting studies with the Born Free Foundation, a British animal welfare organization, to determine if mother polar bears with one healthy cub would adopt a second. The project was cancelled due to lack of success. 

A rare case of wild adoption was observed in Manitoba last year, when a mother polar bear was seen travelling with a second cub. It was the 13th documented case of adoption in the western Hudson Bay subpopulation.

Orphaned cubs raised in captivity can’t currently be returned to the wild because they lack hunting skills and natural instincts.

That leaves the zoo. The province has updated its cub management policy since the first influx of orphans and the zoo now only takes bears whose mothers have died through suspected conflict with humans, Petersen says.

One of those points of conflict can come from garbage dumps.

‘Polar bears will break into everything’: Churchill garbage dump struggles to keep bears out

Dealing with municipal garbage in a northern community like Churchill, which is surrounded by rocky, intermittently frozen ground and hundreds of polar bears, poses challenges. While the previous facility allowed for indoor garbage sorting and storage, the 2024 fire forced the Town of Churchill to return to an open-dump system with an electrified fence. 

“The trash doesn’t just sit nicely inside this little fenced-in area. It gets pulled out by animals, and it gets blown out by the wind. So it’s created quite an attractant,” York, who specializes in reducing conflict between bears and humans, says.

Dozens of bears were able to break into the dump site when the electric fence failed during a storm, he adds. The barrier has since been upgraded with funding from Polar Bears International. The group plans to install new bear-deterrent technology in the town and dumpsite.

Churchill is in the process of rebuilding its garbage facility and is developing a long-term waste management strategy, a municipal spokesperson said in an emailed statement. The town also plans to revisit the feasibility of trash incineration — a concept that was shelved following the fire but has proven beneficial in other northern communities, like Nuuk, Greenland, where the energy generated from burning household garbage is used to heat homes. 

Eliasson thinks incineration should be given higher priority.

“Churchill has been talking about an incinerator [for a long time] and … we’re just not building one. It’s the only solution,” he says. “Polar bears will break into everything else.”

Polar bears, impacted by climate change, are increasingly moving into towns

The western Hudson Bay subpopulation, which includes Churchill and ranges from Chesterfield Inlet in Nunavut to the Manitoba-Ontario border, is the most researched group of polar bears in the world, according to Polar Bears International. 

There are roughly 800 bears living in the territory today, representing a 30 per cent population decline over the last 46 years due to shrinking sea ice caused by climate change, Evan Richardson, a polar bear research scientist with Environment and Climate Change Canada, says.

“This is one of the most southern polar bear populations in the world, and it was among the first to show impacts of reduced sea ice availability on individual body condition, growth, reproduction and survival,” Richardson says. 

Polar bears make their living on the ice, using the frozen platforms to hunt for seals. Open water makes the speedy prey increasingly harder to catch. 

The Hudson Bay population is experiencing an era of relative stability thanks to several good ice seasons, Richardson says. While this gives current generations of bears a positive start, the survival of the species is dependent on the long-term health of their environment.  

“Polar bears don’t occur anywhere where there’s not persistent annual sea ice, and so as the habitat melts, it threatens the bears’ existence,” he says.

Climate change is further straining the coexistence of bears and humans in northern Manitoba. 

“It’s a bit of a perfect storm,” York says. “Less ice means the area is more accessible to more human activity. At the same time, more bears are spending more time on shore.”

As the ice-free season grows longer, Hudson Bay is seeing more traffic, whether it be freight, tourism or research. In Manitoba, the provincial and federal governments are keen to expand operations at the Port of Churchill to include year-round shipping, an all-weather road, an upgraded rail line and a liquefied natural gas terminal — all of which will bring more people and disturbance to the region. 

To ease the pressure on residents — bears and humans alike — York believes the governments should focus on shoring up local infrastructure, including Churchill’s garbage facility, before embarking on major national projects in remote northern communities.

