CBC SK News: Some good news and some bad news for northern Saskatchewan wildfire situation

[Music] tonight fires continue to threaten Saskatchewan's North and more residents are forced from their homes there's a new program to train medical ultrasound technicians and boost patient services in sasan and a fencer from our province is going for gold in Paris this is CBC Saskatchewan news it is Thursday August 29th and the CBC Saskatchewan News starts right now I'm Ethan Williams thanks for joining us tonight a trio of fires sparked by lightning in Northern saskin has forced people from their homes hundreds of residents have had to go south as firefighters work to stop the Flames but as Dane Patterson reports other residents are going home fires continue to burn and smoke out Northern Saskatchewan we just H happen to be uh in an area where we have not seen that uh weather relief uh we probably have the most hazard in Canada right now as far as fire load and fire weather yesterday Peter Balentine cre Nation issued an evacuation order for South End nine communities make up the nation this is the third one this month to be issued an evacuation order by this morning more than 400 of them had stopped in L at a community center for food many more were expected to show up throughout the day South End is about 515 km Northeast of Saskatoon it creates a triangle along the Manitoba border with Sandy Bay the Shambo Lake both of which have had their own evacuation orders this month the Shambo Lake evacuees have been able to go home the fire at Shin Bay has progressed I believe South um it may threaten Road access now in the Eastern parts of the province Birch Narrows the N Nation return turned home a little more than a week ago after its members are ordered to leave but now its neighbor English River First Nation located at panac is within range of another fire the closest Community is patac we're aware of that but again the proximity of the fires directly to patac is not the concern but there are cabins and other structures in the area that uh we're working on Robert says at this time of year Wildfire Fighters are typically wrapping up but because the fire is continuing to burn in the north fire Fighters have been kept on longer Dane Patterson CBC News Saskatoon and in Alberta Wildfire danger Still Remains high in many parts of that Province for the first time in weeks officials say there are no wildfires of note uh right now we only have one fire that's considered out of control right now in in the province which is a you know pretty good situation to be in but we still have about 75 fires on a landscape which uh which there you know there's a lot of work to do there to to get them either uh well to get them extinguished right now so they're either considered being held or under control widespread rain over the past few days has helped the fire situation but not enough to extinguish dozens of fires last year 2.2 million hectares burned across the province this year Alberta allowed Contracting night vision helicopters and aircraft bombers to fight fire so far this season 1850 people have worked to fight fires across the province Saskatchewan's conflict of interest commissioner has moved ahead with pursuing a case against two Saskatchewan party mlas Jeremy cochrell and Gary greywall documents show cochrell had held a position at a construction firm in 2022 and during that time the company got a $170,000 payout from the Battleford Housing Authority this is scatch when NDP says the company was also involved in contracts with sasel the opposition says the province will have to to take steps to restore trust and accountability if they're found guilty of using their position their public position for personal gain I would expect that any leader would would take that seriously and and ensure that they no longer are in those positions of uh where they enjoy the public trust I think that's that's leadership 101 it's not what we've seen from this premere on on a number of occasions but that's what I would expect the opposition has also accused greywall of inflating prices while serving Social Services clients at hotels he has ownership stakes in Premier Scott Mo says the mlaas are cooperating in the commissioner's inquiry and if the Commissioner's Office makes recommendations the party will adhere to them a provincial NDP government will freeze all taxes during its first term opposition leader Carla Beck made that pledge to kick off the party's election campaign today Beck says the NDP will not raise taxes if it forms the next provincial government that includes a freeze on income small business and corporate taxes as well as a promise to suspend the province's 15 cent per liter gas tax for six month Beck says the party has a plan to pay for the tax free we'll pay for this spending by all of these commitments by growing the Saskatchewan economy leaning into that opportunity that we see right across this province by finding efficiencies and cutting the long list of Scott Mo's waste and mismanagement the RIT has yet to officially drop in Saskatchewan but voters will head to the polls in October a new program to train sonogram technicians has been announced it's called the diagnostic sonography program and it will help keep newly trained medical ultrasound technicians in Saskatchewan ultrasound sonography is used to monitor diagnose and treat many different conditions including a baby's development during pregnancy as well as to detect tumors thyroid issues and address joint and bone health the program is a partnership between six Hospital foundations which will