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Canadian climate negotiators are headed to Brazil for the next two weeks as leaders gather for annual United Nations climate talks.

Canadian climate negotiators are headed to Brazil for the next two weeks as leaders gather for annual United Nations climate talks.

Canadian climate negotiators are headed to Brazil for the next two weeks as leaders gather for annual United Nations climate talks. The talks come as Prime Minister Mark Carney, whose credentials as an international climate advocate helped win him support in this year's election, comes under increasing scrutiny for his reversal of some key Trudeau-era climate policies — and his government's perceived softening on the oil and gas sector, the biggest source of Canada's emissions. One focus is expected to be on how the world will adapt to climate change risks — and how countries will pay for those mitigation efforts. This year marks the 10th anniversary of the landmark Paris Agreement, and leaders will face questions about whether the deal is working and if countries are pulling back from their climate commitments, says Catherine Abreu, a leading Canadian climate policy expert. But she is optimistic: "I think we'll see strong political signals coming out of (the conference) that the vast majority of the world is definitely still committed to this process," Abreu, a member of an independent group of federal climate advisors, said ahead of the meetings. Here's what else you need to know. What is COP30? The summit's name stands for the 30th Conference of the Parties who signed the 1992 United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. This year, Brazil will host the summit in Belém, a city known as a gateway to the Amazon River. That location is a stark reminder of what's at stake if emissions aren't kept in check, as climate change and deforestation fuel the rainforest's transformation into a drier, fire-prone savanna. Unlike the summit 10 years ago in Paris, the host Brazil has indicated this COP is focused on following through on existing deals, rather than advancing new rulemaking. What will be discussed? A key focus will be on adaptation — how to make countries more resilient to increased climate risks, from rising sea levels to extreme heat. Negotiators are set to finalize a list of about 100 indicators used to track global progress, such as how many people have access to reliable drinking water capable of withstanding climate-fuelled drought. There is still debate over how to track the money developing countries say they need to turn adaptation goals into reality. Parties are looking at indicators that could include measuring what portion of all adaptation funding is flowing to local governments, small island nations or Indigenous Peoples, reflecting a broader goal to promote equity and justice in how money to fight climate change is distributed. Negotiations will look to advance a major outcome of last year's talks: the pledge to mobilize at least $1.3 trillion annually by 2035 for climate finance. There will also be discussions about the agreement two years ago to triple renewable energy capacity by 2030 and transition away from fossil fuels, the major driver of human-caused climate change. More than half of the countries attending the talks have yet to submit updated national climate plans, called Nationally Determined Contributions. Those plans, due earlier this year, represent each country's contribution to the climate change fight and are intended to be strengthened every five years in an escalating cycle of ambition. Abreu said she expects to see a push at the talks for leaders to explain how "countries will fill that gap." What is Canada's role? Federal officials say Canada will continue to play a bridge-builder role to help countries reach a consensus on some of the summit's key issues. The officials, who briefed reporters ahead of the talks, say Canada will support calls to scale up climate finance and keep global warming targets within reach. But climate observers say Canada's support for oil and gas expansion, as well as its silence on whether it will meet its 2030 and 2035 emissions targets, could be among issues undermining its position. Advocates pointed to the latest federal budget, which offered no details on how the industrial carbon price would be strengthened, talked of potentially setting aside an oil and gas industry emissions cap and also opened the door to the Canada Infrastructure Bank supporting projects in that sector, rather than limiting its work to sustainability-linked projects. "There's just no way that we can make those commitments given the current ways in which the government is pushing for oil and gas industry in Canada," said Eriel Tchekwie Deranger, president of nonprofit Indigenous Climate Action and a member of the Athabasca Chipewyan First Nation. Deranger said Canada has over the past decade been receptive to Indigenous proposals at the UN climate summit, especially around increased funding for adaptation and climate finance. Yet "when it comes to implementation at home, it's falling flat," she said. Who will be there? Environment Minister Julie Dabrusin will lead Canada's delegation for the first week of the conference. Prime Minister Mark Carney, a former UN special envoy on climate finance and veteran of the summit, is not expected to attend as his government faces confidence votes on the budget. There has been reduced participation in pre-summit events, taken by some as a sign of a dwindling global focus on climate change. A meeting of heads of state earlier this week saw about half the attendance that last year's summit had, with notable absences from the leaders of the planet's three biggest polluters: China, the United States and India. This summit will also take place in the shadow of the U.S. withdrawing from the Paris Agreement for a second time under President Donald Trump. Abreu said it may be for the best. "I think that that might actually result in the rest of the world being able to come up with some solutions together without that obstructionist presence," she said. Does the Paris Agreement still matter? A decade ago, world leaders adopted a deal in Paris to limit global warming to two degrees and aim for 1.5 C above pre-industrial times, while charting a course for the future of climate diplomacy. Catherine McKenna, who helped negotiate the deal as Canada's then-environment minister, said the deal has been "foundational." Before Paris, there was no clear global temperature target and no framework for how each country could do their part. In 2015, the planet was on track to warm by about 3.5 C by the end of the century, the UN says. Now, if countries live up to their climate plans, that could be closer to 2.5 C. While that is an improvement, experts say that level of warming would still make heat waves unbearable in some areas, threaten coastal countries with sea-level rise and lead to major biodiversity losses, among a range of other issues. "That's not where we need to be," said McKenna. "But (the Paris Agreement) was critically important. Without that, we wouldn't have this framework, we wouldn't have ways to evaluate integrity, we wouldn't have targets." The agreement's legacy is also showing up in the uptake of renewable energy, Abreu said. This year, investments in clean energy are expected to double the money put into fossil fuels. Fossil fuels continue to dominate the global energy mix at about 60 per cent, but for the first time, renewable and nuclear energy sources covered two-fifths of total annual power generation in 2024, the International Energy Agency said. What's important now is to see renewables scale up even quicker to push out fossil fuels, she said. "We really need to reach a turning point on that." This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 9, 2025. — With files from The Associated Press Jordan Omstead, The Canadian Press