“Take a quick step back and say, ‘Hey, what’s needed here today for the people who are there now?’ ” he says. “This waste management need has been acute, and we haven’t had the best luck getting the attention we think it merits, from the human-health side, but also the environmental-health and wildlife-health side.”

There have been 159 bear sightings and encounters reported so far this year in Churchill to the province’s Polar Bear Alert Program — a 24-hour hotline designed to minimize dangerous interactions while the animals move ashore from mid-July to mid-November.

If a bear is reported near the town or dump, Manitoba Conservation officers will chase them away with non-lethal scaring devices, such as noisemakers or flares. “Problem bears” that return repeatedly or refuse to leave the area are placed in the province’s polar bear holding facility near the Churchill airport and relocated more remotely via helicopter. Seven bears have been flown out of town this year.

The holding facility, colloquially known as polar bear jail, is also where orphaned cubs begin their journey to Winnipeg.

‘A really smart little bear, and he’s doing very well’

After his mother died, the zoo’s new cub was captured by conservation officers and held in polar bear jail while decisions were made about his future. Within a week, he was on a plane to Winnipeg accompanied by veterinary staff from the zoo. 

His first 30 days were spent in medical quarantine at the cub care centre, which includes indoor and outdoor enclosure space with a shallow pool, foliage and natural ground cover for digging. 

The cub’s introduction to captivity has been closely managed by a small circle of trainers.

“It has gone through a traumatic event of losing its mother,” Jackie Enberg, the zoo’s curator of animal care, says. “We’re here to offer a safe home and daily care. … A lot of that is relationship building and a good diet.”

Enberg has overseen the transitions for all of the cubs transferred to the zoo. Unsurprisingly, food is the fastest way to a polar bear’s heart.

Once the cub’s stomach adjusted to his new diet of ground meat, fish and “marine mammal chow” — a kind of dry kibble — his trainers added tong-feeding sessions to the menu. The goal is to associate humans with food delivery and reward calm behaviour, which can help with future vet checkups. 

Visitor exposure sessions were added post-quarantine. Over several weeks, the cub’s trainers paid close attention to his behaviour as larger groups of zoo staff and patrons stopped by his enclosure for longer periods of time. If he showed signs of distress, such as charging the fence or growling, the process was slowed, Enberg says.

So far, the cub has adapted to captivity as well as expected. (A fecal cortisol study conducted on bears at the zoo, and published in the Canadian Journal of Zoology earlier this year, found orphaned cubs can adjust to living under human care within two weeks of relocation.)

“I’m really impressed with how far he’s gotten. He’s just a really smart little bear, and he’s doing very well,” Enberg says. “And he’s spunky.” 

That spunky temperament may come into play when the cub is big enough to integrate with the zoo’s adult polar bears. Staff use personality assessments developed in the onsite research lab to determine which bears will mesh well together. The cub joins a long line of Assiniboine Park polar bears involved in local and international research programs — from non-invasive tracking techniques to whiskerprint identification to thermal imaging. Scientists at the zoo are also studying how climate change is impacting denning in the Arctic and how stress affects a bear’s DNA. 

“We really want the bears in our care to participate in as much research that contributes to wild bear and bear welfare overall as possible,” Petersen says.

For the zoo, the new cub promises to boost ticket sales as a novel attraction while serving as an ambassador for his northern brethren. 

It’s a tough sell for Eliasson, the Churchill polar bear guide, who would rather see orphaned cubs returned to the wild or paired with adoptive mothers. 

“It’s 2026, and Manitoba has a polar bear cub rehabilitation centre where the only option is to fly the cub to Winnipeg and put it in a zoo. To me, that doesn’t sound like rehabilitation,” he says. 

Petersen, however, says release isn’t a viable option. 

“Putting a grown, healthy bear that has relied on humans for all its food back on the landscape is just a huge risk to communities further north,” he says. 

