Latest news with #FraserValley
CTV News
13 hours ago
- Health
- CTV News
Control zones set up in Fraser Valley, B.C., after Newcastle disease detected
The Canadian Food Inspection Agency is seen in Ottawa on Wednesday, June 26, 2019. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Sean Kilpatrick CHILLIWACK — The Canadian Food Inspection Agency has put up controls on the movements of birds around two commercial poultry farms experiencing the first outbreaks of virulent Newcastle disease in Canada in more than 50 years. The establishment of the primary control zones in the Fraser Valley means that birds, byproducts and items that have contacted the birds cannot be moved within or through the areas without permission. The agency says the virus affects both wild and domestic birds and can cause pink eye in humans, and birds at the infected farms must be culled. The agency says that before the disease was detected in B.C. this month, including at a commercial pigeon operation, the last infections in Canada were reported in 1973. The CFIA says the ailment is of great concern to the world's agricultural community since it's highly contagious and threatens poultry. It says Newcastle disease can decrease egg production in domestic birds and cause high numbers of sudden deaths in a flock, while wild birds can develop wing paralysis and be left unable to fly. It says the risk to humans is low if gloves are worn while handling infected birds, and that the disease was rarely found to kill wild birds before 1990. This report by The Canadian Press was first published June 20, 2025.
New York Times
13-06-2025
- Sport
- New York Times
Canucks notebook: Abbotsford coach Manny Malhotra's success, winger Jonathan Lekkerimäki's playoff struggles
It's a notable silver lining in what's been a trying, difficult year for the Vancouver Canucks franchise. On Friday night, the Abbotsford Canucks, Vancouver's American League affiliate and top minor league club, will face a buzzsaw Charlotte Checkers in the franchise's first-ever appearance in the Calder Cup Finals. Advertisement The Checkers, who advanced to the finals in just 10 total games, have home ice advantage in the series and are narrowly favoured to win in the outright markets. To do it, though, they'll have to defeat an overachieving, hard-working, deep and well-coached Abbotsford that's been building toward this moment patiently and with discipline since relocating from Utica, N.Y., to the Fraser Valley in the spring of 2021. How did Abbotsford get here? How did Manny Malhotra pull this off in his first season as a professional head coach? And what comes next for some of the best young players on this team? Let's open the notebook and set up the Calder Cup Finals. Given the Vancouver market's obsession with NHL-level hockey, the on-ice success the club has manufactured, and a significant change in the organization's approach to its top farm team, Abbotsford, has largely flown under the radar. In truth, it's been somewhat fascinating to watch. When the club operated in Utica, in partnership with president Robert Esche, the Utica Comets developed a reputation for being a scrappy but underfunded outfit with diehard fan support in the Mohawk Valley. Utica enjoyed some intermittent on-ice success, like when Travis Green and Jacob Markstrom led the club to the Calder Cup Finals in 2015, but the roster was often pieced together with tryout players and the like. The American League, in contrast with the NHL, isn't capped. Come playoff time, Utica could bump into a Toronto Marlies squad, where the Comets' combined roster salaries totalled a sum less than what the Marlies were icing on their first power-play unit. When Utica first relocated to the Fraser Valley at the tail end of the COVID-19 pandemic-shortened 2021 season, things suddenly changed. Challenged with effectively building an American League team from scratch, with little in the way of in-house prospect depth to speak of, general manager Ryan Johnson and the organization signed nearly a dozen American League veterans. Advertisement The goal was to make a splash in a new marketplace, one that had a difficult history with American League hockey. The approach of building an expensive, veteran-laden roster, however, was also driven by necessity. The club didn't have enough developmental prospects to properly staff a competitive roster. Over the past few years, as Abbotsford has churned through coaches and knocked on the door as a consistent American League playoff team, that's begun to change. And it's in part because of the team's deliberate approach to sign high-scoring, undrafted Western Hockey League players, including Abbotsford captain Chase Wouters, and pest forward Tristen Nielsen (who has since signed an NHL-level standard player contract). With a push to acquire free agents out of Europe, the collegiate ranks and the CHL, Abbotsford has slowly but surely developed a nucleus of younger, cost-controlled players who have formed this team and pushed its way to the finals. More than any other factor driving this run, a group of mid-20s NHL prospects highlighted by Arshdeep Bains, Linus Karlsson, Max Sasson and Artūrs Šilovs, all of whom have played more than 100 games with Abbotsford over the past few years, have bound together and, in the organization's view, decided to pursue this long run in business-like fashion. Culturally, there's a real sense of honesty and self-awareness at the core of how this team has forged its identity. An understanding that everyone in the American League's goal is to work their way to the bigger stage. To get out. Explicitly, that's the big-picture goal. The point of all this is to learn and improve. To get better, to graduate and ultimately to leave. There's a notion that if you're still here in four or five years, and this standard applies to everybody in the organization, from coaches to equipment staff to the players themselves, then the organization hasn't succeeded. Advertisement Somewhere throughout this season, the honest, business-like mentality has congealed into something resilient. A deep team focused on the day-to-day routine and the workmanlike rhythms of trying to graduate from the American Hockey League, the pressure of playing an elimination game or facing a third-period deficit has appeared to melt away. 