Your World Tonight - Fires in N.W.T., back to school after wildfires, butterfly drought, and more

Episode Date: September 1, 2025

Evacuees are arriving in Hay River, N.W.T. from multiple communities. Residents of Fort Providence are watching and waiting as a fast-moving wildfire bears down on their homes. The smoke is spreading to other parts of Canada.And: In Newfoundland and Labrador, kids and families are trying to navigate the first days of school under the shadow of one of the province’s worst wildfire seasons — with classrooms destroyed and smoke in the air.Also: Drought in Canada could be leaving Monarch butterflies hungry. New research shows they can’t get the nectar they need to fuel their migrations.Plus: China hosts a summit with an eye to reorient the global trade map, earthquake recovery in Afghanistan, the possibilities of “open skies” in Canada, and more.

It's finally summertime. I'm Nala Ayyed, host of ideas. These last several months, maybe longer, have tested our Canadian pride. So that's why this summer, we have some special programming lined up for you. We're revisiting conversations with Canadian artists and thought leaders who are moving this country forward. You'll also hear a special series I did where we traveled across the country asking people how to make Canada better. So join me for a special Canadian society. summer on ideas.

This is a CBC podcast. I was thinking, am I going to go home? Is my house still going to be standing up when I get home? Or my grandkids are going to have a house to go home to? The fire outside Fort Providence in the Northwest. The U.S. Territories has grown quickly and is moving fast, forcing everyone, including essential workers, to leave. And it's not the only fire burning in the region. Welcome to Your World Tonight.

I'm Susan Bonner. It is Monday, September 1st, just before 6 p.m. Eastern, also on the podcast. He made a father who unfortunately had lost three of his sons. The old one was seven. the medal one was three, and the youngest one was two. A deadly earthquake in a remote area of eastern Afghanistan destroys homes, causes rock slides, leaving hundreds dead and hundreds more missing. The town of Hay River in the Northwest Territories is known as the hub of the north.

Tonight, it's a gathering place for hundreds of people trying to escape the threat of wildfires. One of the worst blazes is on the doorstep of Fort Providence. And evacuees worry, it's just a matter of time before the flames reach their homes. Juanita Taylor has our top story tonight. Ruby Minoza tears up as she eats breakfast at the evacuation center in Hay River Northwest Territories with her young granddaughter. She can't help but worry about her son who stayed behind in Fort Providence, about 180 kilometers away by road, to help fight the wildfire over 80,000 hectares in size. I was thinking, am I going to go home?

Is my house still going to be standing up when I get home? Or my grandkids are going to have a house to go home to? Some of her community members are wondering the same thing. Gregory Elyssie is most concerned about his pets. he had to leap behind. Kind of worry, like, some of my animals are out there, too, too. I got puppies, too. I got six of them.

But Elysses says he's relieved to be here in Hay River, safe. That's what we brought to us. Unexpectedly, like where I'm staying, there's just big ashes falling down. Oh, my God, it's just nothing but ashes all over the place. Really unbelievable. On Sunday, fire officials said there was a possibility it would reach people's homes that night.

After an evacuation order was issued, forcing the hamlet of about 700 people to flee the area. But it hasn't. The fire is now just a kilometer away. Most essential workers have been told to leave. Yeah, there still remains a significant amount of danger. Mike Westwick is the territory's fire information officer. We've got some work to do before that threat alleviates,

but we're going to be taking every opportunity that we have with these more favorable wins today. to make a real dent. There are dozens of wildfires burning in the Northwest Territories and that has Premier R.J. Simpson wanting to see more national support, especially when jurisdictions like the NWT are stretched to the limits. We're of small jurisdiction and we can only handle so much. We only have so much capacity before people just start burning out.