jointly fund the equipment needed for the program this will allow students to learn in Saskatchewan rather than Alberta we're grateful for those Partnerships and being able to purchase seats in other provinces but I have you know I'll be honest in the back of my mind I've often thought what if they say no what if they have their own challenges for example in Alberta they have their own shortages and they say you know what we actually can't we can't sell you X number of seats this year because we kind of need them for our own students so I think for you know our own purposes here in saskat um K being able to to chart our own destiny I think it's important that we are investing in our own training programs here at home students will train to become sonographers at the Suncrest Regional College in Yorkton once they graduate it's hoped patients can access Diagnostic in the Diagnostics in the province much quicker especially in the north where there's a serious shortage of ographers in a rare move a federal agency has ruled the RCMP failed to properly investigate allegations of wrongdoing by a Saskatchewan municipality it comes after a dispute between two RMS over water and sewer Services Alexander Quan has more we don't know the details because RCMP are still investigating but documents point to possible criminal code violations related to Municipal corruption and violating statutes Terry kashuba is the man who brought the complaint forward he says the review validates his concerns that kind of just levels your entire Trust of the system that you know they're there to protect you but they're only there to protect you at the risk of their image this all started during a dispute between the Hamlet of Lone Rock and the rural Municipality of Wilton both communities are located just east of Lloydminster along the Alberta border Wilton began withdrawing water and Sewer services to the hamlet in 2018 and while a judge decided they had no power to review the rm's decisions that didn't stop members of Lone Rock from filing complaints with the RCMP but kashuba says that investigation went nowhere if you guys get the same information that I'm getting from the crown and this one says we just need these other elements these other specific sections which you have how are you saying that this is close the civilian review and complaints commission for the RCMP published their analysis and it validates his concerns it found the police investigation was unreasonable it's not clear whether this means charges could be laid still kashuba says he's pleased with the reviews findings when I looked at the report and I found the information that they had especially the corresp the correspondence between officers I thought well there was no other way they could found anything else the review also highlighted a conversation between two RC CMP members concerned the story could make the news we don't want this investigation being picked up by CBC citing that we don't care about the community and did not properly look into the charges the RM of Wilton did not respond to a request for comment while the RCMP have been directed to continue investigating some RCMP officers have been directed to undergo more training both decisions have been signed off on by Mike Duan the commissioner of the RCMP Alexander Quan CBC News Regina while the day started cloudy in Saskatoon the sun did eventually poke out of the clouds the dreary weather though continuing in other parts of the province but that is all about to change pretty fast I'll tell you about the sunny and hot weather that's on the way when we come [Music] back welcome back back the best water skiers in the world are making a splash in Saskatoon the local water ski club is hosting its first ever professional water skiing competition this week Elite athletes are competing in slalom trick and jump events for cash and the Canada Cup I've been doing this since I was well 3 years old but I didn't really start training and competing until I was uh probably about 9 or 10 my parents were both uh some of the best water or the best water skiers in the world um so it was always expected that I would follow in their footsteps and become a water skier um but yeah with my dad's Canadian background and I think as most kids do you know I kind of wanted to do my own thing and I ended up playing hockey for a while and fell in love with that and ended up going to prep school in Boston for for four years and um when it came time to choose college that was kind of when it was okay do you want to come back and to Florida and be a water skier or do you want to stay up north and play some hockey and and it was a hard decision but in the end I I chose to come back and and to ski in in the warmth in Florida and you know I I can't really I miss hockey a lot but I can't complain cuz you know it's been been an awesome ride so far we've got uh nine Nations here so the the elite of the world in slalom trick and jump and uh and some of the men's jumpers women's jumpers of course really easy to watch and enjoy it's as simple as one person goes further than the other but the uh there's nothing like it the the acceleration the visuals of the water the athletes doing some of the Aerials and the trick event is it's really impressive we're super excited I mean words don't allow you to describe it accurately it's it's the first time ever we've done a lot of amateure competitions in Saskatchewan and in Saskatoon but but this is a notch up for sure every time I'm here you know it's it's upgraded and you know it's it's always been a good place to ski and now every