Harsh temperatures and heavy smoke have triggered heat warnings and air-quality alerts for large swaths of the country this weekend, as hundreds of wildfires remain uncontained in Western and Central Canada.

Higher-risk conditions are anticipated in Ontario, Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Alberta and British Columbia, prompting special bulletins from Environment and Climate Change Canada for dozens of cities and towns. Meteorologists expect dryness, heat and lower precipitation to create ripe weather conditions for intense fire behaviour.

A truck hauling heavy machinery down a highway in British Columbia’s dry Okanagan region caught fire Wednesday, sparking a blaze in the nearby bush that has forced nearly a thousand people from their homes.

Patrick Van Minsel, Mayor of the District of Peachland, is among them.

In the end, the tsunami that washed onto Tofino, B.C.’s shores was only about half the height of a school ruler, gently raising the tide and delighting the roughly 300 tourists watching just before midnight Tuesday on Mackenzie Beach.

About seven hours earlier, J. J. Belanger, general manager of the nearby Crystal Cove Beach Resort, went into high alert after news that an underwater earthquake had hit Russia’s Kamchatka Peninsula with a preliminary magnitude of 8.8, one of the strongest ever recorded.

The Vancouver Island municipality of Nanaimo wants the local health authority to justify the continued existence of the community’s legal overdose prevention site as opposition mounts to the facility around the corner from its City Hall.

Nanaimo City Council deferred voting Monday evening on a motion asking the Vancouver Island Health Authority, or VIHA, to shut down the site in favour of meeting with the agency in coming weeks. The site has been operating since 2022.