And so we are prepared to the extent that we can be, but with the world the way it is, with climate change and the frequency and severity, of these disasters, it's tough. It's, we're stretched. At the evacuation center, Ruby Manoza holds her granddaughter on her lap, waiting for any information she can get. I don't know. Every time we get it called, there's all kinds of stories, so I don't really know what's going on. Back in Fort Providence, only first responders and firefighters remain in the hamlet,

working around the clock fighting a fire that isn't showing any signs of slowing down. Oneida Taylor, CBC News, Hay River, Northwest Territories. In Nova Scotia, crews are no closer to getting the Long Lake Wildfire under control. Officials say high winds are whipping up flames. The fire has been burning for three weeks across the province's southwest. Hundreds of people are out of their homes. Dozens of structures are lost. The community is just one of many across the country, facing uncertainty after another devastating

wildfire season. The fires are also radically changing the look of a new school year. Deanna Suminac Johnson explains. Like all your clothes, your stuffies, your games, your video games are gone. A tough conversation for any parent to have with their child, but a conversation that Scott Chandler and Robin Dwyer had to have with her 8-year-old son, Rees, when their home in the area of Western Bay, Newfoundland, burned in a wildfire this summer. But on top of all that, the

fires also destroyed Reese's elementary school in Western Bay. He's really upset because that was the school. The start of the school year, a defining moment of childhood is another casualty of Canada's devastating wildfires. Even if school buildings are still standing, families and kids may be hard to reach just days before school starts. Alan Campbell is the president of the Canadian School Board's Association. We're hearing from members across the country that the schools are still having a difficult

time contacting families who had evacuated at some point over the summer. Campbell says wildfire smoke is also a problem for schools. And so when it comes to monitoring air quality and it comes to forecasting air quality based on the movement of wildfire smoke, that will just as much now become part of planning considerations as is blizzard forecasting in the winter. Ali Asgari, York University professor of emergency preparedness, agrees and adds, any national federal plans must involve figuring out what happens to schools that are in fire affected areas. Of course, we cannot expect schools at the local level to have the resources

to arrange all these things themselves. So there has to be some supports from, you know, upper level, up to the federal level support. Plans that may involve anything from pivoting to online learning to knowing rich neighboring school the kids would attend if theirs was in a fire zone. You know, even one day, two days, one week of losing a school for children is huge gap, it's a huge loss. We want to minimize that. In Newfoundland, Reese Chandler is excited to see his new school. But his father says he hopes they keep all the kids and teachers whose school was destroyed together, and also that school administrators account for a psychological distress children have gone through. You know, bring in some child psychologists, bring in some,

you know, behavioral therapists, because we're going to have those problems. I foresee that. As kids and communities affected by wildfires face the new normal start of a school year, that's not normal at all. Deanna Sumanek-Johnson, CBC News, Toronto. Coming right up, a devastating earthquake in Afghanistan leaves hundreds dead, many more trapped under the rubble. Also, China hosts a summit and sends a message to the West with the leaders of Russia and India in attendance, even holding hands.

We'll look at the state of labor relations here in Canada on this Labor Day, and later a potential threat to the monarch butterfly. The problem isn't with the butterflies, but with their food. The drought has caused the nectar to be thicker, and that can create problems for monarchs as they try to get the nectar out with their proboscis. It's too thick. It's sort of like, you know, if you ever tried to eat them, drink a milkshake with a small straw, it's really difficult to get out.

Jaden Dill with how drought could make the annual monarch migration even more difficult. That's coming up on your world tonight. It was nearly midnight when the earth began to shake, an earthquake in a remote eastern region of Afghanistan not far from Jalalabad near the Pakistan border, with shockwaves that were felt as far away as Kabul. Entire villages were leveled, hundreds killed, thousands more injured or missing. Chris Brown has more from London. The quake hit in Kunar province near the border with Pakistan overnight,

reducing entire villages to dried mudbrick rubble as people slept. From my own family, five nephews and two nieces were martyred, along with one of my aunts said a man called Hekmatula. The number of dead and injured is very high. Many of the homes in the area were built on the side of mountains, some almost on top of each other, and fell easily. So even a relatively moderate quake like this one caused maximum damage. The remoteness of the area meant helicopters

were the only way to get survivors to hospital in Jalalabad 20 kilometers away. Shah Adula, an injured 16-year-old boy, said all of the roofs on the homes in his village collapsed at once. The Taliban, a regime internationally shunned for its horrible treatment of women and for human rights abuses, put out a plea for help, and UN agencies did their best to respond. Heartbreaking. It's hard. You know these people are barely managing.