Meanwhile, the cub is spending his days climbing logs and splashing in the pool of his enclosure as visitors watch from beyond the fence.

And soon, he’ll have a new name. The public can vote for Duke, Marly, Fletcher or Mantayo — ideas compiled by students from the Duke of Marlborough School in Churchill that speak to landmarks in the North.

Updated Oct. 13, 2026 at 11:56 a.m. CT: This story has been updated to correct the fact that Nuuk is located in Greenland, not Nunavut as previously stated.

Eva Wasney is a reporter covering environmental issues in Manitoba. Her position is part of a partnership between The Narwhal and the Winnipeg Free Press.

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Patricia Dutchak was devastated when she first saw the wide swaths of crushed grass and upturned soil at Winnipeg’s Rotary Prairie Nature Park, a municipal heritage site.

“This is a very rare ecosystem, a remnant of tallgrass prairie, there’s barely any left in the world, and to come here and see all this damage was heartbreaking,” Dutchak, chair of the Transcona Rotary Club’s parks committee, says. 

The club is responsible for maintaining the protected green space, which was significantly damaged this summer when a fence between the park and the neighbouring Amazon distribution centre was relocated.

The eight-hectare nature preserve is situated on a narrow tract of land on Regent Avenue West in the commercial heart of Winnipeg’s Transcona neighbourhood. The park received its municipal heritage designation in 1992 and is, today, surrounded by high-traffic streets, industrial warehouses and car dealerships. 

In early August, a contractor hired by Amazon moved a section of chain-link fence running along the distribution centre’s parking lot a couple of metres to the west toward the park. The work was carried out to allow for safer snow and ice removal over the winter, an Amazon spokesperson said in an email statement. 

During the process, grass and shrubs along both sides of the fence were mowed down and dumped in the park without permission from the Rotary Club. Wooden fence posts marking the western perimeter of the preserve were removed, leaving deep holes in the soil, and a black plastic pipe originating from the Amazon facility was left snaking through the grass.

Dutchak was alerted to the situation by a member of the public, who shared footage of a skid steer being driven inside the park, leaving wide tracks of trampled greenery. 

“The person I would really like to talk to is the operator of the equipment. What were you thinking? At the minimum, it’s trespassing,” Dutchak says during an interview at the site last Thursday.

She hopes those responsible for the damage will be held accountable for the park’s restoration.

The city is investigating and working toward a resolution, a city spokesperson said in a statement. 

The Amazon spokesperson says the company is reviewing its internal procedures, its oversight of the third-party contractor and plans to make a financial contribution to support the stewardship of the park. The Bezos Earth Fund, an environmental charity started by Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, has committed $2 billion globally to nature conservation projects.

New threats to an already-threatened tallgrass prairie landscape

Tallgrass prairie was once ubiquitous across North America, covering the central plains of the continent from southern Manitoba to the Gulf of Mexico. As European settlers colonized the prairies, much of the existing grassland was converted to farmland. 

Today, less than one per cent of the original tallgrass prairie habitat remains, making it one of the most endangered ecosystems in the world.

The Rotary Prairie Nature Park is an example of “wet” tallgrass prairie, meaning its heavy clay soil is especially effective at diverting and storing surface water, Rafael Otfinowski, associate professor of biology at the University of Winnipeg, says. 

“That could give away why it’s still conserved,” Otfinowski says. “If you’re trying to build or farm, often you go for the best land first. So some of the areas that are best preserved in Manitoba for tallgrass prairie … are very rocky and very poorly drained.”

In passing, the Rotary nature preserve looks like an overgrown field with a narrow walking path and a smattering of aspen. The ecological reality is much more complex. 

The area is a remnant prairie ecosystem, meaning it has never been ploughed. Surveys by the city’s naturalist services branch have identified 142 different plant species in the park since 1993. The site is also home to a number of rare native Manitoba plants, including blue flowering gentians, mountain sneezeweed and whorled milkweed. Small songbirds can be seen among the flora.