MONTREAL — The historic village of Calixa-Lavallée is named after the man who composed the Canadian national anthem, so perhaps it's no surprise its residents take their civic duty seriously.

MONTREAL — The historic village of Calixa-Lavallée is named after the man who composed the Canadian national anthem, so perhaps it's no surprise its residents take their civic duty seriously. While nearby Montreal reported a voter turnout of 37 per cent in Sunday's municipal elections, more than 78 per cent of the registered voters in the off-island, 500-person South Shore suburb showed up to cast a ballot. "Citizen participation here is always very strong, and this year was especially remarkable," said Pénélope Larose, the town's general manager. "We're a small municipality, so people know each other, they take an interest in what is happening, and they get actively involved in community life." Data released by Quebec's Municipal Affairs Department shows that voter turnout across the province was up, to 41.3 per cent compared to 38.7 per cent in 2021. But more than two dozen towns far surpassed the average, reporting voter turnout of over 70 per cent, according to Elections Canada data. About a half a dozen towns surpassed 80 per cent. Representatives from the high-voting municipalities -- most of them small towns of less than 1,000 people -- attribute their success to their close-knit nature, the effort made by candidates, and to competitive races after years of candidates running unopposed. Calixa-Lavallée is one of those places. Larose says these were the "biggest elections in 20 years," with races for mayor and all six council spots. In 2021, all the candidates were elected by acclamation. "We saw a real surge of enthusiasm with several opinions and different visions that were expressed," she said. It's a similar story in Lac-Édouard, in the Mauricie region, where just over 80 per cent of voters showed up to cast a ballot for one of the two candidates vying to replace the outgoing mayor of 20 years. That mayor, Larry Bernier, said he'd been elected by acclamation for each of his five terms. He thinks the high voter turnout is due partly to the small size of the town -- around 200 residents -- but also the chance to vote for new faces. "I thought I could maybe make some room for others," said Bernier. The almost 80-year-old describes his successor as a dynamic "young lady" in her 50's. "It's a good thing that there were two candidates instead of just one, because that's democracy," he said in a phone interview. Thierry Giasson, a political science professor at Université Laval, says a number of different factors can affect voter turnout, including the perceived competitiveness of the race. The data from the province shows that towns with 2,000 citizens or less vote in higher percentages than their big-city counterparts, which Giasson said might be due in part to greater social pressure. "When we're in a small municipality, you know your neighbours, everyone knows everything about everyone, and the electoral officers are our neighbours, brothers- or sisters-in-law, father, mother ... in short, everyone knows who will vote and who won't," he said. However, he noted that some small towns have low turnout as well -- possibly due to the high number of part-time residents with primary homes in other cities. Of Quebec's five biggest cities, only Quebec City managed to surpass a 50 per cent turnout rate. On the other hand, residents of many Quebec small towns didn't get a chance to vote at all. Just over half of municipal candidates in the province ran unopposed, and more than 4,500 candidates, including 564 mayors, were elected via acclamation. Bernier, the outgoing Lac-Édouard mayor, said the job has become increasingly complex, expanding from simple service delivery to include tourism and economic and social development. All that, he said, for a salary that is often around $10,000 or $12,000 a year, which he says would have worked out to about $3 an hour in his case. Bernier chose instead to decline the "ridiculous" salary. In the Saguenay-Lac-St-Jean town of Desbiens, the city's president of elections credits the candidates themselves for a "historic" voter turnout of 72.38 per cent. "They did a lot of door-to-door canvassing during election days. They made phone calls to encourage people to vote," Isabelle Leduc said in an interview. "They really did a great job campaigning and were very present in the field, compared to other years or other towns." She also credits a strong get-out-the-vote effort from the town, a population desiring change, and the implementation for the first time of mobile voting, which may have boosted participation from residents of a seniors home. Like some of the other towns, she said Desbiens also benefited from having a number of competitive races, after previous elections failed to draw more than one candidate for most posts. "I believe this was historic," she said. "We're celebrating our 100 years next year, and these will have been historic elections." This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 9, 2025. Morgan Lowrie, The Canadian Press