Salam al-Janabe with UNICEF said with the epicenter a strenuous three-hour hike on foot, its rescue teams were carrying in relief supplies by hand. We're sending out winter clothes now, because just any clothes for anyone. We're sending out what we call family kits. These are sort of boxes of kitchen supplies, hygiene supplies. Hospitals near the quake zone were left in chaos, without enough beds. for all of the critically injured patients. Foreign aid has dried up,

especially from large donors like the United States, and especially in the past year, creating a funding crisis, says Samira Sayyad Rahman, a Canadian working for Save the Children in Jalalabad. The system is strained. Hospitals are overloaded. There's no medicine.

There's not enough ambulances. There's not enough resources to be able to respond to an emergency like that. The widespread fear is that as rescue teams penetrate deeper into the disaster area, they'll find more people trapped or buried in their homes, and the number of victims will increase likely dramatically. Chris Brown, CBC News, London. It was a scene of hugs and handshakes that might cause some concern for the U.S. President. China's leader hosting his Indian and Russian counterparts for a major summit of non-Western nations,

amid the cozy optics was a sign of deepening ties between the three powers that some experts suggest is meant to shake up the global order. Lisa Sching explains. Hand in hand, like old friends, Russian President Vladimir Putin and Indian Prime Minister Norentur Modi cemented a solidarity while sending a message. We have developed cooperation at various levels, said Putin, during a meeting with Modi on the sidelines of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization Summit.

A signal, India is moving toward Beijing and its allies over the West, a country wooed by the U.S., an alternative to Chinese manufacturing, upended as President Donald Trump on Truth Social defends his 50% tariffs on India, punishment for buying Russian oil during its war in Ukraine. Our close cooperation with Russia matters not only for the peoples of our two nations, said Modi, but also for ensuring global peace, stability and prosperity. The alliance, the turn toward these leaders, a boon to China's aspirations to rebalance global power to lead these efforts. We uphold fairness and justice, promote a correct understanding of World War II history,

and oppose Cold War thinking, block confrontation and acts of bullying, said Chinese President Xi Jinping, seemingly taking aim at the U.S. This year, Xi hosting more than 20 world leaders from non-Western nations at the summit, announced plans for a development bank, pledged almost $2 billion in loans over the next three years to organization members, a flex of its economic power. At a time, the U.S. has antagonized the world with its tariff policy. Colonel Cedric Layton is the former deputy director at the U.S. National Security Agency. It will potentially result in trade imbalances that are even greater than the ones we have

now. And it could also really make it difficult for us to exert influence over areas of the world. We've traditionally had some swaying. But other analysts say the alliance is one of convenience, not substance, according to Maria Popova, Associate Professor of Political Science at McGill University. relationship between the three of them is not based on trust and cooperation. It is really just a temporary opportunistic connection. But connection at a time the international order is an upheaval. As Modi leaves the summit, Xi and Putin will be joined by North Korean leader Kim Jong-un at a military parade in Beijing later this week. Lisa Xing, CBC News, Washington. The European Union says it's strengthening its defenses against

GPS interference. This comes after a plane carrying the commission's president had its signal jammed. Ursula von der Leyen was en route to Bulgaria when the incident happened. Air traffic controllers were able to switch to ground-based navigation and the plane landed safely. Bulgarian officials say they suspect Russia was behind the interference. The EU will deploy extra satellites to help detect and resist future attempts to jam GPS signals. Venezuela's president held a press conference accusing the U.S. of trying to provoke a war. And Nicolas Maduro had a warning for U.S. President Donald Trump. Mr. President, Donald Trump, you have to be

to care of because Marco Rubio wants to manch... Maduro says Trump's Secretary of State Marco Rubio could stain his hands with blood in an all-out war. The U.S. has built up its naval presence in the Southern Caribbean. Washington says it's to address threats from Latin American drug cartels, which it accuses Maduro of helping. Last month, the U.S. doubled its reward for information leading to Maduro's arrest to $50 million.

