Welcome to our weekly newsletter where we highlight environmental trends and solutions that are moving us to a more sustainable world.
This week:
- Will regular power cuts soon be part of Canadian summer?
- The Big Picture: Life springs back after a wildfire
- Why Vancouverites need to register their fireplaces and wood stoves
Will regular power cuts soon be part of Canadian summer?
Len Ens sits on his sunbaked porch in Princeton, B.C., overlooking the small town’s busy sawmill, and wonders where he and his neighbours would find shelter from the heat if the power went out.
“We won’t have any protection … imagine trying to live without being able to stay cool, even inside a house, it’s like an oven in there,” he says, gesturing to his small rancher that sits in a semi-rural neighbourhood, with very little tree coverage.
Ens recently learned that the local utility provider, FortisBC, has brought in a new wildfire prevention measure for his region of B.C.’s southern interior. The change allows the company to switch off power during extremely hot, dry and windy conditions to avoid sparking a fire. It’s called a public safety power shutoff policy, or a PSPS.
There is no record of this kind of outage being carried out by a utility in Canada, although it’s common practice in the U.S. and these kinds of wildfire policies are rapidly becoming the industry standard as wildfire season grows more severe in Canada. In Alberta, two power companies also have active policies. B.C. Hydro and Newfoundland Power say they are both weighing the pros and cons of introducing similar wildfire safety measures.
But electricity customers, especially those who can’t afford generators, like Ens, say they fear for their lives.
“Why would you take away, even for a day or two, people’s only source of energy that they can use to survive such heat,” he said. “The costs, just in human casualties alone, would be pretty high.”
The announcement of this policy has triggered local memories of the deadly heat dome of 2021 that killed over six hundred British Columbians. Many of those who died weren’t able to cool their homes. Ens says the only way he and his parrot survived the heat dome was by running a portable air conditioning unit in the bedroom.
But the usual strategies Canadians have been using to get through increasingly hotter summers wouldn’t be available during a PSPS. Aside from not being able to run a fan or AC, or even freeze wet cloths for pets and children, there’s a water concern too. Some small communities and individuals in B.C.’s Interior use electric pumps to bring well water into homes and businesses.
Nicole Brown is the Corporate Communications Manager at FortisBC. Brown says the company would use a PSPS only as a last resort and that, as a utility provider, it has a responsibility to respond to the fact that very dry, hot summers, with extended wildfire seasons, are becoming more common in B.C.
“We want to make sure we have a plan in place and we know exactly what we want to do and how we want to do it, long before we’re faced with a situation where … there’s a high probability that debris will hit our line and could potentially become an ignition source,” she said.
Although FortisBC plans to give customers as much notice as possible before a PSPS, it cannot predict the duration of an outage as it will depend on the weather. Brown says customers have a responsibility to make back-up plans for power cuts throughout the year.
“Experts recommend that people are prepared to be self-sufficient in their homes regardless of the emergency for up to for at least 72 hours. It’s about personal resiliency,” she said.
Deadly California fire led to power shutoff policies
Public safety power shutoff policies originated in California after a deadly fire in 2018 killed dozens and burned the town of Paradise to the ground. The source of the fire was traced back to transmission lines owned by the utility, Pacific Gas & Electric Company, that then faced billions of dollars worth of lawsuits for its role in the disaster.
After that, electricity companies across the state started using public safety power shutoffs regularly, but this year there have been reports that the power cuts are lasting longer and coming closer together.
People in Kern County, Calif., experienced five or six preventative outages in just the first two weeks of June, some lasting up to 12 hours, according to Jeremy Oliver, the director of the Kern County Aging and Adult Services, a community organization that supports vulnerable seniors during these kinds of power cuts. Oliver said he’s seen more seniors reaching out for medical support this summer.
“You know, when it’s short durations, most people are relatively prepared for those. But when it starts going beyond a couple of hours, we really start to see impacts for folks.”