'Forget the result (of this finals),' Johnson told The Athletic this week, when asked if he has any expectations for his group as they prepare to play the biggest games in Abbotsford's history. 'I expect this team to leave it all out there. And they have throughout this entire run. … 'Honestly, I wouldn't say I have a ton of expectations, though. It's just about staying the course and doing what we've talked about from day one of the regular season. … If it's not enough, it's not enough, but at the end of the day, what this group has decided to do is to go for it. And I know they will.' Playoff Diaries: Western Conference Finals Game 6 🎥 Abbotsford advances to the Calder Cup Finals for the first time in franchise history! — X – Abbotsford Canucks (@abbycanucks) June 10, 2025 When an American League team succeeds at this level, it tends to garner some attention from the industry at large. Calder Cup playoff success results in players being more marketable as free agents and in the departure of coaches. That's especially true when the coaches in question are highly regarded, thoughtful and charismatic, the way first-year bench boss Malhotra has proven to be during stints as an assistant coach in Vancouver and Toronto, and over his first full year as a head coach in the Fraser Valley. It hasn't always been a smooth process. A coach serves as something of a metronome for a hockey team, setting schedules, dealing with travel planning and doing an awful lot of work beyond the day-to-day grind of preparing a team. Until you've been through a full cycle, there are a million little things that you can't possibly know until you've experienced them. It's little details like not scheduling special teams meetings and practices for early in the week, because in the American League, an injury at the NHL level in a Thursday night game might, and probably will, alter your gameplan that weekend when your best player is called up to dress for the big club as an injury replacement. Advertisement Even beyond finding his voice and vision as a head coach, Malhotra had to undergo a crash course in all of that this season. And the results have been tremendous. In addition to the success of his approach on the ice, Malhotra's first season in Abbotsford has been accompanied by a significant appreciation for the flow and energy level of his practices. It's a factor that the club has come to prize internally, but has also been noted by various agents representing players at the AHL level. 'Manny's commitment to the process and consistency, his practice delivery and attention to detail day to day, it isn't just about winning hockey games,' said Johnson. 'It's about getting down to our process. It's about professionalism and the quality of our players as teammates. 'Manny felt if he got that down, then the rest would follow. And this run is a result of those things.' In the process, Malhotra, who was a finalist to succeed Rick Tocchet before the Canucks opted to hire Adam Foote, has put himself squarely on the map as a top candidate in the next NHL head-coaching hiring cycle. And maybe even sooner. There are only nine left-handed defenseman under six feet who appeared in over 50 NHL games this past season. And many of the shorter, left-handed defenders in the NHL, like Quinn Hughes, Lane Hutson and Shayne Gostisbehere, are high-scoring offensive defenders. Mainstays on the power play. They're one-man breakout machines and attacking engines from the back end, generally speaking. There are a few exceptions; players like Dmitry Orlov, Matt Grzelcyk and Samuel Girard are the rare breed of defensive-minded, shorter left-handed defenders. They're the exceptions that prove the rule, however. A 2022 seventh-round draft pick, first-year professional defender Kirill Kudryavtsev has already overcome long odds to make it this far. He's enjoyed a strong first professional season, even earning a call-up to the NHL down the stretch. Advertisement What Kudryavtsev has done for Abbotsford in the playoffs, however, is altogether different. He's been Abbotsford's best two-way defender, helping the Canucks outscore their opponents by a lopsided margin in his five-on-five minutes on their run through the Western Conference. It's the sort of breakout performance that can change how a player is perceived by their organization and by the wider industry. Rare profile or not, there's something real there in Kudryavtsev. Throughout the playoffs, Abbotsford's best players have been fringe NHL-level players in their mid-20s, like Sasson, Bains and Victor Mancini. Vancouver's younger, higher pedigree prospects, aside from Kudryavtsev, have mostly been peripheral to Abbotsford's playoff success. In the case of top blue-line prospect Tom Willander, his absence has been business-related. He's missed out on this playoff run due to a protracted contractual standoff following his graduation from Boston University. Aatu Räty has been limited by injury, appearing in just six of Abbotsford's 18 playoff games. Meanwhile, promising young forward Jonathan Lekkerimäki, who captured the imagination of Canucks fans with his 24-game run at the NHL-level this season, has been a regular healthy scratch as the club approaches the finals. He's struggled to manufacture offence or shots at the same auspicious rate he managed during the regular season. A rocket from Lekker! 