This is Your World Tonight from CBC News. If you want to make sure you stay up to date and never miss one of our episodes, follow us on Spotify, Apple, wherever you get your podcasts. Just find the follow button and lock us in. Today is an important day for unions across Canada. Labor Day isn't just the unofficial end of summer holiday. It's a day to recognize workers and has been since the 1800s. But there are numerous threats to job security that are casting a shadow over festivities.

Some from south of the border. Others, according to unions, from Parliament Hill. David Thurton reports. On this Labor Day on the minds of Canadian workers, U.S. President Donald Trump, and his trade war. The tariffs have really hit us hard. I am very worried because at the end of the day, we might lose our jobs. Trump's tariffs on steel, aluminum, cars, and softwood lumber

threatened those businesses and the thousands of workers they employ. Hassan Yusuf is a former union boss with the Canadian Labor Congress, now as a senator. He sees Trump and his trade policy as the biggest threat the movement faces. Well, I think that my biggest worry right now, of course, is the thousands of members who already been laid off as a result of Trump an unjustified tariff on the nation. And they're very struggling them and their family are struggling as to whether or not

this is going to be resolved very soon so they can go back to work. While many are concerned with the follow-up from Trump, others worry whether Canada's new prime minister is doing enough to help them. In a statement today, Mark Carney says, we are building Canada strong and workers are at the heart of this mission. So do you see this Prime Minister as a friend of labor? I would absolutely say he is not our friend. He does not look after the workers.

Alicia Kong is the head of the Union of National Employees. It's bracing for the Mark Carney Government's spending review. By the end of this decade, the Carney Liberals hope to cut federal operational spending by as much as 15%. Officials have said most positions will be eliminated through attrition and retirements. But public sector unions don't buy that. They say they're already seeing job cuts. Well, we had high hopes, given the things he said, a pre-election, but obviously we've been very disappointed with the outcome.

He said caps and not cuts, and what we're seeing is cuts and not caps. Barry Eidelin, a McGill University professor who focuses on labor issues, says Carney would not be the first liberal prime minister to drastically cut the federal workforce. This has been a hallmark of previous liberal governments, or going back to the 90s you can think of, the Kachan and Martin governments as well. while really sort of adopting this idea of streamlining, of downsizing, really borrowed from the corporate world. On top of this, Labor's traditional voice on Parliament Hill is weaker than it has ever been before.

The NDP has been significantly diminished in the House of Commons. New Democrats lost all but seven of their seats in the last election. The race to find a new leader begins this week. David Thornton, CBC News, Ottawa. When Air Canada flight attendants walked off the job, passengers were left in the lurch all over the country and the world. 130,000 passengers were affected every single day, as an estimated 3,000 flights were cancelled. That situation has led to calls for more competition in the Canadian airline industry. Karen Pauls has that story.

In the midst of the recent Air Canada flight attendant strike and the resulting, in chaos at airports. Regions. Where's my flight? Travelers expressed their frustration. Air travel within Canada to me is far too expensive, and I think it has everything to do with the fact that we don't have a variety of airlines. We need more options. We really only have two. Any company from the U.S. or from Europe that can come in and offer a budget-friendly option,

they would find a market. Anthony DeRoshe agrees he's with the Competition Bureau of Canada. The agency put out a report in June saying there is a... a need for more competition. The recent strike didn't, you know, was not a competition event necessarily, but it drew a lot of attention to the important role that competition plays in the economy. Air Canada and WestJet account for up to three quarters of all domestic passenger traffic. Other smaller airlines like Porter and Flair have muscled in, but many others have not survived.

Among the Competition Bureau's recommendations to Ottawa, reduce foreign ownership requirements, and allow U.S. airlines to pick up and drop off passengers on Canadian domestic flights. The impact of just having one new carrier on a given route between two cities. On average, it leads to a 9% reduction in price. Gabor Lukash heads air passenger rights, an advocacy group. I recommend granting to selected trustworthy foreign airlines, the right to operate flights within Canada. But Keldin Bester, head of the Canadian. an anti-monopoly project says more foreign competition isn't the answer.