Oliver says people in Kern County have been vocal about how frustrated and scared they are, as they adjust to living without power in the summer for longer periods of time. And, although his community doesn’t have all the answers, he had some advice for Canadian communities trying to prepare for the possibility of a summer power cut.
Oliver said generators or back-up batteries are the best option, but not everyone in his community can afford them. That’s why they lobbied the California utilities to chip in. Now, both power companies in the county offer small grants for back up power units, this has also allowed Oliver’s organization to purchase some to lend out.
In Canada, FortisBC is not currently offering grants. Nicole Brown said the utility is consulting with the local health authority and emergency service providers about the need for community supports, and she advises vulnerable customers to register with the company for advance notice of planned outage.
Californian power companies also regularly set-up cooling and charging stations in communities that don’t have their own, and Oliver suggests asking utility companies to send people into remote communities during a PSPS to check on the most vulnerable. Ultimately, he says, planning for power cuts in hot weather is difficult and needs to go beyond individual homes, requiring a community level of preparation to try to keep people safe.
What On EarthSummer power cuts are panicking Californians. Are we next?
— Jennifer Wilson
Old issues of What on Earth? are here. The CBC News climate page is here.
Check out our podcast and radio show. From the Best of What On Earth:The coastal city of Aberdeen, Scotland, has long made its living off the North Sea, first from fishing then oil and gas. Now, a new transition is underway: offshore wind. But who wins and who loses? Laura Lynch has some surprising conversations on the windy shores.
What On EarthA Scottish city divided over its energy future
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Reader Feedback
Last week, we wrote about some common misconceptions surrounding electric vehicles (EVs) and whether they really are better for the environment than fossil fuel-powered internal combustion engine (ICE) vehicles. We focused on carbon emissions.
But some readers were also interested in the environmental impact of mining the critical minerals for the batteries that power EVs.
Barbara Bond wrote: “At this point in time we are destroying entire ecosystems to recover the cobalt and other minerals that are necessary.”
Rachel Doran, the executive director of Clean Energy Canada, says: “I don’t want to be painting a picture that everything is rosy and that [in] every place that things are mined in the world today, there’s appropriate human rights practices or that environmental impacts are perfect.”
But, in regards to the environment, she says we have to consider how much resource extraction is already happening to power ICE vehicles — and a fossil-fuel driven global economy.
According to this 2023 article from The Guardian, only fractions of a per cent of global mining is for minerals to produce EV batteries.
And although the demand is growing, so is the potential for those minerals to be recycled from end-of-life EV batteries.
The IEA says that “if recycling is scaled effectively, recycling can reduce lithium and nickel demand by 25 per cent, and cobalt demand by 40 per cent in 2050.”
Write us at [email protected] (and send photos there too!)
The Big Picture: Life, uh, finds a way
Dinosaurs may not be returning to fossil-rich Alberta, but greenery certainly is. This trail near Whistlers Mountain in Jasper National Park, Alta. — pictured on Aug. 14, 2025 — was hit particularly hard by the 33,000 hectare Jasper Wildfire Complex in 2024.
But one year later, to the surprise of Parks Canada staff, the understory has mostly regenerated, showing “typical soil and ground cover,” according to Marcia DeWandel, a vegetation restoration specialist with the department.
“It is actually amazing how much green there is in a lot of the spaces that we thought we wouldn’t see anything for a while,” said DeWandel.
This year’s wildfire season is already the second-worst in Canadian history, passing last year’s numbers by mid-July. But as fires burn more of Canada’s forests, portraits of regrowth like this will also become more common.
We may not see trees return for a while — reseeding after a fire is a multi-year process even with human help. But “pioneer species” such as grasses, herby plants and shrubs thrive after disturbances — fires included — returning life to the blackened landscape. And in some cases, DeWandel says it’ll be grassland, not forest, that returns.