🚀 Jonathan Lekkerimäki's first NHL goal is the first RE/MAX Canada Move of the Week! — Vancouver Canucks (@Canucks) November 18, 2024 Despite Lekkerimäki's playoff struggles, his first professional season in North America should be regarded as a mostly unqualified success. As a 20-year-old player, he scored at the rate you'd hope to see from a future top-six forward at the NHL level and didn't look out of place in the NHL when he got a look there. Advertisement That he hasn't been at his best in the Calder Cup playoffs, truthfully, hints at the ground that Lekkerimäki still has to develop physically enough to be an impactful NHL-level goal scorer. While he is a strong skater, he's not NHL-level fast at this stage of his career. There's no technical reason that he can't be, in time, but he'll need to build considerable, functional core strength to improve his power and top speed as a skater. Lekkerimäki is an undersized player and doesn't yet have the strength to cut back or protect the puck along the wall the way most undersized forwards — the Canucks' Conor Garland and Nils Höglander are potent examples of this — need to to succeed in the NHL. For whatever reason, Lekkerimäki has hit a wall in the Calder Cup playoffs. There are lessons for him and the Canucks in that, but it shouldn't be viewed as a concern that would adjust how we rate Lekkerimäki and his progress. This is a gifted player with a couple of NHL-ready traits, including his perimeter shooting skill, and his nuance and skill on the flank with the man advantage, and a lot of work is needed to enhance his physical development if he hopes to succeed during the toughest time of year in the American League. And eventually as a full-time top-six contributor at the NHL level.
New York Times
09-06-2025
- Sport
- New York Times
Canucks notebook: Manny Malhotra and Abbotsford's run to the Calder Cup Final
The Abbotsford Canucks came back in front of a raucous crowd in the Fraser Valley on Sunday night, and will compete for the Calder Cup over the next two weeks. It wasn't an easy win. It took another massive game from Artūrs Šilovs, an incredible third period comeback and some heads up plays from prospects like Max Sasson and Kirill Kudrayvtsev and Arshdeep Bains. In the end Abbotsford found a way to defeat the Texas Stars 4-2 on Sunday night. Advertisement It was a win that closed out a tightly contested series, which absolutely could've gone either way given how close all of these games were, in six. It was a win that secured the American League's Western Conference for Abbotsford, and an opportunity to play the Charlotte Checkers for the Calder Cup in the Final. And it was a win that sent lower mainland hockey fans scrambling to secure tickets to see the Calder Cup Final. The Abbotsford Centre sold out in minutes once tickets became available on Sunday evening. Let's open the notebook and consider a couple of the most interesting storylines surrounding Abbotsford's run to the Final, in addition to why the Derek Forbort signing is such a good fit for Vancouver. For Abbotsford head coach Manny Malhotra, guiding the Canucks to the Calder Cup Final in his first season as a professional bench boss is remarkable. Obviously this playoff run has been a feather in Malhotra's cap, and, of course, it's an accomplishment that falls at an especially intriguing moment in time during Malhotra's coaching career. Truthfully, it's relatively rare for an American League coach to remain in place for long when they enjoy this level of team success. That should come as no surprise, of course, since the American League is a development league for coaches too. To illustrate this, perhaps it's instructive to consider the recent history of Calder Cup finalist teams, and the bench bosses that led them there. Of the eight head coaches that have qualified for the last five Calder Cup Final, a stretch that dates all the way back to the 2017 season due to the challenges that pandemic conditions posed for minor league hockey, four — or half — of those coaches ended up being hired as head coaches at the NHL level within a year or two. Advertisement Three of those coaches became NHL head coach as a result of internal promotions (Dan Bylsma in Seattle, Sheldon Keefe in Toronto and Drew Bannister in St. Louis), while a fourth, Ryan Warsofsky, was hired away to serve as an NHL assistant coach in San Jose the summer after winning the Calder Cup, and was later promoted to the top job. A fifth (Derek Laxdal) Calder Cup finalist head coach in our sample was promptly promoted to the NHL level by the same organization he led to the Calder Cup Final, albeit as an assistant coach. A sixth (Rocky Thompson) remained in place for one more season, but was poached by a rival club after one final American League season to serve as an associate coach at the NHL level. A seventh American League bench boss immediately changed organizations after winning the Calder Cup, but remained a head coach at the AHL level (Mike Velucci). And the eighth coach in our sample, and the only two-time Calder Cup trophy winner, is Todd Nelson, who is the most overqualified American League head coach of my lifetime and it's absurd that he hasn't been given a second shot at the NHL level. 