The park’s iconic grass, big bluestem, is commemorated in a metal sculpture at its southern entrance. Unlike the shallow root systems of lawn and ornamental grasses, bluestem roots can extend several metres underground. 

“They have very, very deep root systems, which means they can build, essentially, a composter that goes deep into the soil and does all kinds of wonderful things — from nutrients to carbon [sequestration] to water storage,” Otfinowski says. “That takes many years to develop … so they really do require a special, long-term, undisturbed environment where they can thrive.”

Winnipeg has several hectares of unconnected tallgrass prairie preserves. These islands act as important seasonal “cafeterias” for pollinators and migrating birds since native plants tend to have longer blooming periods than their cultivated counterparts.

Beyond the ecological benefits, the preservation of these sites can serve as a form of reconciliation, Otfinowski says.

“The cultural reasons, the historic reasons, the social reasons are huge — especially inside an urban area,” he says. “It’s a form of acknowledging what our ecosystems were before settlement.”

Dutchak worries about the external threats facing the green space. 

She has documented unauthorized encampments and fire pits on the grounds and has heard rumblings from residents about turning the grassland into sports fields.  

“I don’t want to be living in the generation where this is going to disappear,” she says.

How to bring back a tallgrass prairies

Restoring damaged tallgrass prairie is a time-sensitive process. 

“Within a year or two of disturbance happening, you can have a really bad non-native species takeover,” John Morgan, a retired ecologist who spent most of his career restoring tallgrass prairie ecosystems in Manitoba, says. 

Native prairie plants evolved under different circumstances than the opportunistic weeds brought over from Europe during colonization, Morgan explains. 

Most non-native species, such as dandelions and Canada thistle, have adapted to grow quickly in bare soil because they evolved alongside western agriculture, where the ground is tilled annually. Tallgrass prairies in North America, on the other hand, grew alongside 60 million grazing bison, Morgan says.

While prairie grasslands can withstand harsh above-ground conditions thanks to deep, slow-growing root systems, they struggle to compete with more aggressive plants when their landscape is disturbed. 

“They’re very tough as far as the climate goes and the vagaries of floods and droughts,” Morgan says. 

“[But] most of the grassland species here, with very few exceptions, are not really competitive. They didn’t have to be for thousands of years.”

Within the first few months of damage to a tall grass prairie, Morgan recommends replanting with native seeds and developing a long-term plan for weed control. It can be a challenging but worthwhile endeavour, he says.

“Every little bit that you lose is a significant amount of the remainder,” he says. “We all hear about the South American rainforest and how fast that’s disappearing … in Manitoba we have what I call the rainforest of the prairies, which is the tallgrass prairie.”

Eva Wasney is a reporter covering environmental issues in Manitoba. Her position is part of a partnership between The Narwhal and the Winnipeg Free Press.

Updated Oct. 6, 2026 at 12:08 p.m. CT: This article was updated to remove an image and a map that depicted grasslands that were not specifically tallgrass prairie grasslands.

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Aquatic global change ecologist Mary Jade (MJ) Farruggia found herself studying the impact of wildfires on lakes by accident. She was researching lakes in the mountains of California in the summer of 2020 when, in “a tragic turn of events,” wildfires swept through the area, smoke clouded the sky and her plans quickly changed.

“Wildfires are becoming more intense and more frequent, and so it just became a phenomenon that was getting harder and harder to ignore,” Farruggia, a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Colorado Boulder, told The Narwhal over the phone. “As lake scientists, we started wondering, ‘what’s the impact of this on the systems that we study?’ ”

Canada is home to two million lakes, more than any other country. And the last three wildfire seasons have been among the worst on record here, making research like Farruggia’s critical.

A record-breaking season in 2023 saw 15 million hectares of forest burned across Canada. The land hasn’t had much reprieve since. This year more than 4,700 fires burned more than four million hectares across the country by the end of August — many in Ontario.

