“With the large investment producers have made in their beef operations today, a wider range of business risk management tools available to them can help when market disruptions take place,” said Maritime Beef Council chair Dean Manning in a news release.

Nova Scotia joins New Brunswick and Prince Edward Island in the two-year Maritime Livestock Price Insurance Pilot Program, which was announced in June 2024 after years of advocacy from cattle groups.

The administration of the program will be cost-shared between the participating provinces and the federal government. Participating producers will pay insurance premiums.

The pilot program will run until March 2026.

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With an expanded pool of rural MLAs following the Nov. 26 provincial election, Premier Tim Houston announced a cabinet shuffle at an event in Halifax on Dec. 12 but kept Guysborough-Tracadie MLA Greg Morrow as minister of agriculture.

Morrow also serves as minister responsible for the Atlantic Provinces Harness Racing Commission Act.

A radio journalist by profession, Morrow first entered provincial politics in the August 2021 election and was appointed ag minister that month.

In last month’s election, Houston’s Tories boosted their majority to 43 of 55 seats, with the New Democrats holding nine seats as official opposition.

Morrow easily held his riding on election night by a spread of 2,538 votes against Liberal challenger George Grant, a local blueberry farmer.

Several of Houston’s incumbent cabinet ministers handling files of interest to farmers also kept their posts in the shuffle, including Tory Rushton (natural resources), Timothy Halman (environment and climate change) and Kent Smith (fisheries and aquaculture). Houston himself will handle the trade and intergovernmental affairs portfolios.

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Lee is expected to weaken into a strong tropical storm before making landfall in southwestern Nova Scotia as a strong tropical storm late on Saturday, the Canadian Hurricane Centre said.

Even so, the storm has the potential to dump as much as four inches of rain and produce winds of up to 97 km/h in some spots, prompting U.S. and Canadian officials to urge residents to prepare for possible flooding and power outages.

“Please plan ahead to stay indoors if possible on Saturday and check on your loved ones and neighbors,” Boston Mayor Michelle Wu said in a statement to the city’s 650,000 residents.

Some eight million Americans in Connecticut, Rhode Island, Massachusetts, New Hampshire and Maine were under a tropical storm warning, with conditions in those states expected to deteriorate on Friday and into Saturday, the U.S. National Weather Service (NWS) said.

In Canada, more than one million people in Nova Scotia and eastern New Brunswick were also under a tropical storm warning as the massive storm crawls northward over the open waters of the Atlantic.

“Heavy rainfall rates and potential gusty winds are our largest concern for inland areas, with the addition of high surf and minor inundation along the coast,” the NWS said on Facebook on Friday.

Some spots, such as Cape Cod in Massachusetts and eastern Halifax County in Nova Scotia may see storm surge of up to three feet, forecasters said.

As of Friday morning, the storm was about 785 km southeast of the Massachusetts island of Nantucket as it moved north at about 26 km/h. It was expected to pick up speed and weaken through the day, the weather service said.

Lee is the latest storm in what is proving to be a busy hurricane season that has featured a higher-than-average number of named storms.

Just two weeks ago, on Aug. 30, Hurricane Idalia slammed into Florida’s Gulf Coast. As it moved north, the powerful storm dumped heavy rains across Florida and southeastern Georgia, flooding numerous communities and knocking out power to tens of thousands of homes and businesses.

— Reporting for Reuters by Brendan O’Brien in Chicago.

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The Nova Scotia and federal governments on Friday announced enrolment for the ag income stabilization program, which ended on April 30, has now been reopened for late participation until Dec. 31, 2024 for the 2023 program year.

“Nova Scotia’s agricultural businesses have faced real challenges due to several extreme weather events this year,” provincial Agriculture Minister Greg Morrow said in a release. “We are giving farmers who need income support more opportunity to get it, if their incomes have dropped sharply due to damaging rains, extreme heat, wildfires or other conditions.”

Late participation in AgriStability is offered only in a program year in which a given province or territory’s producers experience a “significant agricultural disaster,” either sector-wide or provincewide.