— Martin Halek
Hot and bothered: Provocative ideas from around the web
Got a fireplace or wood stove? Metro Vancouver residents must register wood-burning appliances
Most Metro Vancouver residents with a wood-burning fireplace or wood stove will have to register their appliances by Sept. 15 as part of regional bylaws — or risk fines.
The regional district says the initiative, which will apply to most of the area’s residents living in the urban containment boundary, comes as it tries to control emissions from wood burning.
It’s not the first place in Canada to take on wood stoves. Montreal banned wood stoves that emit more than 2.5 grams of fine particles per hour in 2018. And incentives to upgrade to less-polluting wood stoves have previously been offered in Ontario and New Brunswick..
Metro Vancouver says that wood smoke from residential burning is the largest single source of fine particulate matter emissions in the region, which can be a major health concern for seniors, infants and other vulnerable people.
The regional district said registration is part of a phased approach to lower emissions from residential wood burning and comes as part of a bylaw adopted in 2020.
Other efforts to curb the problem include rebates of up to $1,500 to replace old wood-burning devices with a heat pump, or a cleaner wood-burning or electric model.
Julie Saxton, who manages Metro Vancouver’s air quality regulation program, said that it’s believed there are tens of thousands of wood-burning devices in the region, potentially up to 100,000.
“The whole purpose of the registration is to introduce an emission standard,” she told CBC News.
“So we’re not trying to ban people from this activity that they enjoy and they value,” she added. “We’re trying to introduce lower emissions to reduce the effects on people’s health.”
Saxton said that around a quarter of the region’s fine particulate matter emissions come from residential wood-burning.
While there are other sources of fine particulate matter pollution — including heavy-duty vehicles, marine vessels and industry — Saxton said there have been successful interventions over the years to reduce those emissions, but not so much for residential wood-burning.
“We haven’t been as successful with residential indoor wood burning for a number of years,” she said. “For more than 15 years, in fact, we’ve had voluntary measures in place to try and reduce emissions from residential indoor wood burning.”
Up to $500 in fines
As part of its phased approach, Metro Vancouver has already banned residential wood-burning from mid-May to mid-September.
In addition, Saxton says there’s a requirement to use best wood-burning practices, which could mean using manufactured fire logs in older fireplaces that likely don’t meet modern emission standards.
“These fire logs are more consistent and have high energy content and they typically produce, under normal conditions, cleaner emissions,” she said.
“So people can reduce their emissions by using an equipment solution, by using an emissions-certified device, or they can use cleaner fuel.”
Residents can register their fireplaces and wood stoves at metrovancouver.org/fireplace, and the deadline is Sept. 15.
The regional district says it will focus on education rather than fining if people don’t register — though repeat and flagrant offenders may be fined up to $500.
There are exceptions in place for emergency situations and for low-income households, Saxton said.
“We realize that this is a big change and we’ve been pursuing education and trying to advise people as to what the benefits are — not just for them and their family, but also for their neighbours and the wider community,” Saxton said.
Industry wants incentives
Mike McNeice, the spokesperson for the Hearth, Barbecue and Patio Association of Canada (HPBAC) said his industry lobby group is generally supportive of the phased approach Metro Vancouver is taking to deal with the issue of residential wood-burning. But, he took issue with the deadline to register devices by next month.
“We think it puts the administrative onus direct to the end user, to the consumer, which can be challenging,” he said.
HPBAC represents manufacturers, retailers, distributors, sales agents, and service companies for wood- and gas-burning appliances.
“We sort of understand the motivation of Metro Vancouver and what they’re doing,” he added. “But I think we’d sooner see the resources that are applied to a registry be applied to more incentives for switching out old appliances for new ones.”
McNeice argued that, amid an uncertain trade landscape and U.S. tariffs, consumers and manufacturers both wanted more choice instead of more regulation.
— Akshay Kulkarni
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Editors: Emily Chung and Hannah Hoag | Logo design: Sködt McNalty