“We as humans feel the impacts of [wildfire smoke],” Farruggia said. “If it’s affecting your own health, how is it also affecting your ecosystems and the nature around you and the systems that you rely on? Is your favourite lake going to be similarly impacted by smoke?”

‘Almost all’ North American lakes are exposed to wildfire smoke: researchers

Some of the direct impacts of wildfires on ecosystems are straightforward; as fires burn near lakes, they increase future flood risk, as plants that stabilize soil and filter runoff go up in smoke. Ash deposits contaminants and excess nutrients into the water, changing the makeup of watersheds.

For each lake and fire, the full impact depends on a slew of variables, including “the number of wildfires, their intensity, their location, the health of the ecosystem before the fire and even how much rain falls following a fire,” Terri-Lee Reid, a freshwater conservation researcher at the Canadian Wildlife Federation, said.

Less clear is how lake ecosystems far away from fires are being impacted as smoke travels, and Reid says there’s still more to learn. But, the science is much newer, and scientists like Farruggia and her colleagues spend their time designing and performing experiments to figure it out.

“Sometimes we get these summers where it feels like much of North America is covered in smoke,” said Steven Sadro, an associate professor of environmental science and policy at the University of California, Davis. He is also Farruggia’s co-author and former advisor. “This is smoke that’s affecting millions of lakes at continental scales.”

Sadro and Farruggia coined the term “lake-smoke day,” which provides a metric referring to the number of days a lake is exposed to smoke in a fire season. They found wildfire smoke can drift hundreds of miles away from its source, making its impact widespread.

“We found a pretty shocking response … that almost all lakes in North America experience some number of smoke exposure days,” Sadro said, adding that many of them were experiencing a full month or more over the course of a year.

“Smoke in the atmosphere can reduce the amount of sunlight that can reach the lake, and that can impact water temperature. It can impact the growth of algae and aquatic plants, and then that can have further consequences,” Reid said.

Their research suggests that smoke blocks sunlight from reaching lakes, lowering lake temperatures and reducing photosynthesis and respiration in the body of water. 

What happens next is harder to predict. A lake’s depth, clarity, size, location and nutrient levels all influence how it responds to smoke. Larger lakes can be more resilient while smaller, clearer lakes can experience more algae growth due to the new nutrient deposits.

“The jury is really out on the magnitude of the impact. I’m not trying to say that millions of lakes in North America are having very large impacts from wildfire smoke. Some of them certainly may be,” Sadro said. “We don’t know what those numbers are yet.”

‘When the land’s not healthy, the lakes aren’t healthy either’

While researchers work to untangle those relationships, Amy Cardinal Christianson, director of fire stewardship for the Indigenous Leadership Initiative, says Indigenous Knowledge has long recognized the interconnection between fire, water and land.

She pointed to historical examples along the west coast where Indigenous communities have been aware of the cooling effect of smoke on waterways that western science has also recently ventured into. For example in California, when it was too hot for salmon to spawn, Cardinal Christianson said cultural burns would be used to help create a layer of smoke over the water to cool it and help the fish.

But while fire can be used beneficially, it can also cause harm to waterways.

“People often think of [a] lake as its own ecosystem, which it is, but it’s really tied into everything that’s around it,” Cardinal Christianson said. “When the land’s not healthy, the lakes aren’t healthy either.”

She explained that, instead of having separate plans for forest management, watershed management and more, “we need to start looking at things much more holistically.”

“For Indigenous people, our teachings are that everything is interconnected and related. So when these fires are happening, one of the big concerns for us is the impacts on water,” Cardinal Christianson said. “It’s a constant worry in the back of my head, just like, what [are] going to be the long-term effects to the water that we rely on?”