This spring over 61,000 acres were burned in wildfires across Nova Scotia from April into June. The province then reported periods of heavy rainfall and record-level heat during the summer, including storms on the weekend of July 21 that caused severe flash flooding which killed four people and led to estimated damages of over $170 million on insured property and infrastructure alone.

Those weather events “have had a devastating impact on Nova Scotia’s agriculture industry this year,” federal Agriculture Minister Lawrence MacAulay said in Friday’s release. “By allowing late participation in the AgriStability risk management program, we are ensuring producers have the time and support they need to protect their operations.”

AgriStability — which in Nova Scotia is delivered by the federal ag department — is meant to cover an enrolled producer’s margin declines greater than 30 per cent, at 80 cents for every dollar of decline.

That said, payouts — including interim payouts — to those who sign up via a late participation option such as this one are reduced by 20 per cent, to “encourage proactive enrolment.”

Late participants in Nova Scotia will need to pay a fee in two portions: a non-refundable up-front fee of $300, due by Dec. 31 next year, and $3.15 for every $1,000 of reference margin covered. Application forms will not be processed until the fee is paid.

Between June 1 and Dec. 31 in an affected program year, a province or territory can request that late participation be allowed. The federal government and affected jurisdiction must then agree jointly to extend the deadline.

For example, Nova Scotia last October opened up late participation for the 2022 program year in the wake of Hurricane Fiona.

Alberta producers last month were also granted late participation for 2023, with a deadline of Sept. 29, due to that province’s ongoing drought and wildfires. — Glacier FarmMedia Network

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Blazes are burning in nearly all Canadian provinces and territories, and federal government officials said their modeling shows increased wildfire risk in most of Canada through August.

“The distribution of fires from coast to coast this year is unusual. At this time of the year, fires usually occur only on one side of the country at a time, most often that being in the west,” said Michael Norton, an official with Canada’s natural resources ministry.

Quebec was currently the worst impacted due to multiple fires ignited by lightning, Norton said. “The rate of increase of area burned is also high … if this rate continues, we could hit record levels for area burned this year,” he said.

Flames have been mushrooming rapidly in Eastern Canada and have forced evacuations in Nova Scotia as well as coastal Quebec.

On Monday, the Wallbridge Mining Co. temporarily evacuated a gold project camp in Quebec and suspended exploration activities on its Detour-Fenelon Gold Trend Property due to an emergency order related to forest fires.

“Over the last 20 years, we have never seen such a large area burned so early in the season,” said Yan Boulanger, a researcher with Natural Resources Canada. “Partially because of climate change, we’re seeing trends toward increasing burned area throughout Canada.”

By Sunday, about 3.3 million hectares (8.15 million acres) had already burned — about 13 times the 10-year average — and more 120,000 people had been at least temporarily forced from their homes.

Wildfires, the second most expensive disaster in Canada after flooding, have destroyed homes, impacted oil and gas production in the main crude-producing province of Alberta, and polluted the air in both in Canada and the United States.

“This is a scary time for a lot of people,” Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said at a news conference in Ottawa.

“When people lose their homes, they don’t just lose a roof and their possession; they lose a special place where they saw their children grow up, where they built a life,” he said.

There are currently 413 active wildfires, including 249 deemed out of control, and about 26,000 people are under evacuation orders across Canada.

— Reporting for Reuters by Ismail Shakil in Ottawa.

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The Canadian Food Inspection Agency said it has confirmed cases of the virus detected last Friday in a backyard poultry flock in the municipality of Chatham-Kent, about 80 km west of Windsor, and Tuesday this week in a commercial poultry barn in the township of West Lincoln, about 35 km southeast of Hamilton.

The CFIA set up restricted zones around the affected properties this week on Monday and Thursday respectively.

The Ontario cases were two of just three to have been confirmed in domestic birds in Canada since early February; the third was in a backyard poultry flock in southern Nova Scotia’s Yarmouth County, detected March 4.

Ontario’s Feather Board Command Centre, which monitors disease outbreaks on behalf of the province’s poultry and egg producer groups, said Thursday it will begin hosting weekly Zoom calls for producers and industry personnel starting next Wednesday (March 22).