OTTAWA — Seven weeks ago, Prime Minister Mark Carney assigned former cabinet minister Chrystia Freeland to be Canada's new special envoy for the reconstruction of Ukraine.

OTTAWA — Seven weeks ago, Prime Minister Mark Carney assigned former cabinet minister Chrystia Freeland to be Canada's new special envoy for the reconstruction of Ukraine. Canadians haven't heard much about the job since, and nothing at all about how Ukraine can be rebuilt while Russia continues its wide-scale bombing of critical infrastructure. But experts say Canada has a major opportunity now to help preserve Ukraine's sovereignty and international law — and to turn a profit in multiple sectors. Here's what we know. What is Freeland's job? It's not clear. The former journalist has not been interviewed by a Canadian news outlet since her appointment, despite multiple requests from The Canadian Press. A September cabinet order establishing Freeland's new role says she is serving as a parliamentary secretary to Carney for a term of 12 months. Alexandre Lévêque, an assistant deputy minister at Global Affairs Canada, told the Senate foreign affairs committee on Oct. 22 that the job comes with a single staff member and support from his team at Global Affairs and the Privy Council. "Madame Freeland, I think, is developing the role, as she's beginning her functions in it," he said. "I think essentially, her role will be to detect opportunities — so bringing … the Canadian private sector, finding investors, finding potential Canadian expertise, particularly in things like infrastructure development (and the) mining industry." In a Nov. 5 response to a parliamentary request for information from Conservative MP Garnett Genuis, the Privy Council Office said the envoy role comes with the $20,000 salary bump all parliamentary secretaries receive. It said “certain expenses" incurred by Freeland, "such as travel, could be paid by the Privy Council Office.” Genuis asked if the job came with any set of goals. The PCO did not offer any but said Freeland will advise the government on both economic reconstruction and Canada's efforts to bring home thousands of abducted Ukrainian children taken into Russia over the course of the war. The PCO also said Freeland would receive no “administrative support," despite Lévêque testifying otherwise. In a recent piece she wrote for The Financial Times, Freeland argued Ukraine can win against Russia if it's sufficiently financed by western countries. She called Ukraine an "innovation nation," citing its remarkable success with a decentralized approach to building drones. In a statement, Freeland's office said she visited Kyiv in September and "the Ukrainian government has since invited Ms. Freeland on an official visit to Ukraine later this year to talk about how Canada can best support Ukraine’s reconstruction." How can you rebuild a country still at war? Ukrainian Ambassador to Canada Andrii Plakhotniuk said even with the war going on, his country still manages to export products while building out an arms industry that has been forced to produce rapidly and adapt to new technology on the fly. Plakhotniuk told the Senate committee that Canada already has preferred trade access in Ukraine through its recently updated trade agreement and the goodwill that comes with being a major financial donor. "Ukraine is ready to develop joint production of defence matériel with our partners, including Canada," he testified. While Plakhotniuk did not get into specifics, other countries are showing how such a partnership could work. France's defence ministry is in talks with carmaker Renault about building drones partly or entirely in Ukraine — a partnership that would bring government financing to both Ukrainian and French businesses. "Certainly, we understand the current risk of doing business in Ukraine. My message to all our friends in Canada here is we should use each and every opportunity to start business in Ukraine," Plakhotniuk said, adding that this effort could start with projects in neighbouring countries. "My major message is not to wait (until) we have postwar reconstruction efforts. We need your presence now. We need your good advice, and we need capacity-building and many other things." How keen are Canadian companies? Lévêque testified that a small team of Canadian public servants stationed in Kyiv, and some trade officials in Poland, are working to find economic opportunities for Canadian firms in Ukraine. He conceded they've seen limited progress. "Given the risk that exists, both to their physical safety and to their investments, a lot of these business arrangements are outside the country," he said in French. "The fact is that the appetite of Canadian companies to do business in Ukraine remains relatively limited at this time." Still, he said, the government sends representatives to various "reconstruction fairs" that bring businesses and governments together to discuss projects to further Ukraine's recovery. "We also send our ministers and trade commissioners, as well as Crown corporations such as Export Development Canada and the Canadian Commercial Corporation, which are there to facilitate this type of trade, especially when it comes to investments in the military sector or between governments," he testified in French. This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 9, 2025. Dylan Robertson, The Canadian Press

