Hundreds of Maritimers still dealing with burst pipes, power outages following record-low temperatures
Hundreds of Maritimers still dealing with burst pipes, power outages following record-low temperatures
Hundreds of Nova Scotians are still without power on Monday following frigid temperatures and high winds over the weekend.
The freezing temperatures broke cold weather records in all four Atlantic provinces Saturday, with temperatures feeling like -40C to -50C, before they went up significantly Sunday.
The manager of Ermen Plumbing and Heating Ltd in Moncton, N,B., says they received over 80 service calls over the weekend, mostly for pipes bursting due to the extreme cold.
"On Saturday, we had four technicians working. On Sunday, we had seven technicians working," said Jeff Leech.
"It got to the point on Saturday where our emergency service line got so backed up that they had to call in further resources to deal with the amount of calls we were getting."
One of those calls came from the Superior Propane Centre – a multi-purpose arena in Moncton – where pipes burst in a bathroom causing the arena to shut down on Sunday.
Leech said a repair job can take anywhere from an hour to a couple of days depending on the situation.
"The pipe is quite often damaged from the freezing and then there's a resulting flood," he said. "So, that's why it's important to get a hold of us right away so that we can mitigate any of that flood damage."
In Dorchester, N.B., Bill Steel has been working the phones to find someone to help him with repairs at his eight-unit apartment building near Sackville, N.B.
"I phoned at least 10 people and two got back to me," he said.
"One guy kind of laughed at me and said, 'Good luck,' and the other guy is going to meet me this afternoon. It's tough to find anybody. Tough to get anyone to pick up the phone. Everyone's busy."
A pipe burst flooded Monica Nyers and her two children out of their Saint John, N.B., apartment.
For now, they're staying with family, unsure if they have a home to go back to.
"I have no water, no toilet, no bathtub for my kids to go in. Now I'm stranded, my floors are covered with water damage, it's lifting up from the floors, it's cracking. It's getting bad," said Nyers.
Water was flowing out of the Sir Louis Henry Davies Law Courts in downtown Charlottetown Monday. All court proceedings were cancelled.
A news release from the province late Monday afternoon said the Law Courts will remain closed to the public until 12 p.m. Tuesday, with a further announcement expected Tuesday morning "once overnight inspections are complete."
The courthouse in Sydney, N.S., was also closed Monday for the similar reasons.
Halifax Water was fielding many calls Monday about frozen pipes. The utility is only responsible for infrastructure leading up the property line.
"Our infrastructure fared pretty well. We had four water main breaks that took place over the course of the four days that will require very localized water shutdowns," said Jake Fulton with Halifax Water.
The Board Room Game Cafe in Halifax looked like a wading pool on Sunday.
"A pipe burst upstairs and pretty much rained down on us," said café manager Brittney McIsac. "Later on in the day, another burst."
"I mean, it's bad time to be in the cardboard business. It's hard to say right now, we're still assessing the damage."
POWER
More than 16,000 households and businesses were without power during Saturday’s extreme cold conditions.
By Sunday afternoon, more than 2,300 customers were without power in Nova Scotia and about 1,800 were in the dark in New Brunswick.
As of 7 a.m. Monday, that number went back up to 3,500 power customers in Nova Scotia.
As of 6 p.m. Monday, the number of Nova Scotia Power customers without electricity was at 1,452 – most of which were in the Sydney area.
According to the Nova Scotia Power outage map, the outages began early Monday morning due to high winds and damage to overhead equipment.
On P.E.I., two customers were without electricity as of 6 p.m., while three customers were affected by power outages in New Brunswick at that time.
SCHOOLS
Power outages in Cape Breton closed École Beau-Port in Arichat, N.S., and Pleasant Bay School in Pleasant Bay, N.S., Monday.
Poor road conditions delayed schools in Nova Scotia’s Pictou County from opening by two hours and Strait Regional Centre for Education buses were travelling on paved roads only, also due to road conditions.
With files from The Canadian Press, Nick Moore and Derek Haggett
In the 2023 federal budget, the government is unveiling continued deficit spending targeted at Canadians' pocketbooks, public health care and the clean economy.
The federal budget shows the government's proposed dental-care insurance program will cost more than double what the Liberals originally thought, driving it up by another $7.3 billion over five years.
Tucked into the 2023 federal budget unveiled on Tuesday in Ottawa, the Liberals have announced plans to explore implementing a standard charging port across Canada, in an effort to save Canadians some money and reduce waste.
Serious money is heading for Canadian industries looking to reduce emissions after the federal government unveiled its answer to the U.S. Inflation Reduction Act.
The federal budget proposes an across-the-board three per cent spending cut for all departments and agencies, a belt-tightening move after years of massive growth in the federal public service.