The challenges of studying how wildfires affect lakes

Farruggia is part of a working group of 30 American and Canadian scientists looking for answers. The group includes Scott Higgins, senior research scientist with the International Institute for Sustainable Development Experimental Lakes Area — a natural freshwater laboratory spanning almost 60 lakes in Kenora in northwestern Ontario.

“We work in the field and we certainly notice, especially during those intensive fire years, the smog and the ash clouds that drift over our site,” Higgins said. The boreal forest that spans Canada, including around Kenora, is sometimes referred to as a “fire forest” because its ecosystems are both flammable, and reliant on fire to help remove insects, disease and aged trees, allowing for new life to emerge.

“This is a really lake-intensive part of Canada,” Higgins said. “When the boreal forest burns, undoubtedly lakes are directly impacted.”

But while interest in researching the impacts of wildfires on lakes has been increasing as fire seasons become longer and more intense, he said the science is still in its infancy.

One problem, he said, is that, “it’s tough to do experiments on actual wildfires.”

It is often difficult for researchers to get into an area quickly after a fire to study the immediate impacts. Even if they can, there often isn’t data from before the fire to compare it to. To try to counteract this and build a better understanding, Higgins said, his team is planning to use the extensive, long-term data collected at the Experimental Lakes Area to its benefit, including adding wildfire ash directly into a lake to study the outcome, and to work with Ontario’s Ministry of Natural Resources to use a prescribed burn for study. 

“We’ll be able to put some pretty good numbers on how important these fires are to nutrient cycles and to metal cycles and to what they mean for biota,” or the animals and plants living in that environment, Higgins said. “I think science is going to be able to provide in the next five to 10 years for sure.”

In the meantime, Farruggia said the early evidence offers reason to be hopeful — even in sensitive, smaller and more remote lakes. 

“Lakes are actually very resilient systems. Even though we see there’s lots of sensitivity, especially in smaller, lower nutrient lakes, we have seen that they recover pretty quickly so far,” Farruggia said. “Lake resilience is something that I think could be celebrated.”

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There was a brief, telling moment when Prime Minister Mark Carney was onstage at a Calgary Chamber of Commerce event last year, following the announcement of a memorandum of understanding with the Alberta government for a new “private sector constructed and financed pipeline” to the West Coast. 

Deborah Yedlin, the CEO of the chamber, mentioned the agreement’s stipulation: the project needed a private proponent rather than public funding. Then she said the project required “derisking.”“Are you saying there’s no room for the government to derisk something for a period of time in order to attract private capital that’s needed for a project like that?” she asked Carney. In other words, how far was Carney willing to go to protect industry from losses?Carney listed off moves his government was making, including regulatory clarity, tax incentives and loan guarantees to move the project forward. And then he said: “In essence, the Asian pipeline will be a private sector project …”

That one word, essence, bore considerable weight. 

So too did the timing of the Oct. 1 announcement that the pipeline — now known as Pacific Link — would be the first project of national interest listed under the federal government’s sweeping Building Canada Act. It comes just over two weeks before Alberta holds a referendum on whether to hold an independence referendum, as well as a slew of questions aimed mostly at immigrants. 

From the beginning, the pipeline plan was a political one, based on a calculus that can be hard to understand outside of Alberta, where decades of government and industry messaging has succeeded in tightly weaving oil and gas into the province’s culture. 

Never has that narrative been pushed harder than by the United Conservative Party government, first under former premier Jason Kenney and now amplified even more under Premier Danielle Smith. 

Having directly linked the future of the country with deregulation for the oil and gas sector, Smith now faces the headwinds of that rhetoric in the form of a burgeoning separatist movement. It’s one she has aided to protect herself from an influential secessionist base in her party. 

It’s a situation Carney has recognized and attempted to shape, acquiescing to Alberta’s demands in an effort to shore up a united front as threats from the United States grow more stark. 

The prime minister might have promised Canadians a “private sector constructed and financed pipeline” in last fall’s memorandum. But it was clear from the beginning he was willing to pay a premium to achieve peace. 

