Saskatchewan may have experienced its first tornado of the year, according to early reports north of Regina.

In several posts to social media Friday afternoon, eagle-eyed residents near Bethune spotted what appeared to be a landspout tornado in the area.

Bethune is located approximately 50 kilometres northwest of Regina.

If confirmed by Environment and Climate Change Canada (ECCC), it would be the province’s first tornado of 2026.

At 3:16 p.m., ECCC issued a special weather statement covering much of central and east central Saskatchewan, warning that funnel clouds were expected to develop – with some having the potential of becoming weak landspout tornadoes.

According to ECCC meteorologist Matt Loney, the weather service will take reports it has received and posts to social media and weigh them against the data captured by radar and other sources.

“This particular case, it looks like landspouts, which are a form of tornado, but the mechanism is a bit different than your more destructive tornadoes, which come from a rotating updraft in a big supercell storm,” Loney said, adding landspouts are formed at the bottom of a thunderstorm while it is still growing.

Landspout tornadoes are usually mild in their severity.

In a departure from previous years, Saskatchewan received significant snowfall followed by steady rainfall this spring. The additional moisture could have an impact on the development of severe weather later in the year.

“If you’ve got a lot of greenery, you get something called evapotranspiration, which adds more moisture to the atmosphere during the day,” Loney explained. “The sun starts hitting the ground, it draws up the moisture in the ground and it actually has the potential to fuel more storms later on as things green up. That is a factor overall in the humidity that can generate severe storms.”

However, Loney does not expect any dangerous tornadoes to be formed as a result of the current storm system moving through southern Saskatchewan.

“The factors driving it from a weather perspective are relatively weak,” he noted. “The radar is showing these quick cells that pop up within 20 minutes, but then they kind of collapse within an hour, so they’re quick forming, and then they basically dissipate upon themselves.”

If you do spot a landspout tornado, Loney recommends residents should still keep their distance and exercise caution.

“They typically don’t travel very fast, but keep your distance,” he noted. “They can cause injuries, certainly, if you’re caught up in one.”

The Saskatchewan steel industry received a financial boost from the Government of Canada as the sector navigates global trade disruptions.

Eleanor Olszewski, the Minister responsible for Prairies Economic Development Canada (PrairiesCan), announced over $8.1 million will go towards enhancing trade and steel manufacturing capacity in Saskatchewan.

“This funding is going to help Saskatchewan companies stay competitive, increase productivity, reach new markets and strengthen supply chains,” said Olszewski.

Saskatchewan Trade & Export Partnership (STEP) will receive $5.1 million. The non-profit focuses on helping Saskatchewan businesses increase export opportunities.

Dynalndustrial GP Inc, Dutch Industries Ltd, and Hi-Tec Profiles Inc. will each receive $1 million to enhance steel manufacturing capacity, boost productivity and diversify their export markets.

“The STEP program will provide special and practical tools that businesses can use right now,” STEP’s president and CEO Chris Lane said.

The program will assist the companies in adapting products for new markets, accessing expert advisory support, pursuing international customers and greater market access confidence abroad.

The funds for the investments are provided through the Regional Tariff Response Initiative (RTFI).

The RTFI is the federal strategy to defend Canadian jobs, industries and supply chains from the impacts of tariffs.

Due to the funds being considered tariff relief, they are non-repayable.

Flooding conditions have receded across the province in recent days, according to the Saskatchewan Public Safety Agency (SPSA).

As of 11:30 a.m. Thursday, just four communities reported having active states of emergency.

“The SPSA is supporting 21 active flooding incidents, with five of those communities being supported with flood mitigation equipment,” SPSA spokesperson Jeff DeDekker told reporters.

“SPSA Emergency Services officers will continue to liaise with communities being affected by the flooding and will continue to assist as required.”

Early last week, a total of 18 communities were under active emergency declarations.

Michael Weger, the Minister Responsible for the Saskatchewan Public Safety Agency, commended the work several Saskatchewan municipalities have done in order to repair flood damage.

“I have seen volunteers stepping forward without hesitation, neighbours helping neighbours and communities supporting communities,” he said.

