A Canada-wide doctor shortage continues to fuel service disruptions and temporary closures in rural and remote emergency departments.

As a result, more patients in rural Saskatchewan are being treated by virtual doctors when they step inside an emergency room.

“Our goal is always to try and have in-person physician coverage,” said Dr. Johann Roodt, deputy chief medical officer for Integrated Rural Health with the Saskatchewan Health Authority (SHA).

When that isn’t possible, Roodt said virtual physicians are the health authority’s last line of defence against temporarily closing emergency departments and forcing patients to drive elsewhere for immediate care.

The SHA launched the virtual physicians pilot program in five communities in July 2023. Two-and-a-half years later, the program has expanded to 28 rural health centres that have been flagged for doctor shortages, or being at risk of service disruptions due to staffing vacancies.

“Not only in Saskatchewan, but across Canada, we are facing significant physician pressures with significant vacancies,” Roodt told CTV News.

Visiting a virtual physician in the emergency department is a similar process to when a doctor is on site, according to Roodt.

Patients are first triaged and assessed by a nurse, who then consults with an off-site physician through the SHA’s Healthline 811. From there, the doctor will speak with the patient over the phone or video call to provide a diagnosis, treatment, prescription or order imaging.

Outlook and District Health Centre was an early adopter of the virtual physician program. The town, an hour southwest of Saskatoon, is one of several rural communities that struggles with doctor shortages and temporary closures.

Emily Trew, who has lived in Outlook for the last four years, rang in the new year with a trip to the town’s emergency department.

She says she was suffering from a severe migraine, and the centre was staffed with a virtual doctor that night.

“There are people that are frustrated with it, but at the same time, a virtual physician is better than not being able to see anyone at all,” Trew said, adding it can be less comforting to talk to a doctor over the phone than face-to-face.

While Trew was able to get medication for her migraine, she says there have been times when the off-site doctor has had trouble assessing patients.

“We had one experience last year when my little girl had pneumonia, and because a doctor couldn’t physically see her, and see her breathing, they debated sending her to the city,” Trew said.

Virtual health care comes with some limitations. There are certain conditions that doctors can’t treat if they are not there in person.

For example, doctors can’t give stitches to patients over the phone or on a video call, Roodt said, but they can treat a heart attack.

“It certainly is not something that will replace in-person physician services, but certainly, we live in a technology age where I believe, if we use the tools in our toolbox to deliver services and be innovative with the way we deliver services, I think that’s important,” he said.

The health authority is planning to trial new technology to improve video calls between remote doctors and on-site nurses, according to Roodt.

“I certainly want health care to be safe. I also do not want people to have to be worried if they have a heart attack and their emergency department is closed. I personally think that’s more unsafe,” he said.

Expanding virtual care to the north

In other parts of the province, primary care, physiotherapy and diagnostic imaging, including ultrasounds, are being performed virtually through the Virtual Health Hub.

The health-care organization uses leading edge technology, robotics and AI to deliver the services in northern and remote communities, according to hub director Dr. Ivar Mendez.

“This is the only program in the country that has this advanced technology where we can provide diagnostic imaging to the people that need it in real time, without them needing to be traveling to the cities,” he said.

About 15 per cent of Saskatchewan’s population doesn’t have access to a family doctor, Mendez said. It’s especially hard for those in remote northern communities to access specialists or primary care.

Technology is not meant to replace the health-care workers in these remote locations, according to Mendez, but instead support them.

“It’s hard to retain health-care workers in rural and remote locations, because they feel they really are not supported by the system,” he said.

“I don’t think we have any option but to innovate.”

The Virtual Health Hub is set to open a new facility on Whitecap First Nation in 2027, which Mendez said will eventually help expand virtual services to about 90 communities. Currently, the Virtual Health Hub serves six communities.

“The future is a hybrid system, where virtual care supplements and supports human care,” Mendez said. “We really feel that the human touch is absolutely crucial, and it is something that should not be lost.”

The preliminary hearing for the man accused of killing Tanya Myers near Weyburn, Sask., is scheduled for this fall.

Chris Fahlman, 42, faces one count of second-degree murder in relation to the death of Myers, 44, and one count of intentionally firing a gun while being reckless to the life and safety of another person.

Myers was fatally struck by a bullet while travelling in a vehicle on Highway 39 just outside of Weyburn on Sept. 12, 2025. She and a friend were returning from Regina when a bullet entered the vehicle.

She later died at the scene.

Fahlman’s week-long hearing in Weyburn provincial court is slated to begin on Oct. 21, 2026.

The accused has remained in custody since his arrest in Regina on Nov. 1, 2025, following a seven-week long investigation by Saskatchewan RCMP.