time we come back it's just getting better better and better so I think we're all really excited to see what happens I had a big injury last year I had an ankle injury that took me out for pretty much the whole season um so for me this year has been kind of a slow build back up and um you know I had a good start on our tour our overall tour and finished second at the first event you know I I'd like to win and that's always the goal um and then in Jump as well you know I've I've been you know my dad was one of the best jumpers or you know I think he was a four or five time world jump Champion so that's that's in my blood as well my mom was you know the best jumper of her time and um that I'm always trying to go out there to push myself and jump and try to be among the top in the world and I was there the last couple years and you know with the injury last year I'm coming back slowly but you know each tournament I just want to build and keep keep improving the weather update is brought to you by Capital GMC Buick Cadillac employee pricing is on now [Music] well the sun has come out in Regina 24 hours ago was pretty uh rainy and dreary in the city and it turns out uh that system that brought that rain uh brought a quite quite a bit of rain in some spots as we take a look now at our rainfall totals across the province uh it was in the battlefords area where we saw the most Cut Knife around 40 millim there battlefords yourselves picking up about 25 or so Saskatoon you got about 7 mm there Regina we had a brief shower that brought about 3 or 4 millimeters that system now moving into Manitoba but the remnants from it still spinning around there as you can see along Southeastern Saskatchewan and parts of East Central Saskatchewan as well few thunderstorms popping up there too but it's in Northern Saskatchewan where we've been keeping our eye on Storms because we still have a severe thunderstorm watch out for places like lash and buffalo Naros and is lacrosse not good news for the forest fire situation as we know a lot of the fires in that part of The Province have been sparked by lightning and that is very possible with those storms there in terms of temperatures you can see where that rain is falling right around places like Hudson Bay and Yorkton and into Melville there temperatures only in the teens but where the sun is out especially near the Alberta border we are well into the 20s uh right now that system also picking up the winds it has been a breezy one especially across the South gusts from the north uh for the most part at times and even still between 50 and 60 km an hour that could push a little bit more forest fire smoke into South and Central tonight but then the winds start to kind of shifting from the west and that'll push the smoke largely into Manitoba but around where those fires are especially in the South End area uh we could still see quite a bit of some smoke and that is where the air quality advisories are in place they have come to an end though in other areas of the north as the wind has started shifted shifting rather coming from the north that low pressure system going to continue to move out a few more showers and thunderstorms possible in the north overnight but South and Central will clear out nicely don't think we're looking for fog to develop again like we saw last night tomorrow a little bit of some increasing cloudiness in central areas and popup showers and storms again in the north but then high pressure Moves In for Saturday and Sunday that gives us some nice sunny conditions in terms of the Winds though still going to be contending with those a bit overnight and even into tomorrow especially in the north those will be a bit Breezy at times even as that high pressure Moves In for Saturday Southeastern Saskatchewan will still be a little bit Gusty here and there but temperatures are improving nice day tomorrow in Regina bit of a blip there on Saturday game day Sunday for the Labor Day classic looking beautiful and then it is hot as we start September and as we head back to school for Saskatoon about seasonal for the next couple of days before those temperatures start picking up even a bit of a humid X Factor for the holiday Monday and heading into Tuesday there before we see a couple of nice days as we head into Wednesday Thursday and looks like things will be fairly dry in those overnight lows will be nice and pleasant as well well Canadian gymnast Ellie black is adding another award to her trophy case winning the fair play award at the Paris par Olympics a jury of her peers and fans nominated black after she and a teammate comforted a competitor from France who fell three times during her routine they offered hugs and words of encouragement the fair play award recognizes athletes who exemplify the spirit of fair play sportsmanship and respect for others we'll have more about the par Olympics after the break stay with [Applause] [Music] us welcome back all this week we are featuring Saskatchewan athletes taking part in the Paris par Olympics one of them is Ryan rousell who's a par fencer he trains at Canada's largest per capita par fencing facility which just happens to be in Asquith where we caught up with him before the games I want to compete with these people that are I would also call friends on a very competitive open world stage and hopefully beat them on the open world stage so I can have breaking rights for the rest of my life when I first tried it I was really really excited by it and I said Mom I got to try this right like this is something I got to do so I was like the first kid I think of