“Local organizations, municipalities and partners worked side by side and around the clock with our emergency teams to ensure people stayed safe and were supported.”

Water Security Agency president and CEO Shawn Jaques offered insight into the provincial communities still facing high water levels.

“What we’re seeing as far as infrastructure damage, there’s a lot around Prince Albert,” he said. “There was some around Meadow Lake and it’s kind of on that northern fringe where most of the water is down through Quill Lake.”

Traffic has been moving slowly at the entrance to 15 Wing Moose Jaw as locked-out union members picket and explain their concerns to visitors and military personnel.

Cooks, cleaners and maintenance staff employed by Sodexo, an outside contractor, have been locked out since last Wednesday. The workers, represented by the Public Service Alliance of Canada, say low wages remain one of their biggest concerns.

“We don’t even have a living wage, to be honest. It’s not like $16.21 (per hour) for a lot of the people. It’s just not enough. Even if you’re full-time, they’re still going into town and having to take a second job to make ends meet,” said union member Cheryl Leonardo. “We’ve got families to feed and bills to pay like everybody else.”

Union leadership says it remains ready to continue bargaining and has raised concerns about wage disparities between contracted workers and federal public service employees doing similar work at other military bases.

“The employees that are on strike right now work for a subcontractor to a contractor who is paid by DND,” said Marianne Hladun, executive vice-president of the Public Service Alliance of Canada. “If they were federal public service employees, they would be making a living wage, as happens in all the other bases where it is federal public service workers doing this work.”

In a written statement, Sodexo said it does not comment on labour matters.

The military said it would be inappropriate to comment on a labour dispute between two parties that does not involve 15 Wing Moose Jaw.

A 43-year-old woman is dead following a two-vehicle collision in southwest Saskatchewan.

RCMP say at around 6 p.m. on Wednesday officers from Shaunavon were called to a crash on Highway 37, about 24 kilometres south of the community.

Police say a semi and a minivan collided. A passenger in the minivan was taken to hospital, where she was later pronounced dead.

She has been identified as a 43-year-old woman from both Climax and Medicine Hat. Her family has been notified.

The driver of the minivan was taken to hospital by EMS with serious injuries.

The driver and sole occupant of the semi did not report injuries to police.

Shaunavon RCMP continue to investigate with the help of a Saskatchewan RCMP collision reconstructionist.

Shaunavon is located about 350 kilometres southwest of Regina.

A man has been charged in connection with a recent wildfire that tore across two First Nations in southern Saskatchewan.

On Sunday, May 10, at about 3:20 p.m., File Hills First Nations Police Service officers responded to a grass fire on Star Blanket First Nation.

The fire burned for three days and spread across hundreds of acres of pastureland, including sections of Little Black Bear First Nation.

No homes were destroyed, but earlier reports indicated an outdoor hockey rink, a baseball diamond and a barn were lost in the flames.

On Friday, File Hills Police revealed officers had taken a 25-year-old man from Star Blanket First Nation into custody.

The accused was charged with five counts under The Wildfire Act which include starting a fire without taking precautions, failing to take all necessary precautions to ensure fire monitored/contained, failing to ensure that firefighting equipment available/readily accessible, causing a public hazard by exposing residents to excessive amounts of smoke and impairing visibility on public roadways, and failing to notify an officer/person authorized if he or she is responsible for a fire in an area that is no longer under control.

The accused is scheduled to appear in Fort Qu’Appelle Provincial Court on June 15.

File Hills police thanked the Saskatchewan Public Safety Agency for its assistance in the investigation.

Premier Danielle Smith says she acted on a referendum question on Thursday because she knows residents need a clear answer on the issue sooner rather than later.

“I have been clear with Albertans from the start that I am in support of remaining in Canada,” she told a media conference in Calgary on Friday.

“That has and will continue to be the position of my government and my caucus.”

Smith also spoke to the separatist groups who seek a clear “yes or no” response on a referendum question.

“That isn’t possible,” she said.

“With the recent court ruling, there is no legal way to hold a binding separation referendum.”

If it had been put on a ballot, Smith said the question would have been struck down.

