'It's really depressing': Thick wildfire smoke continues to cancel events around Manitoba

Thick wildfire smoke hanging over Manitoba continues to cause event cancellations around the province.

Bike Winnipeg cancelled its annual Fancy Women Ride on Sunday due to smoke.

It's the second time the event has been cancelled this year, after thunderstorms took out the initial event, according to Patty Wiens, an advocate given the title of bicycle mayor of Winnipeg.

It's the first year that Bike Winnipeg events have been cancelled purely because of smoke, she said.

She says the ride is unlikely to be rescheduled a third time this year. The event is for women to "dress up and ride our bikes together, celebrating being women and celebrating the freedom that bikes bring to women all over the world," Wiens said.

"It's been sort of a vehicle for change for women since the Suffragette movement."

Event organizers were expecting upwards of 50 people to attend, but Wiens said this year, Bike Winnipeg has chosen to cancel certain events if the air quality is deemed a high risk.

"That's a new thing we had to come up with this year because of the wildfire smoke," she said, adding that she'd like to see more political will to combat climate change.

"It's really depressing. It feels like we're heading towards apocalyptic times, you know? It feels so strange and just really weird."

Environment and Climate Change Canada issued warnings Sunday morning for a large swath of the province, including Winnipeg and Brandon in the south, the Interlake and Thompson in the north.

Winnipeg's air quality health index remained in the "very high risk" 10+ level all weekend. The warnings advise people to limit their time outside and reschedule any outdoor activities due to the poor air quality.

The poor air quality forced the Winnipeg Youth Soccer Association to move 12 recreational championship matches indoors mid-morning Saturday after the championship had already kicked off.

Fringe Festival, Manitoba Stampede go on

The Fringe Festival remained open on Sunday, with organizers providing masks to volunteers and visitors.

Jamie Fougere brought his family who all wore masks, including two young kids he wanted to get out of the house and doing activities.

"It's a health risk to be outside. Unfortunately I haven't seen many other people wearing masks," he said. 

The Manitoba Stampede in Morris was also open over the weekend, with indoor spaces and masks available to visitors. 

Wildfire smoke 'smears around with the winds'

Brad Vrolijk, a lead forecaster with Environment and Climate Change Canada, says almost the entire province has been blanketed in smoke this weekend.

"Pretty much the only place we don't have air quality warnings out right now is for the extreme southwest down by like Pilot Mound, Melita and Virden, and Churchill [in northeastern Manitoba]," he told CBC News on Sunday.

"Everywhere in between has an air quality warning out right now."

Vrolijk says much of the smoke hitting southern Manitoba this weekend is likely the same smoke that hit the region a couple of days ago.

"The winds have been relatively light the last few days, so we haven't had a lot of flow to blow the smoke far away or anything," he said. "There's just nowhere for it to go, so it just kind of smears around with the winds."

The Sail West regional championships in Gimli was also cancelled due to the smoke.

"You want to keep them safe to sail another day. We've made a prudent and wise and defendable quite frankly decision to cancel," said Eric Turner, co-chair of the 2025 Sail West competition and president of Sail Manitoba. 

The four-day event was scheduled to run from July 17-20, with 40 competitors taking part in the competition over the weekend at the Gimli Yacht Club.

"I have no qualms whatsoever about the decision we've made today, because it's the right one," said Turner. 

Turner said this will lead to changes going forward.

"We now need to have a policy on air quality. Some sports do, some don't. We should be developing a guideline so we have a basis on which to decide," he said. 

"We try to keep people safe, it's safety first."