We can and we need to solve our own problems. So setting up the way we fund our airline system and how we provide service to communities in such a way that it favors the emergence of smaller players, regional players, we can't just wait for foreign players to rush it and save us. Garaint Harvey, the DanCAP private equity chair in human organisation at the University of Western Ontario, agrees. This isn't going to resolve all problems and it will come with a host of other issues. Like salaries for staff, service and critical connections between smaller Canadian communities. Certainly things may become cheaper, but that is only for those high-density routes. Canada could use more open skies as a carrot in broader trade talks with the US.

But one U.S. airline advocacy group told us high taxes and fees and regulatory requirements mean it's not politically or commercially viable for foreign airlines to enter the Canadian market. The Competition Bureau has made recommendations to make that easier and it hopes Ottawa will follow through. Karen Paul's CBC News, Winnipeg. Most of the country has been in a drought all summer.

We know it's a serious. factor in the wildfires, and of course, it can ruin crops. Now researchers say the hot, dry weather could also be threatening the food supply of one of the tiniest, prettiest, and most important pollinators on the planet. Jaden Dill explains. We're doing a field warming experiment here in this old agricultural field, and we're looking to see how warming affects a few different plant species and how they will then affect the monarch butterfly.

A professor at the University of Ottawa walks through her lab at a farm in Ottawa's rural West End. The heat warnings, we're really challenging. Jenna Boomhauer is the master's student leading the experiment under Karuba's supervision. She's become acquainted with the project, spending hours out in the field. Tell me what's happening to these golden rod flowers right now. So they're sitting in our warming chamber, open-top chamber, and what's happening is, we hope, they're experiencing, a slight degree of warming that replicates local climate change.

The researchers have placed a pair of netted cages around plants. One of the cages encloses a plant in a mini greenhouse to mimic the effect of climate change on flowers. Over the course of the weeks, the monarchs are placed in cages to feed on the nectar, and the researchers use tools to determine its quality and the impact on the butterflies. We weigh them, the ones we have here on the first, third, and fifth day

of their stay in our little monarch hotel that we sometimes like to call it. So we'll be able to see their, like, weight change over the course of those five days. And if the quality is really good, then they'll tend to gain weight and fat reserves. If it's not very good, then they won't have the same amount of fat. But Karuba says the drought has altered their experiment. What was once a colorful field full of flowers now mimics a graveyard of dying plants. It's entirely killed off some of the plants that we've been considering.

So in that sense, there is no food from those plants available, there are no flowers. Boomhauer says the plants that are surviving struggle to produce the kind of nectar the butterflies need. The drought has caused the nectar to be thicker and that can create problems for monarchs as they try to get the nectar out with their proboscis. If it's too thick, it's sort of like, you know, if you ever tried to eat them, drink a milkshake with a small straw. It's really difficult to get out. The experiment ends September 15th when some of the butterflies undergo analysis

while the others are released ahead of their migration to Mexico. Jaden Dill, CBC News, Ottawa. Finally. That is the sound of a Sasquatch. Okay, not a real one. But it is one of the contestants at this week's Sasquatch calling contest in Bangor, Maine?

Also a contestant. The cheering might have given that away. Kevin Warner is with the Maine Bigfoot Foundation and judge of the contest. He even had photos and plaster casts of footprints on display as contestants. Some in hairy costumes made their way to the microphone. Warner says everyone thinks about the Pacific Northwest when they hear the name Sasquatch, but he says there are hundreds of the creatures roaming the woods of his state. People have had encounters or they've seen footprints, and a lot of people don't talk about it

because they just think, you know, they're going to think I'm crazy. I think what it is is bringing more awareness that, you know, you hear out in Washington State all the time, you know, big foot, big, big foot. But the terrain out in Washington is a lot like Maine. So who was judged the closest to the real thing? Here's Gannon, seven years old, and the winner of a hundred bucks for this. Gannon? Or was that a real Sasquatch? Thank you for joining us.

This has been your world tonight for Labor Day, Monday, September 1st. I'm Susan Bonner. Talk to you again. For more CBC podcasts, go to CBC.ca slash podcasts.