He was initially charged with manslaughter along with several firearms-related charges. However, the manslaughter charge was upgraded to second-degree murder two weeks later.

Fahlman applied for bail but was denied.

Residents of a Saskatchewan community are raising concerns following the death of a woman at a home where more than 40 cats were later rescued.

Wynyard RCMP conducted a wellness check at a home in the community on Jan. 2. Officers found two women, one of whom was dead. The other woman was connected with necessary health care, according to RCMP.

“People did know these ladies. They had been sort of shut ins for a long time but, everybody that knew them liked them,” said Justin Thordarson, who lives in the area and volunteers at Mozart Sympawthy Animal Sanctuary Inc. (MSASI).

“They were not ostracized in the community. People did like them.”

The home, which featured boarded up windows and was warmed by space heaters, was also filled with garbage piled several feet high.

MSASI was called in to help with removing cats from the home.

Veronica Hermiston, the director and founder of MSASI, said volunteers have rescued 41 cats as of Wednesday. She believes more are still inside the house.

“They are just coming out of nowhere. We’re not sure where they were so it could be quite a few more,” Hermiston explained.

A close family friend of the deceased, who wished not to be identified citing privacy concerns, described the woman as “an incredible person” and called for better support for those going through mental health challenges.

“It’s really sad it had to come to this. I wish someone would’ve stepped in sooner,” they told CTV News. “She fed the animals better than she fed herself … the health system let them down.”

Hermiston said it is common for owners to care for dozens of pets at a time.

“We go into homes and we help people that have overpopulation problems with cats and dogs,” she said. “We could have helped sooner for sure or just taken them a little bit at a time from the family, things like that, preventative care.”

Preventative measures pet owners could take is getting their cats neutered or spayed, she added.

“Our mindset needs to change on how we care for animals and the welfare of animals in our province,” Hermiston said.

“This is not the first time. We’ve seen double the amount of cats in a hoarding situation. This is nothing compared to what we have seen and that’s not anything to be proud of because almost every community has this condition.”

In addition to MSASI, SOS Prairie Rescue and SCAT Street Cat Rescue also helped remove cats from the home. The cats are now being moved to Saskatoon with plans of being fostered.

A 34-year-old man from George Gordon First Nation has died after his vehicle collided with a moose on Highway 15 in the rural municipality of Wreford.

Watrous RCMP say the crash was reported around 7:20 p.m. on Jan. 7.

Humboldt RCMP, along with local fire crews, EMS and STARS air ambulance, responded to the scene. The driver was pronounced dead by paramedics at the site. His family has been notified.

RCMP continue to investigate the collision.

Wreford is located about 142 kilometres north of Regina.

A man was rushed to the hospital after being tased, and three officers were also sent to the hospital with minor injuries after crashing their squad cars during an intervention in downtown Montreal.

Montreal police (SPVM) spokesperson Jean-Pierre Brabant said that officers spotted a man with a knife in his hand at around 7:45 a.m. on Sainte-Catherine Street, near Berri Street. The busy downtown area is next to L’Université du Québec à Montréal (UQAM).

“[They] saw a man that had a knife in his hand, didn’t know what happened, what was he doing, so that’s where the intervention started,” said Brabant.

Police said the man was known to police and was part of the homeless population who frequents Emilie-Gamelin Park.

A police officer then shot at the 34-year-old man, but did not injure him, Brabant continued.

“Officers were not able to control the situation; that man with the knife was aggressive towards police officers,” said Brabant. “At a certain point, one officer shot at least once in the direction of that individual.”

Around a dozen officers assisted as backup and closed in on the suspect using TASERs and rubber bullets to subdue him.

The man was tased and taken to the hospital with minor injuries.

Three officers were also sent to the hospital with minor injuries after a head-on collision between two squad cars.

“There was an accident between those two squad cars,” said Brabant. “In total, four people at the hospital.”

The man was known to police and was arrested following the intervention.

He remains in detention awaiting potential charges.

“He is going to be met by investigators, and some charges may be laid against him,” said Brabant.

A large perimeter was established, and the area should be avoided.

Simon Côté-Lapointe was on his way to work in the area when he heard police sirens and people yelling. He says it was a “surreal scene” to see some 20 police officers chasing the man.

According to the witness, the man seemed “disoriented” and Côté-Lapointe “isn’t sure he was a threat.”

“He wasn’t responding to what police were saying ... he didn’t seem aware of what was happening,” Côté-Lapointe told CTV News.

He adds he often sees homeless people and people in distress in the area, and the police response “seemed exaggerated.”

“It was shocking to see,” says Côté-Lapointe.

In a rare move, NASA is cutting a mission aboard the International Space Station short after an astronaut had a medical issue.