How Alberta’s politics of wealth and alienation fuelled the Pacific Link promise

After their first meeting in March of last year, Smith threatened Carney with an “unprecedented national unity crisis” if he did not respond to a list of demands almost entirely focused on boosting the oil and gas sector. 

It was part and parcel of a wider campaign to link Alberta’s political and economic fortunes more tightly with fossil fuels, including moves to designate emissions data as critical infrastructure to prevent the federal government from accessing it and put up regulatory and economic hurdles to block renewable energy development. 

Smith’s actions are part of a long history of resentment that stretches back as far as the creation of the province, when the federal government denied Alberta control over its natural resources, a move that was later reversed. 

There’s an entire mythology of eastern Canadian domination built up around the National Energy Program introduced by Pierre Elliot Trudeau in the early 1980s, which still resonates with separatists and mainstream conservatives alike. In this century, the climate actions of his son Justin Trudeau inflamed a new sense of subjugation in the oil patch. 

Those resentments and mythologies have been curated by successive Alberta governments as an easy way to rally Albertans to their cause and help cover up internal failures, particularly when it comes to budget crashes. And now it has reached a fever pitch. 

Carney, a veteran of Brexit and big brain amidst big brain money makers, recognized the weight of Smith’s threat and an especially restless Alberta, particularly as the geopolitical landscape shifted under his feet. He wasted no time in wooing her, and her province. 

He has proven willing to deregulate and slash emissions programs and targets to help industry. Now, he’s opening the federal government’s hefty purse to buy peace. The pipeline will cost billions, without any promise that price will be enough to please Smith’s government and the powers it has unleashed. 

Pacific Link pipeline promise is rushing to meet a very specific moment

Pacific Link is moving fast, because it’s meant to meet this specific moment: oil prices are high, Alberta separation is occupying vital political real estate, and a trade war with the U.S. is both threatening Canadian well-being and galvanizing political will for big risks and fast action. 

In this rush, it’s easy to lose sight of the fact that many important details still aren’t finalized — such as the route, financing and oilsands companies meeting requirements for a massive carbon capture and storage project.

All of this makes meeting this specific moment difficult, to say the least. It will be years before the pipeline is online. 

There are also serious questions about investing billions of taxpayer dollars into a project for a sector facing possible reductions in demand and a global shift away from the uncertainty of oil markets. Not to mention concerns over the impacts of increased emissions and the reduced ambitions for carbon capture. 

Despite this announcement, the referendum will still take place. The provincial government is spending millions to tell Albertans to send Ottawa a message and stand up for a more sovereign province. Its list of demands remains, even if Smith is playing nice with Carney for the time being.

The willingness of the Alberta government to act in good faith is also questionable. Only days after it signed last fall’s memorandum with the federal government, it went ahead with changes which undermined its industrial carbon price that it promised to strengthen in the agreement. 

That’s the same memorandum containing the broken promise of a “private sector constructed and financed pipeline.” It all suggests Donald Trump isn’t the only Western leader who signs agreements in pencil. 

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Manitoba Premier Wab Kinew says a former Brandon-area campground acquired by the province will help educate future generations about the horrors of residential schools.

“We live in an era where people are trying to deny what happened in residential schools,” Kinew said during a Tuesday afternoon visit to Turtle Crossing Campground, near the former Brandon Indian Residential School. “It’s an important part of our national history, and keeping that truth alive.”

Kinew officially announced the province’s plan Tuesday, in partnership with the City of Brandon, to acquire and protect the site where the bodies of more than 50 Indigenous children are located.

The premier said the property has “huge national significance” for education about residential school history because it is one of the “most documented” in the country. He carried photographs, and some 20th century newspaper clippings from the Brandon Sun around the site Tuesday.

Kinew attended a ceremony Wednesday, the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation, at the site of the former Brandon Indian Residential School.