4 WINS AWAY‼️ GRAB THAT PUCK, THE WESTERN CONFERENCE IS OURS! — X – Abbotsford Canucks (@abbycanucks) June 9, 2025 Let's frame this data set somewhat differently: of the eight American League bench bosses to qualify for the last five Calder Cup finals, four coaches promptly received internal promotions of some variety, and of the other four, three departed their current organization within a full cycle of the hockey calendar. The recent history of top American League coaches tells us that qualifying for the Calder Cup Final is something that increases the industry profile of a head coach massively. It enhances both their leverage internally, and their attractiveness to rival clubs. This level of team success is often a harbinger of bigger things to come for a coach, and the question, really, is usually whether or not those greater things occur with their current organization or elsewhere. That makes this especially interesting for a Canucks organization that has already sown up Rick Tocchet's successor, and finalized his staff. There's no promotion for the club to offer their ascending American League bench boss. Advertisement Malhotra was already going to be on everyone's short list of up-and-coming young NHL coaching prospects, but make no mistake, this run, and the team success that he's been able to engineer as a rookie bench boss in the Fraser Valley, further cements it. And increases the probability that another team is going to come knocking, and knocking aggressively, in the near future. Scoreless through the Calder Cup playoffs, Bains stepped up in a massive way in Game 6 and Game 7. Sasson brought the crowd at the Abbotsford Centre to it's feet with a deft deflection that punched the club's ticket to the Calder Cup Final. Victor Mancini's offensive tools and athletic traits have caught the attention of Canucks fans and Canucks brass alike. Linus Karlsson has paced Abbotsford throughout this playoff run, and has been their most valuable skater. The club's most valuable player, however, has been Šilovs who has put the memories of an inconsistent American League season and a tough go at the NHL level squarely in the rearview mirror with a Calder Cup playoff run that has been nothing short of dominant. Šilovs is at the very least an asset now for the Canucks to consider trading this summer, and perhaps a solid option that the club could turn to if the trade market for Thatcher Demko is too strong to ignore (or if the club can't find common ground with their star netminder in extension talks). And yet arguably this club's breakout star in this postseason has been unassuming blue liner Kudrayvtsev, who wasn't even an every game player for the club at the outset of the playoffs. Kudrayvtsev, however, has been a two-way force — the margin by which Abbotsford has outscored their opponents in Kudrayvtsev's minutes at five-on-five in this playoff is nothing short of astounding — and has found an entirely different level in the spring of his first full American League season at the age of 21. Advertisement On Sunday evening, for example, Kudrayvtsev picked up a secondary assist on Vancouver's key game-tying goal, scored early in the third period by Jujhar Khaira. It wasn't a classic, inconsequential secondary assist either. It was a play that captured everything you like to see from a clever, puck-moving defender. First off, Kudrayvtsev — aware that his club is trailing in the third period — seized fourth-man's ice and led the rush across centre ice as the puck carrier. With a quick pass, he gained the blue-line with control as Vancouver seized the initiative. Then, and this is key, Kudrayvtsev continues to skate up ice. Knowing that the club had numbers, especially if he were able to pull the defender, Kudrayvtsev drove hard down the centre lane and created confusion and space for Khaira to step into off of the rush. THE BEST IN THE WEST 🏆 Your Abbotsford Canucks are the 24.25 Western Conference Champions!!! — X – Abbotsford Canucks (@abbycanucks) June 9, 2025 For the most part, this run to the Calder Cup final for Abbotsford has been driven by older, lower ceiling players with less development runway. There's a variety of players that might battle for everyday bottom-six forward spots contributing for Abbotsford, and Mancini has been noticeable and is young enough that he could be something in the middle of an NHL lineup down the road, but it's difficult to find, like, Abbotsford's answer to what Roope Hintz was to the Texas Stars in 2018. Or what Aleksei Protas and Connor McMichael were for Hershey in 2023: the young player breaking out in the Calder Cup playoffs who has a chance to alter the NHL team's trajectory in future seasons. Kudrayvtsev has an odd profile to fit that mold, given that he's a puck-moving left-handed defender who doesn't project to ever really be a first power-play unit mainstay at the NHL level. Despite that, Kudrayvtsev's level of play (and age) stands out among Abbotsford's big-time contributors on this playoff run. When we look back at what Abbotsford's success this spring meant to the Canucks organization long term in a few years, perhaps we shouldn't be altogether surprised if it's a counter-intuitive player in Kudrayvtsev who is ultimately making the greatest NHL-level impact of the players on this Abbotsford team. Derek Forbort is a really good fit for Vancouver, especially on a deal with one-year