The space agency said Thursday the U.S.-Japanese-Russian crew of four will return to Earth in the coming days, earlier than planned.

NASA cancelled its first spacewalk of the year because of the health issue. The space agency did not identify the astronaut or the medical issue, citing patient privacy. The crew member is now stable.

NASA officials stressed that it was not an onboard emergency, but are “erring on the side of caution for the crew member,” said Dr. James Polk, NASA’s chief health and medical officer.

The crew of four returning home arrived at the orbiting lab via SpaceX in August for a stay of at least six months. The crew included NASA’s Zena Cardman and Mike Fincke along with Japan’s Kimiya Yui and Russia’s Oleg Platonov.

Fincke and Cardman were supposed to carry out the spacewalk to make preparations for a future rollout of solar panels to provide additional power for the space station.

It was Fincke’s fourth visit to the space station and Yiu’s second time, according to NASA. This was the first spaceflight for Cardman and Platonov.

“I’m proud of the swift effort across the agency thus far to ensure the safety of our astronauts,” NASA administrator Jared Isaacman said.

Three other astronauts are currently living and working aboard the space station including NASA’s Chris Williams and Russia’s Sergei Mikaev and Sergei Kud-Sverchkov, who launched in November aboard a Soyuz rocket for an eight-month stay. They’re due to return home in the summer.

NASA has tapped SpaceX to eventually bring the space station out of orbit by late 2030 or early 2031. Plans called for a safe reentry over ocean.

A U.S. immigration agent shot and wounded a man and a woman in Portland, Ore., authorities said on Thursday, leading local officials to call for calm given public outrage over the ICE shooting death of a Minnesota woman a day earlier.

“We understand the heightened emotion and tension many are feeling in the wake of the shooting in Minneapolis, but I am asking the community to remain calm as we work to learn more,” Portland police chief Bob Day said in a statement.

The Portland shooting unfolded Thursday afternoon as U.S. Border Patrol agents were conducting a targeted vehicle stop, the Department of Homeland Security said in a statement.

The statement said the driver, a suspected Venezuelan gang member, attempted to “weaponize” his vehicle and run over the agents. In response, DHS said, “an agent fired a defensive shot” and the driver and a passenger drove away.

Reuters was unable to independently verify the circumstances of the incident.

Portland police said that the shooting took place near a medical clinic in eastern Portland. Six minutes after arriving at the scene and determining federal agents were involved in the shooting, police were informed that two people with gunshot wounds - a man and a woman - were asking for help at a location about two miles (three kilometres) to the northeast of the medical clinic.

Police said they applied tourniquets to the man and woman, who were taken to a hospital. Their condition was unknown.

The shooting came just a day after a federal agent from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), a separate agency within the Department of Homeland Security, fatally shot a 37-year-old mother of three in her car in Minneapolis.

That shooting has prompted two days of protests in Minneapolis.

Officers from both ICE and Border Patrol have been deployed in cities across the United States as part of Republican President Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown.

While the aggressive enforcement operations have been cheered by the president’s supporters, Democrats and civil rights activists have decried the posture as an unnecessary provocation.

U.S. officials contend criminal suspects and anti-Trump activists have increasingly used their cars as weapons, though video evidence has sometimes contradicted their claims.

Portland Mayor Keith Wilson said in a statement his city was now grappling with violence at the hands of federal agents and that “we cannot sit by while constitutional protections erode and bloodshed mounts.”

He called on ICE to halt all its operations in the city until an investigation can be completed.

“Federal militarization undermines effective, community‑based public safety, and it runs counter to the values that define our region,” Wilson said. “I will use every legal and legislative tool available to protect our residents’ civil and human rights.”

A Melfort, Sask. man faces a second-degree murder charge following the death of an infant late last month.

Police were called to a home in Melfort on Christmas Eve with a report of an infant in medical distress, according to an RCMP news release.

When they arrived on scene a paramedic was caring for the infant — a child under one-year-old who was unresponsive.

The infant was soon hospitalized, where they died on Dec. 28.

Officers believed the infants injuries were suspicious in nature and turned the case over to investigators from the Saskatchewan RCMP homicide unit and the Prince Albert serious crimes unit.

On Saturday, a 37-year-old Melfort man was arrested in connection with the death. He faces a charge of second-degree murder.

The RCMP says it’s not releasing the name of the infant or accused in case a publication ban is ordered, but confirmed the victim and accused are known to each other.

The accused made his first appearance in Melfort Provincial Court on Monday.

🎉 Update Completed Successfully! 🎉

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We’re committed to providing our audience with a listening experience like no other! To maintain this standard, we’re excited to announce a major update to our Broadcast Network.

What’s New?

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