The graves of at least 56 children who attended the school are located at the campground, Sioux Valley Dakota Nation First Nation has said, pointing to a geophysical study conducted by an archaeology firm in 2018.

Signs were erected at the former campground Tuesday morning declaring the property is “no longer operated as a campground, RV park, or recreational site.” The sign said that the property is now in a period of transition, care and planning under the guidance of Indigenous communities and partner organizations.

Investigation at the site, which will be spearheaded by Sioux Valley First Nation, will be Indigenous-led, its chief said.

“Technical expertise and community knowledge will guide the work, with respect for the children, their families and this sacred site at every stage,” Sioux Valley Chief Jennifer Bone said in a news release.

Chris Mancuso, principal investigator with the First Nation’s Brandon Indian Residential School Missing Children Investigation, said the first goal is to identify the “true” boundaries of the cemetery, which is currently a fenced space within the former Turtle Crossing Campground.

The researcher expects to discover additional signs of burials outside the cemetery’s limits, leading the cemetery to be expanded.

Technologies such as ground penetrating radar, magnetism and electromagnetics, which are non-invasive, will be used at the site to investigate the boundaries of the cemetery, he said.

Sioux Valley has a two-year budget drawn up for research at the site, spanning all four seasons, and work started Tuesday, he said. An archaeologist walked the property and tagged characteristics, such as fence post holes and utility infrastructure, to prepare for future ground research at the site.

Mancuso said the purchase of the land will improve research by enabling it.

“It allows access,” Mancuso said. “For the technical investigation, we need to be physically on site with our tools. And the investigation is not just a one day search. So, having sustained access gives the chance to protect this cemetery.”

Randell Wasicuna, a councillor with Sioux Valley, called the move a “victory.”

“This has been a long-time coming and it’s been a long battle with the owner and I think it’s great to finally have this move forward, as it has been stalled for almost a decade,” Wasicuna said. “It’s a huge relief.”

He hopes the work in Manitoba, and partnerships between First Nations and government, sets an example — and precedent — for other communities and the federal government.

An interview request with Canada’s Minister of Crown-Indigenous Relations Rebecca Alty was not accommodated Tuesday.

At the campground site, there have been longstanding concerns from Indigenous leaders and community members that people were camping on the resting place of children victimized by colonialism.

The school, which was located about five kilometres northwest of Brandon, operated from 1895 to 1972. It used a grave site near the Assiniboine River until 1912, with grave markers removed in 1921 so the area could be transformed into a park.

The City of Brandon sold the park privately in 2001, and in 2007, it was acquired by Mark Kovatch and his wife, Joan.

The former owner said he made efforts to raise awareness about the graves at the site over the years and took issue with others saying he was limiting access, noting he installed a fence around the site.

He would not disclose how much the province paid for the campground.

“I wish them well. That’s all I can say,” he said.

Brandon’s mayor, who visited the site Tuesday, said the path towards reconciliation has been a team effort between governments and First Nations.

“I believe that there’s a great opportunity for the region and for the community to build on it now,” said Fawcett. “… I know for a fact being out there with leaders today, there’s a great sense of relief and a great sense of optimism in talking about the past and moving into the future.”

Daryl Hapa, another councillor with Sioux Valley First Nation, said he regularly thinks about students at the school — including his late father.

“It was heartbreaking,” Hapa said of the stories he was told by his father.

He is pleased the territory will be under Indigenous control and hopes families will learn more.

“Hopefully, we’ll get all of these children’s names (and get) them back home to their communities,” he said. “Families will have some piece of mind that all these children who attended these residential schools haven’t been forgotten.”

Bone said the announcement was meaningful to the community as Sioux Valley has been working on its residential school project since 2012.

“This is years of work and advocacy, not even just Sioux Valley, but Manitoba Keewatinowi Okimakanak and the City of Brandon,” Bone said. “The announcement is a huge step towards reconciliation.”

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