Meanwhile, the FBCC urged producers and backyard flock owners to keep poultry away from areas frequented by wild birds; keep “strict control” over access to poultry houses and premises; clean and disinfect equipment before taking it into poultry houses; change footwear when entering a CFIA-designated restricted area; not wear contaminated clothes in production areas; and keep dead birds in secure, covered containers until they’re moved to a disposal area or off-farm.

Skunks

As of Wednesday, CFIA has estimated the number of domestic birds impacted by high-path H5N1 avian flu outbreaks in Canada since December 2021 at 7.184 million.

Of those, just over half were in British Columbia, which saw a lengthy run of outbreaks, mainly at commercial barns in the Fraser Valley, between mid-November 2022 and mid-January this year.

While B.C. hasn’t booked any new cases in domestic birds since Jan. 22, provincial officials on Monday did confirm the H5N1 virus in eight dead skunks found in residential areas of Vancouver and Richmond.

The province on Monday advised people who encounter dead skunks in those cities to leave the animals where they are and contact the B.C. Wildlife Health Program at 250-751-7246.

Influenza in skunks is considered to be a low risk to human health, officials said in a release, adding that the animals “may have contracted influenza by scavenging infected wild birds.”

According to CFIA, there’s no evidence to suggest that eating cooked poultry or eggs could transmit high-path avian flu to people.

Canada has seen outbreaks in domestic commercial and backyard birds at 302 premises in nine provinces since high-path H5N1 began its run through North America in late 2021. Of those premises, 231 have since been released from federal quarantine.

In the U.S., officials estimate about 58.62 million domestic birds have been impacted in 799 flocks in 47 states since high-path H5N1 outbreaks began there in early 2022. The U.S. Department of Agriculture has reported 22 outbreaks so far this month, with the bulk of affected birds at commercial poultry barns in Pennsylvania’s Lancaster County.

Further south, authorities in Chile on Monday reported that country’s first outbreak of avian flu in domestic poultry. Argentina reported its first case in poultry on Feb. 28, also after finding cases in wild birds. Bolivia, Peru and Ecuador have also seen cases in commercial barns in recent months. — Glacier FarmMedia Network

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The province on Thursday announced $3 million for what it calls the Fiona Agriculture Response Gap Funding program, offering up to $400,000 for farmers — those with a gross farm commodity income of $10,000 or more — who weren’t eligible for federal DFA.

The new program is meant to cover farmers who didn’t get federal DFA “because of their revenue level, number of employees or the business structure of their farm,” the province said.

“Some farms had serious damage and did not qualify for the federal program. Our new program helps fill the gaps,” Agriculture Minister Greg Morrow said in a release.

The new program is separate from the Fiona Agricultural Disaster Assistance Program, which was open for applications from Nov. 24 up until its deadline Friday.

Farmers who filled out applications for the earlier program “have been, or will be, assigned a caseworker to help them access the new funding,” the province said Thursday.

As with the earlier program, applicants will need to be able demonstrate damage or loss incurred during Hurricane Fiona, which hit the province last Sept. 23 and 24. Applicants must own or lease the damaged property and be able to provide a partnership/ownership agreement if requested.

Farmers who haven’t filled out applications are asked to contact program staff by email or at 902-890-0542.

Citing data from Catastrophe Indices and Quantification Inc. (CatIQ), the Insurance Bureau of Canada last month reported insured damages from Hurricane Fiona in Canada at over $800 million, which would make it the most costly extreme-weather event in Atlantic Canada and the seventh-largest in Canadian history.

The storm produced wind gusts of up to more than 100 km/h in Atlantic Canada and eastern Quebec, bringing torrential rainfall, waves, storm surges, downed trees and power outages. — Glacier FarmMedia Network

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Fiona recorded the lowest barometric pressure ever for a storm when it made landfall on Saturday as a post-tropical storm with powerful winds, rainfall and high waves, the hurricane centre said.

Farmers to fishermen in Atlantic Canada are seeking government help after the storm devastated vessels, farms and harbour infrastructure, with flooding now threatening to damage the potato crop in Prince Edward Island, which accounts for a fifth of Canada’s output.