The federal Liberal government is committing $8.7 million to hold more consultations on Indigenous resource sharing, in a budget that offers relatively little new spending on its reconciliation agenda.
In the wake of another deadly mass shooting in America, that saw children as young as nine years old shot and killed, the gun control debate is going nowhere, writes CTV News political analyst Eric Ham.
Another American community is reeling after a shooter killed three 9-year-olds and three adults at a private Christian elementary school in Nashville. These are the three children and three adults whose lives were taken by the shooter.
Nashville police have released security camera footage of a suspected shooter entering the private Christian elementary school. The shooting claimed the lives of three children, all aged nine, and three adults.
The 22-year-old accused of fatally stabbing a teenager at a Toronto subway station Saturday night has been wanted in Newfoundland for almost two years, CTV News Toronto has learned.
The mother of a five-year-old girl said her daughter was allegedly bullied so badly she was left with a partially amputated finger from an incident in the washroom.
In the 2023 federal budget, the government is unveiling continued deficit spending targeted at Canadians' pocketbooks, public health care and the clean economy.
In the 2023 federal budget, the government is unveiling continued deficit spending targeted at Canadians' pocketbooks, public health care and the clean economy.
Rima Rifai thought her furnace had exploded Monday when the house across the street burst into a ball of fire, sending 10 people to hospital with serious injuries.
Montreal police say they have identified two more victims found in the rubble of a fire in Old Montreal 12 days ago. Charlie Lacroix and Walid Belkahla, both 18, are the sixth and seventh victims of the fire.
A Quebec provincial police officer was fatally stabbed Monday night while performing an arrest in Louiseville, west of Trois-Rivieres, Que. The Surete du Quebec (SQ) has confirmed the identity of the officer, Sgt. Maureen Breau, who had been on the force for over 20 years. She was assigned to the post of the MRC de Maskinonge. Another officer was injured during the incident, but their life is not in danger.
In the 2023 federal budget, the government is unveiling continued deficit spending targeted at Canadians' pocketbooks, public health care and the clean economy.
In the 2023 federal budget, the government is unveiling continued deficit spending targeted at Canadians' pocketbooks, public health care and the clean economy.
Alberta's police watchdog has released more information about an incident at a Red Deer Walmart in which a man who had been reported missing in Calgary was shot by police.
The driver of a pickup truck, a 47-year-old woman, has died after a crash with a tanker on MR55 in the Greater Sudbury community of Lively on Tuesday morning, police say.
Nashville police have released security camera footage of a suspected shooter entering the private Christian elementary school. The shooting claimed the lives of three children, all aged nine, and three adults.
The mother of a five-year-old girl said her daughter was allegedly bullied so badly she was left with a partially amputated finger from an incident in the washroom.
A London toddler is fortunate to have avoided serious injury after a giant cinderblock came through her bedroom window in the middle of the night. Around 4 a.m. on March 26, Riiver was sleeping with her head right under the front window of her home on Emerson Avenue.
London fire crews are currently tackling a ‘large grass fire and working barn fire’ in the southeast section of the city Tuesday afternoon and are asking the public to avoid the area.
Drivers north east of London may run into some traffic problems on Tuesday. A single-vehicle collision resulted in a truck ending up on its side in a ditch in the area of Valley View Road and Thorndale Road.
The federal budget proposes an across-the-board three per cent spending cut for all departments and agencies, a belt-tightening move after years of massive growth in the federal public service.
One person is dead after an early morning fire in Kanata, while another person is being treated for smoke inhalation after being rescued from the burning home by a bystander who spotted the fire while driving to the gym.
In the 2023 federal budget, the government is unveiling continued deficit spending targeted at Canadians' pocketbooks, public health care and the clean economy.
A Saskatoon couple says they felt ignored by police after their five-year-old foster son was attacked by a dog outside the Meadowgreen Confectionary on March 22.
A B.C. man has been found not guilty of sexually assaulting his ex-girlfriend's daughter nearly a decade ago, when the girl would have been just eight years old.
Regina Mayor Sandra Masters said the city will more than likely continue to follow Health Canada guidelines when it comes to asbestos cement pipes (ACP) that carry drinking water to residents’ homes.
In the 2023 federal budget, the government is unveiling continued deficit spending targeted at Canadians' pocketbooks, public health care and the clean economy.
A Victoria landlord and property management company must pay more than $30,000 in damages and rental reduction to a tenant who complained of exposure to asbestos and excessive noise while their apartment building was renovated.
British Columbia wants a federal government clamp down on prescription rules after thousands of doses of the hyped weight-loss drug Ozempic went to Americans, doled out by a single practitioner in Nova Scotia.