Separation spurred by multiple issues

Smith said the idea of Alberta leaving Canada came about because of poor policies by previous federal governments and the sentiments of many Albertans who are done with the country.

But the problems don’t stop there, the premier said.

“There’s issues around immigration, which is why we have several immigration questions on the ballot in the fall. There’s questions about how the federal question interferes in our jurisdiction – those questions will also be on the ballot in the fall to see if we can get them addressed. There’s also the issue of the gun grab for legally abiding gun owners who acquired their guns legally.

“Not everything is perfect with Ottawa.”

Alberta NDP hold rally to stay in Canada

Catriona Le May Doan joined Alberta NDP leader Naheed Nenshi on Friday following Danielle Smith’s address where she announced another referendum question to be put to Albertans in the fall.

“Any day and everyday I will stand for the maple leaf,” said Le May Doan, who won gold medals in speed skating for Canada in 1998 and 2002, as well as a bronze at the Nagano Games.

The Friday availability was promoting Nenshi’s ForAlbertaForCanada.ca, a movement for Albertans to share their voice about why the province should stay in Canada.

“I came here to Calgary 38 years ago for sport and I have not left. It is where I have chosen to have my family, raise my family and to stay,” Le May Doan said.

On Thursday night, the premier said the following question would be included on the Oct. 19 referendum vote:

“Should Alberta remain a province of Canada or should the Government of Alberta commence the legal process required under the Canadian Constitution to hold a binding provincial referendum on whether or not Alberta should separate from Canada?”

Her comments also touched on a recent court battle that saw Stay Free Alberta’s referendum question quashed by a judge.

The premier says her government is committed to that fight, but the legal action will take too long and will miss the window of the Oct. 19 referendum vote.

“I think it’s a rather clumsy attempt to get around the decision of the judge,” said Kathleen Mahoney, a law professor emeritus at the University of Calgary Faculty of Law.

“If the answer is ‘yes’ to the second question, clearly indigenous rights are at risk or being breached.”

Smith said the wording of the new question was supposed to appease both sides of the debate.

Nenshi says the premier’s strategy is “extraordinary political malfeasance.”

“There’s horrible politics about this,” he said. “The fact that we are in this situation right now is 100 per cent the fact that the premier doesn’t care about being the premier.

“She doesn’t care about governing. She doesn’t care about doing her job.”

Nenshi said Smith will “not lift one finger” to help those who want to remain in Canada.

“She’s put it on us. She’s going to make us to the work,” he said.

“But you know what premier? We’re proud to do that work.”

Albertans want to have the debate, Smith says

Smith said when both petitions, by Thomas Lukaszuk’s Forever Canadian campaign and Stay Free Alberta, were submitted, she looked at the number of signatures.

“I look at 400,000 people who signed a referendum saying that they wanted to vote to remain in Canada (and) I look at 300,000 people who signed a petition saying the opposite.”

Those 700,000 people told her Albertans “want to settle it once and for all.”

“That’s who I’m listening to. I believe in a citizen-initiative process. It was a process that was on the books since before I even became premier and it seems to me that people on both sides of that petition campaign in earnest and in good will thought they were entering a process they thought would be put to a vote.”

One person has died after a fire and two explosions Friday at a New York City shipyard, officials say.

Officials said 36 people were injured, most of them firefighters and other first responders, and one civilian died at the scene.

A firefighter and a fire marshal were inside the structure when a second explosion happened, and both were seriously injured by the shock wave from the blast.

“This was a complex, fast-developing emergency situation,” New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani said during a news conference Friday evening.

Multiple people called the fire department around 3:30 p.m., reporting smoke and two workers trapped in the basement of a 150-foot by 150-foot (46 metres by 46 metres) metal structure at the back of the shipyard, Fire Commissioner Lillian Bonsignore said.

Firefighting and EMS crews were on the scene within six minutes. But shortly after they arrived, an explosion occurred, causing serious injuries to multiple fire department members and a couple of civilians, Bonsignore said — including one who died at the scene.

Five firefighters and rescue paramedics were searching for the trapped workers inside, on top of and next to the structure when the second blast occurred, said Chief of Department John Esposito, causing more injuries.