“Even as we see the devastation, we also see, in conversations I had with fishers and farmers and folks who are cleaning up their lives and trying to recover, there is a resilience to Canadians,” Trudeau told reporters in Stanley Bridge, P.E.I.

DBRS credit rating agency said the storm could result in record insured losses for the Atlantic provinces, putting the initial estimate between $300 million and $700 million. But the industry should be able to deal with the blow as the Atlantic Canada property insurance market is relatively small, it said.

Insurance Bureau of Canada said it would take several weeks to get a clear idea of insurance claims.

By Tuesday morning more than a quarter of electricity customers in Nova Scotia were still without power.

Defense Minister Anita Anand told reporters the federal government was ready to send more troops to help with cleanup efforts.

The Canadian Independent Fish Harvester’s Federation on Tuesday sought financial help to rebuild infrastructure at Small Craft Harbours facilities and to recover lost and damaged fishing vessels.

While lobster fishing is minimal at this time of year, it will be critical to repair wrecked harbours before spring, when fishing picks up, said Kent Poole, who fishes in P.E.I. Canada is one of the world’s biggest lobster exporters.

‘Storability’

The potato harvest was just underway when Fiona hit and the rain it left behind may rot crops in low-lying areas, said Greg Donald, general manager of the P.E.I. Potato Board.

Farmers are also struggling to find enough diesel to run machinery, some lost warehouses, and many are still without power needed to operate conveyors and sorting equipment, Donald said.

“The big concern will be rot and storability, but time will tell,” Donald said. “If we continue to get rain, it’ll be a bigger problem.”

Many farmers in affected regions already have tractor PTO-powered generators to keep barns and other systems operating, Tim Marsh, president of the Nova Scotia Federation of Agriculture, told Glacier FarmMedia on Tuesday — “although unfortunately we’ve heard of a few cases where those have failed on startup.”

While those producers have been able to share generators and other resources, Marsh said it wouldn’t be surprising to learn of a “substantial amount” of product lost, due to lack of available storage, cut transportation links and other logistics issues.

Fruit crops such as apples and wine grapes may see some damage due to bruising or leaf loss on grapevines, he said, but the extent of that damage won’t be fully known until harvest is completed.

— Reporting for Reuters by John Morris; additional reporting and writing by Ismail Shakil and Rod Nickel. Includes files from Glacier FarmMedia Network staff.

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One of the worst storms Canada has ever faced left more than one-third of customers in Nova Scotia without power, swept homes into the sea and left at least one person dead.

Fishing is a key industry in Canada’s Atlantic provinces, which produce some of the world’s largest lobster exports.

Fiona destroyed some harbours on Prince Edward Island and scattered lobster traps for miles, leaving a long clean-up ahead, said Allan MacQuarrie, a director of the P.E.I. Fishermen’s Association.

“I’m scared to know what it’s going to look like, to be honest with you,” said MacQuarrie, who was cleaning up toppled trees at his home and had not yet checked his own crab traps.

“I’ll know tomorrow and you’ll hear me swearing in Saskatchewan.”

Osborne Burke, general manager of the Victoria Co-op Fisheries in Neils Harbour, N.S., told news outlet CBC that the plant suffered “horrendous” damage, and several 40-foot sea containers full of frozen fish were “thrown around like dominoes.”

He said no one was seriously hurt, but repairs will cost more than $1 million.

Canada’s lobster industry was spared worse damage because fishing is minimal at this time of year, said Geoff Irvine, executive director of the Lobster Council of Canada industry group. Fishers are planning to seek government approval to extend the season in certain areas to make up for lost time, he said.

National fishing and seafood accounted for $7.6 billion in Canadian gross domestic product in 2018, according to a 2021 government report.

Farm damage

Many P.E.I. dairy farmers lost power, shutting down milking systems that run on electricity, said Donald Killorn, executive director of P.E.I. Federation of Agriculture.