of term and a $2 million cap hit like the one he signed last week. Advertisement Though Forbort isn't a staple, top-four calibre blue liner, he's a sneaky valuable piece and retaining him on a no-risk, one-year deal was a sensible move for a team that has a fair bit of blue-line talent coming, but still needed to add depth, experience, penalty killing ability and the sort of size and defensive acumen that Forbort can bring to the defense corps. In his first Canucks season, despite battling through family tragedy and a couple of injuries, Forbort showed some real mettle for Vancouver. He partnered spectacularly down the stretch with Pius Suter and Teddy Blueger as the club's key penalty killers, and helped drive a quantum leap forward in the quality of Vancouver's four-on-five play. In addition to being a big defender with a long reach that excels defending in-zone, Forbort is also a really effective neutral zone defender. His best defensive trait, to be honest, is his ability to disrupt and outright deny entries at a very high rate for a player with his stay-at-home profile. Perhaps most notably, extending Forbort on a one-year deal isn't a serious block from Vancouver's best blue-line prospects playing NHL minutes this season. This is critical because, barring some offseason trades, Vancouver will enter next season with a handful of young defenders in need of opportunity — from Mancini, to Kudrayvtsev, and from Elias Pettersson to Tom Willander — and not enough blue-line spots to go around. Keeping Forbort, presumably, increases the odds and the difficulty that those young players will face at training camp next fall, in terms of both making the team to start the year and earning minutes at the NHL level. Truthfully, however, at this age and stage of his career, Forbort is mostly a good bet to provide solid, professional defensive hockey for about 55 games or so per season. He has only appeared in more than 56 games one time in the last five years. While durability is a desirable trait in an NHL defender, in Forbort's case, especially given the composition of Vancouver's prospect pipeline at the moment, there's some added fit benefit for the Canucks in the fact that he's not often able to be available for all 82 games. Essentially Forbort will still be a really reliable roadblock at training camp, the sort of veteran on the back-end that a young player like Pettersson, Willander, Mancini or Kudrayvtsev should find nearly impossible to dislodge from the lineup, unless they take a gigantic developmental leap forward coming off of a strong summer. Advertisement He'll then be capable of helping Vancouver win games in a third pair defensive role whenever he's available and dressed. And, as something of a bonus, if Forbort's recent history is any indication of his availability next season, he's also more likely than your average third pair defender to miss 25 games or so next season, creating opportunity for Vancouver to blood some of their gifted young blue liners. (Top photo of Manny Malhotra:)
National Post
08-06-2025
- Sport
- National Post
Abbotsford Canucks Live: Game 6 win will advance Abby to Calder Cup final
The heat is on in Abbotsford. Article content Not only was the mercury expected to climb to 30 degrees Celsius in the Fraser Valley on Sunday, and actually feel like 34, the temperature inside the Abbotsford Centre will also rise. Article content Article content The Abbotsford Canucks hold a 3-2 series lead over the Texas Stars in the AHL best-of-seven Western Conference final and are a victory away from advancing to the Calder Cup championship against the Charlotte Checkers. Article content Game 6 before a raucous sold-out Abbotsford audience goes at 6 p.m., and if a seventh game is necessary, it's slated for Monday at 7 p.m. in the valley. The Canucks obviously don't want to be forced into a do-or-die showdown in Game 7 that could end their remarkable season, or shorten rest and prep time for the AHL final. Article content The Checkers are the Florida Panthers' affiliate and swept the Laval Rocket in the Eastern Conference final. They will host first two games of the AHL title series starting Friday in North Carolina, with the west winner getting Game 3, 4 and 5 home dates, before the series reverts back to Charlotte. Article content As for tonight, the Canucks will look for a hero. Article content Maybe somebody snaps a tight game in the third period, or becomes the latest overtime star. Four series games have been decided by one goal and three required overtime. Stars captain Curtis McKenzie of Golden, B.C., delivered the extra-session dagger Friday in Texas in a 2-1 triumph to force Game 6. Article content Article content Article content Article content You'd like to think Canucks winger Linus Karlsson is going to have a say in the Game 6 outcome. He has two goals in the series by getting to the net, has been a prime playmaker, and is tied for the post-season lead with nine goals. His 17 points are third among playoff scorers and he's second in shots with 49. Article content Maybe Arturs Silovs stretches his post-season shutout string to six. That would be fitting to equal the AHL record established by former Canucks goaltender Mika Noronen, who backstopped the Rochester Americans to the league crown in 2000. Article content Noronen played just four NHL games for Vancouver after being acquired at the 2006 NHL trade deadline. In his first appearance, he was bombed in a 5-0 loss to the Nashville Predators. Noronen then signed in Russia as opposed to serving as backup to workhorse Roberto Luongo.