like my generation per se cuz when I first got there I was the only kid there everybody else was like older and doing their own thing already and So eventually more kids started showing up we had like a nice small group of uh kids that were there as well along with me and then from there on it just became a passion for me what really convinced him that parap fencing was not a secondary sport when his opponent finished undid the seat belt on his chair did a handstand and walked across the gym on his hands Ryan says these guys are hardcore honey tackle fair from the left kind of like playing like chess in real life if it makes any sense like you have like a set strategy you know what you like doing and then you kind of like analyze your opponent as you're fencing them the analogy I use it's like having a knife fight in a phone booth okay you can't get away you may not want to attack your opponent but they're going to attack you so you have to be ready we joke that we're basically the L per capita we are the largest Fencing Club in Canada I say the world my spouse says Canada and he's basically putting the name of asth out around the world a town of only 600 people in the middle of nowhere it's great it means I don't have to go to a training facility with a thousand or so athletes and possibly not get the attention I need to get to that level right here it's very small very focused which means I have all the attention I need for any problems I need or any support I might need it's going to feel a little different this time around I think just because uh the last par Olympics was all covid related right so in Tokyo there was nobody else really there it was very uh empty quiet not so much the upper I was expecting um I have no idea what to expect this terms of like crowd or atmosphere anymore don't be so Harding yourself don't get in your own head listen to your coach cuz they probably know what they're talking about and do the best that you can do and be content with that well the Labor Day classic means many things for the Rough Riders and their fans but as summer comes to a close this means playoffs are just around the corner with just seven games left in the season and a tight West Division every game is going to be a must-win for the Riders they are currently riding a six-game winless streak but a win Sunday over the Winnipeg Blue Bombers can start a hot streak at the most crucial Time of the Season usually you know teams get into their they understand their identities a little bit and what they feel that they are and um and you can see that uh you know teams you know starting at Labor Day if they get into a it's usually a good time to start you know getting hot as opposed to early year but there's I mean if you can sustain it the whole year it's awesome the biggest game of the season is a bit of a later kickoff this time around it's a 5:00 pm. kickoff at mosaic [Music] Stadium well in Regina tonight we'll continue seeing those clouds clear away it is uh going to be a nice evening a little bit Breezy those Westerly winds up to 30 kilometers an hour should push the smoke to our East though tomorrow morning we're waking up to pretty similar conditions a sunny start to the day and then the winds picking up a little bit probably gusting upwards of 40 as we head later into the afternoon but that's a nice noon time temperature of 23 degrees if you want to grab a bite to eat outside and uh pretty similar here in Saskatoon as we uh see temperatures around 13 degrees at midnight a little bit more cloud cover though I think for Saskatoon a mix of sun and Cloud as we get into the morning hours may be clouding over a little bit more into the afternoon but I've called it a suncloud mix here for the noon hour with a temperature of around 21 I'm not expecting winds to pick up quite as much in Saskatoon as we're seeing in Regina so should still be a pretty nice afternoon well hard to believe school is just around the corner and some Regina kids were treated to free backpacks and school supplies last night hundreds of kids picked them up outside the Avon shopping center the backpacks are full of the usual supplies for elementary school students including binders paper dividers and erasers it's all thanks to a Anda Mcall she's been collecting and giving out free backpacks for more than a decade the first year she collected 75 of them this year there's more than a thousand McCall says she was inspired when her daughter started school and she noticed some kids didn't have backpacks I started this to teach my children that not everyone is as lucky as we are and they're grown now and it just I want to show people that in a world that isn't the best there is a little bit of hope there's a little bit of people who want to make the world a better place so the smile on the kids' faces and having them back to school at the very best that they can be makes this all worthwhile all the hours spent filling bags organizing supplies just tonight seeing all the children and the parents it's a happy feeling and it's amazing to see mcll says she loves seeing all the happy kids and parents and she says they're especially grateful given the rising costs of everything for families donations came from numerous companies as well and many private community members also donated cash and items great initiative that is it for us tonight for news anytime you can always head to our website cbc.ca Sask you can subscribe to the CBC Saskatchewan YouTube channel or download the CBC News app we're back tomorrow at 600 in the meantime thanks so much for watching have a great night [Music]