The storm disrupted early harvesting of potatoes and other crops, he said. P.E.I., the smallest province, produced one-fifth of Canada’s potatoes last year, according to Statistics Canada. Much of its crop is exported to the United States.

“We see huge destruction in our barns and our storage facilities,” Killorn said. “Damage to infrastructure is significant, it’s widespread and it’s catastrophic.”

— Reporting for Reuters by Rod Nickel in Winnipeg.

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Fiona had already battered a series of Caribbean islands earlier in the week, killing at least eight and knocking out power for virtually all of Puerto Rico’s 3.3 million people during a sweltering heat wave. Nearly a million customers remained without power five days later.

The storm approached Bermuda as a Category 4 hurricane but diminished a notch to Category 3 as it passed west of the British territory early on Friday. Still, gusts reached as high as 166 km/h, the Bermuda Weather Service said in a bulletin.

The Bermuda Electric Light Co., the island’s sole power provider, said about 29,000 customers, more than 80 per cent of its customer base, had no electricity on Friday morning.

But Michelle Pitcher, the deputy director of the Bermuda Weather Service, said the territory appeared to be largely unscathed.

“It’s been a long night but there are no reports of injuries or fatalities,” Pitcher said. “There may be people with roof damage, but so far we haven’t heard of anything bad. As I said, we build our houses strong.”

Many Bermuda homes are built with small shuttered windows, slate roofs and limestone blocks to withstand frequent hurricanes.

By Friday afternoon, Hurricane Fiona was about 770 km south of Halifax. By 5 p.m. local time Friday, it was moving north-northeast at 64 km/h with maximum sustained winds of 201 km/h, the U.S. National Hurricane Center said.

‘A bad one’

The storm was upgraded back to a Category 4 hurricane on Friday, meaning it was capable of causing catastrophic damage.

Though it may weaken as it travels north over cooler water, Fiona is still forecast to be a powerful hurricane-force cyclone when it moves across Atlantic Canada, the National Hurricane Center said.

“We know that provinces have tremendous resources to support and prepare for this, but it’s going to be a bad one,” Canada’s Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said during a joint news conference with South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol in Ottawa.

“The federal government is mobilizing resources to support however needed, so please stay safe,” Trudeau said.

The storm could prove more ferocious than the benchmarks of Hurricane Juan in 2003 and Hurricane Dorian in 2019, Canadian Hurricane Centre meteorologist Bob Robichaud told a briefing.

“Where it fits in the history books, we’ll have to make that determination after the fact, but it is going to be certainly a historic, extreme event for Eastern Canada,” Robichaud said.

Fiona is expected to hit Cape Breton Island, home to about 135,000 people, or 15 per cent of Nova Scotia’s population, Environment Canada said Friday.

A hurricane warning was in effect for most of central and eastern Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island and Newfoundland. The centre of the storm was forecast to approach Nova Scotia later Friday, move across the province and into the Gulf of St. Lawrence on Saturday, and cross over Labrador on Sunday, the hurricane centre said.

Forecasters say areas close to its path could get up to eight inches of rain, while winds could damage buildings and cause utility outages, with storm surges swamping the coastlines. Air Canada and WestJet are suspending regional service starting Friday evening.

Puerto Rico slammed again

Fiona already displayed its devastating strength in the Caribbean, killing at least four people in Puerto Rico, the U.S. Federal Emergency Management Agency said.

The storm reminded many Puerto Ricans of the devastation caused by Hurricane Maria five years ago, from which the island has yet to fully recover.

Javier Rivera-Aquino, 50, who was a farmer in Lares, Puerto Rico before Maria destroyed his livelihood, said area farms were still digging out, with coffee fruit knocked off the plants grown in the mountains and whole banana farms washed out in the valleys.

“Total devastation,” he said. “They’re hit bad and I’m not sure what they’ll do.”

— Reporting by Don Burgess in Hamilton, Eric Martyn in Halifax and Ismail Shakil in Ottawa; additional reporting by Ivelisse Rivera in San Juan, Rich McKay in Atlanta and Allison Lampert, Frank McGurty and Jonathan Allen in New York; writing by Frank McGurty and Daniel Trotta.

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