The most serious injuries happened to a fire marshal and a firefighter who were inside and hit by the energy wave from the blast.

“Confined spaces are very dangerous operations for any rescuers,” Esposito said.

The fire marshal is in critical but stable condition with a fractured skull and a small brain bleed, said the fire department’s chief medical officer Dr. David Prezant.

“We will be watching him very carefully over the next 24 hours to make certain there is not subsequent brain swelling. As long as there is not, he should do well,” Prezant said.

The firefighter was in serious condition when he arrived at the hospital. But Prezant said he was doing “very well” by Friday evening, and he was being observed to ensure he doesn’t have muscle injuries.

The fire was still burning but under control Friday night, with more than 200 firefighters still at the scene, Mamdani said. A comprehensive investigation into the cause of the fire will begin as soon as possible, he said.

Richard Oviogor, who was in the area, told WABC-TV that he heard two explosions and what seemed like a “big shock wave.”

The area is home to several businesses, including a coffee roasting company and a self-storage facility. The shipyard used to be owned by the Bethlehem Steel Company, which built ships for the U.S. Navy during the Second World War.

EVO Radio Network – Scheduled Maintenance Notice

EVO Radio will be conducting a network-wide server migration and infrastructure update beginning Saturday, January 17, 2026 at 3:00 AM, with work expected to be completed by Sunday, January 18, 2026 at 8:00 PM.

During this maintenance window, the following services may be temporarily offline or intermittently inaccessible at various points:

Websites

• https://z1035.evoradio.ca/

• https://979thecowboy.evoradio.ca/

• https://101therockhound.evoradio.ca/

• https://887thegoat.evoradio.ca/

• https://advertiseraccess.evoradio.ca/

• https://vipclub.evoradio.ca/

• https://evomcorp.com/

• https://djspinderella.evomcorp.com/

Live Broadcasting

• Z103.5

• 979 The Cowboy

• 101 The Rockhound

• Classic 88.7 The Goat

Stream Relay Network

• All Stream Relay services will be unavailable during the migration.

Because this update involves server transfers, database installations, and name server changes, exact downtime periods cannot be guaranteed. Individual service interruptions may vary, with some components taking up to several hours to complete.

Our support and technical teams will work to keep all stations and websites online for as long as possible and will restore services immediately as each system becomes available. Broadcast services and station websites will be prioritized, followed by additional network services.

We appreciate your patience and understanding as we complete these upgrades, which are designed to improve performance, reliability, and long-term stability across the EVO Radio Network.

Thank you for your continued support,
EVO Radio Network

🎉 Update Completed Successfully! 🎉

We are thrilled to announce that our scheduled network update has been completed without any issues! 🚀 All our broadcast stations, streams, and websites are now fully operational and running better than ever.

What’s New?

Here’s what you can expect from this update:
✅ Improved Audio Player – No more interruptions or cutting off! Enjoy seamless streaming on our websites.
✅ Enhanced Stream Stability – Our radio streams are now more reliable than ever.
✅ Upgraded Security & Quality – Improved protection and enhanced broadcast quality for an unmatched listening experience.

Fully Operational Services:

🎵 Stations:

• Z103.5 – https://z1035.evoradio.ca/
• 979 The Cowboy – https://979thecowboy.evoradio.ca/
• 101 The Rockhound – https://101therockhound.evoradio.ca/
• Classic 88.7 The Goat – https://887thegoat.evoradio.ca/

🌐 Websites:

• EVO Radio Advertiser Access – https://advertiseraccess.evoradio.ca/
• EVO Media Corporation – https://evomcorp.com/
• DJ Spinderella – https://djspinderella.evomcorp.com/

Experiencing Issues?

While everything is running smoothly on our end, we’re here to help if you encounter any issues. If you’re having trouble with our broadcasts or websites, please report the issue to us immediately so we can address it.

📧 Contact Us:

If you have having any issues please reach out to us on our websites!

Thank you for your patience and understanding during this process. We’re committed to providing you with the best listening experience possible and appreciate your support!

🎧 Happy Listening!
The EVO Radio & EVO Media Corporation Team