An agreement to protect a sprawling ranch in southern Alberta from development is the largest of its kind in the country, the Nature Conservancy of Canada says, and will allow the family that owns it to continue raising cattle there.

"Right now, wind is generating almost no power. When renewables are unreliable, as they are now, natural gas plants must increase capacity to keep Albertans safe," Alberta Premier Danielle Smith posted on social media Friday, shortly after the province's grid operator issued an appeal for consumers to conserve electricity to protect the system.

Jennifer Coleman has lived in and around Hay River in the Northwest Territories her whole life, but the highway into the community felt like a strange place as she and other wildfire evacuees were allowed to return there on Saturday for the first time in over a month.

An international organization has produced a report on alien invasive species which says the global problem costs billions of dollars annually and is, in some cases, being worsened by climate change.

Northwest Territories Premier Caroline Cochrane was a social worker before entering politics, so when the territory ordered everyone in its capital to leave last week due to encroaching wildfires, she said she checked to make sure homeless people weren't forgotten.

Light rainfall and cooler temperatures slowed down wildfire activity in Alberta over the long weekend and more rain that's in the forecast may help firefighters catch a breath during a record-breaking season of fires.

Cooler temperatures and a bit of rain were delivering some relief for firefighters as they continued to battle wildfires threatening communities in central northern Alberta, but provincial officials warned the reprieve was only in some areas and lightning was sparking some new blazes.

Some Sunwing travellers from Saskatchewan say the airline is leaving them at airports in other provinces, while another says her flight from Mexico that made it to Regina had dozens of empty seats.

Now that Pope Francis has arrived in Canada and is expected to beg forgiveness for Catholic-run residential schools, a team of translators is dedicated to making sure no words are lost for those receiving the apology.

Regulated utility ATCO Electric has agreed to pay the fine after an Alberta Utilities Commission investigation found it deliberately overpaid a First Nation group for work on a new transmission line, and then failed to disclose the reasons for it when it applied to be reimbursed by ratepayers for the extra cost.