Yahoo
08-06-2025
- Climate
- Yahoo
Early-season heat grips B.C.'s South Coast, raising health concerns
British Columbians are bracing for an early-season stretch of summer heat with temperatures on the South Coast and parts of Vancouver Island forecast to reach the high 20s and low 30s this weekend. Environment Canada has issued a special weather statement about the heat, which is expected to persist into early next week, particularly in Metro Vancouver, the Fraser Valley, and parts of Vancouver Island. "We are anticipating a strengthening ridge of high pressure over southern B.C.," said Derek Lee, a meteorologist with Environment and Climate Change Canada. "We're forecasting uninterrupted sunshine with temperatures building through the weekend." Lee says Sunday and Monday could see daytime highs around 29 C for inland areas and 23 C near the water. He added that while such heat events aren't unusual, they've arrived earlier than normal this year. "For some individuals, early-season heat may be challenging as their bodies are not acclimatized," he said, adding that people with respiratory illnesses and older adults are most at risk. Health authorities are encouraging people to prepare now. Fraser Health says this is not yet classified as a heat warning or emergency, but it's the season's first stretch of high temperatures. "Early-season heat events can affect people more than expected because we're not [ready] yet," said Dr. Emily Newhouse, a medical health officer with Fraser Health. "People haven't put in place all of their summer plans to make sure that they stay cool." She says it's a good time to put a heat plan in place and suggests keeping a thermometre handy. Health officials say indoor temperatures over 26 C can pose health risks for vulnerable people, while temperatures above 31 C may be dangerous. Newhouse also noted that electric fans don't effectively cool the body, and recommends using air conditioning or visiting cooling centres during the hottest parts of the day. "They might feel nice, but your body can still be overheating. A space with air conditioning is much more effective," she said. In Vancouver's Downtown Eastside, the non-profit Whole Way House is taking steps to support vulnerable seniors and veterans who may not have access to air-conditioned spaces. "We make sure we get our educational posters up…tips on hydration, how to beat the heat," said president Jenny Konkin. "If someone doesn't have A/C, they can come down to one of our chill zones." Konkin says staff do visual checks on residents every 24 hours and distribute water or Gatorade to those who may be hesitant to leave their rooms. "We've seen people start to overheat. Just today one of my staff noticed someone whose face was turning red," she said. The B.C. SPCA is also urging caution for pet owners. Kaila Wolf, senior director of communications, says dog owners should be wary of walking their pets on hot pavement. "Dogs don't have shoes on, so their feet are directly touching that pavement," she said, suggesting walks be moved to early mornings or evenings. Wolf also warns people against leaving their pets inside parked cars, adding that the B.C. SPCA has already received 164 calls this year about animals left in hot cars. Last year, that number reached 841. "If an animal is panting excessively, looks disoriented or has a vacant stare those are signs of heat distress," she said. Meanwhile, in northeastern B.C., wildfire smoke is affecting air quality. Environment Canada has issued advisories for Fort Nelson and the Peace River region. The agency recommends keeping windows closed and using air purifiers or properly filtered ventilation systems to maintain indoor air quality. The agency says to prioritize keeping cool during "extreme heat" events that coincide with times of poor air quality.