MONTREAL — Nathalie Morisseau leapt at the chance for a last-minute sun vacation with her 23-year-old daughter — as long as it wasn’t in America.

A report to city council shows that few people from outside the city are using Saskatoon's pools, arenas and recreation centres. Five per cent of memberships, called Leisurecards, were sold to people who live outside the city from 2022 to 2024, the report says.

With flu cases now rising in Canada, medical experts are bracing for a difficult influenza season linked to the global spread of an evolving H3N2 strain that could be a mismatch for this year’s vaccine.

Many Canadians wrote to us asking what they should be looking for in the new federal budget. CBC News’ Catherine Cullen and J.P. Tasker are here to help break down what is – and isn’t – in the budget.

Marwa Abu Eita used to spend 13-hour days rushing from one task to the next until a vehicle plowed into her at a busy intersection. Her recovery helped her embrace a slower pace of life.

Sarah Turnbull isn't just a city councillor, but also a mother, and she's looking to make a change when it comes to accessible parks in Regina.

The start wasn’t much to write home about but Saturday’s West final between the Saskatchewan Roughriders and B.C. Lions had more drama in the fourth quarter to make up for it. Read More

Touchdown Tommy Nield is going to the Grey Cup again -- and this time he's taking the Saskatchewan Roughriders with him.

REGINA — Touchdown Tommy Nield is going to the Grey Cup again -- and this time he’s taking the Saskatchewan Roughriders with him.

Tommy Nield hauls in dtouchdown pass with 12 seconds to play, Saskatchewan takes 24-21 victory in wild Western Final at Mosaic Stadium

REGINA — Tommy Nield’s three-yard touchdown reception with 11 seconds left in the fourth quarter lifted the Saskatchewan Roughriders to a 24-21 victory over the B.C. Lions in the West Division final Saturday, sending the Riders to the Grey Cup.

The Saskatchewan defence forced back-to-back two-and-out possessions to give their offence an opportunity to win the game.

Tommy Nield's three-yard touchdown reception with 11 seconds left in the fourth quarter lifted the Saskatchewan Roughriders to a 24-21 victory over the B.C. Lions in the West Division final Saturday, sending the Riders to the Grey Cup.