Take action to protect yourself and others – extreme heat can affect everyone’s health. Determine if you or others around you are at greater risk of heat illness. Check on older adults, those living alone and other at-risk people in-person or on the phone multiple times a day.
Watch for the early signs of heat exhaustion in yourself and others. Signs may include headache, nausea, dizziness, thirst, dark urine and intense fatigue. Stop your activity and drink water.
Heat stroke is a medical emergency! Call 9-1-1 or your emergency health provider if you, or someone around you, is showing signs of heat stroke which can include red and hot skin, dizziness, nausea, confusion and change in consciousness. While you wait for medical attention, try to cool the person by moving them to a cool place, removing extra clothing, applying cold water or ice packs around the body.
Drink water often and before you feel thirsty to replace fluids.
Close blinds, or shades and open windows if outside is cooler than inside.
Turn on air conditioning, use a fan, or move to a cooler area of your living space. If your living space is hot, move to a cool public space such as a cooling centre, community centre, library or shaded park.
Follow the advice of your region’s public health authority.
Plan and schedule outdoor activities during the coolest parts of the day.
Limit direct exposure to the sun and heat. Wear lightweight, light-coloured, loose-fitting clothing and a wide-brimmed hat.
Never leave people, especially children, or pets inside a parked vehicle. Check the vehicle before locking to make sure no one is left behind.
A prolonged period of extreme heat and humidity continues.
What:
Daytime highs of 29 to 32 degrees Celsius and a humidex of 35 to 40.
Overnight lows of 19 to 23 degrees Celsius, providing little relief from the heat.
When:
Continuing through Thursday.
Additional information:
Southern Ontario will experience hot and humid conditions now through much of next week. The heat is expected to ease some for Sunday and Monday with hotter and more humid conditions returning on Tuesday. A shift in the weather pattern late next week will likely end this multi-day period of heat and humidity Thursday night.
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For more information: https://www.canada.ca/en/health-canada/services/climate-change-health/extreme-heat/how-protect-yourself.html https://www.canada.ca/en/health-canada/services/climate-change-health/extreme-heat/who-is-at-risk.html
Please continue to monitor alerts and forecasts issued by Environment Canada. To report severe weather, send an email to ONstorm@ec.gc.ca or post reports on X using #ONStorm.
This posed photo was taken of “inmates” at the House of Industry and Refuge in 1927.Â
Are you ready to head to the poor house? Book a tour of the Wellington County Museum and Archives
The museum between Fergus and Elora is a historic site and the last poor house building in Canada
The House of Industry and Refuge became the House for the Aged and then the Wellington County Museum and Archives. It has been county-owned since opening in 1877. You can go for a tour on Saturdays this summer.
You may have heard the expression about being sent to the poor house, but did you know there really was one in Wellington County?
Katie Clarke, programming assistant at the Wellington County Museum and Archives, said the House of Industry and Refuge, which is now the Wellington County Museum and Archives in Fergus, is the last standing poor house in Canada and is a National Historic Site.
The building has seen renovations, additions and lots of upkeep since it was built in 1877.
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“The main building itself, the front façade, hasn’t changed,†she said. “It was made from local limestone and cost only $3,000, which of course was a tremendous amount of money then.â€
The pathway to the Wellington County Museum and Archives is flanked with flowering gardens.
Wellington County Museum photo
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Staff at the museum, at 0536 Wellington Rd. 18, started hosting weekly tours in recent years to share the story of the House of Industry and Refuge (also called the poor house) on Saturdays in July and August at 1 p.m. The Poor House Tours take about an hour and are only $5 a person or $10 for a family to attend.
Clarke said the tours are important because the poor houses are a forgotten part of local and national history. For her, it’s about the people, and their stories. She said that though some are tragic, she likes to believe that others had a happier ending.
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She said the experience can be a bit like “emotional whiplash,†and she warns people that they might not know how to feel about this part of our history. It’s confusing but interesting to learn about.
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“We’re here to give voice to people that lived here,†she said. “They kind of get pushed to the side throughout history — this is a chance to give life back to them.â€
The Wellington County House of Industry and Refuge, also known as the poor house, is shown here sometime from 1907 to 1909.Â
Wellington County Museum photo
She said poor and disabled folks lived in dozens of homes in Ontario alone, some for only a short period a time, but some stayed, some returned and many died there. Because the poor house was a last resort for people, it has a negative stigma attached to it.
“The poor house was a self-sustaining industrial farm,†Clarke said. “If you were a Wellington County resident, then you were permitted to be sponsored to come and live here. You couldn’t just show up, you had to be ‘deserving poor.’â€
The folks that lived there were often men, many were older individuals, and they were people that couldn’t find work or were differently abled. But it wasn’t long-term care at all. The people who lived there had chores and helped keep the place running.
At first there were some children, along with their parents who lived there, but laws changed, and children began to be separated from their parents and put into other homes or adopted. Clarke said many children became farm hands or domestic staff and never saw their families again.
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She said they refer to the folks who lived in the poor house as inmates, and the people who lived in the House for the Aged as residents.
“This helps us remember the time period but it’s also just the language they would have used at the time,†she said.
The people in the poor house weren’t in a jail, workhouse or asylum, but the word inmate was the common nomenclature applied to all these folks.
The estate functioned as the poor house from 1877 to 1846, and then it transitioned to the House for the Aged until the early 1970s. Clarke said the museum opened its doors in 1975.
In 2027, the museum will be hosting its 150th anniversary and hopes everyone will keep an eye out for this big event.
You can sign up for Saturday tours on the website or contact the museum for a private visit.
For more information on the Wellington County Museum and Archives, and to see upcoming events, visit .
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