She toured farms and participated in a town hall meeting
By Diego Flammini
Staff Writer
Farms.com
Hurricane Fiona from space
Canada’s minister of agriculture traveled to Atlantic Canada to receive an up-close look at the damage Hurricane Fiona left to farms in its path.
Minister Marie-Claude Bibeau toured farms in Nova Scotia on Oct. 12.
Photos from Minister Bibeau’s Twitter account show damages on a maple operation that lost half of its trees and a farm that lost about 60 per cent of its corn crop due to the storm.
The minister also participated in a town hall meeting on Oct. 12 hosted by the Nova Scotia Federation of Agriculture.
Nova Scotia Minister of Agriculture Greg Morrow participated too, hearing farmers share their stories of how the storm has affected their lives.
“Their respective stories are all difficult, and we felt their resilience every time they said, ‘it could have been worse.’ Their courage is inspiring,” Minister Bibeau said on Twitter.
Minister Bibeau and her colleagues in Cabinet want farmers to know the federal government is ready to support them as they rebuild.
“We are working hard to support Canadians across Atlantic Canada and Eastern Quebec who have been impacted by Hurricane Fiona, including our hard-working farmers, producers, and all those working in the agriculture industry,” Bill Blair, minister of emergency preparedness, said in a statement. “As communities recover from the impacts of the storm, the Government of Canada will continue to work in close collaboration with the Province of Nova Scotia to provide communities with the resources they need.”
On Oct. 13, Minister Bibeau made her way to P.E.I. to tour damaged farms in that province.
Photos show Minister Bibeau, P.E.I. minister of agriculture Darlene Compton and Lawrence MacAulay, current minister of veterans affairs and former minister of agriculture, visiting Jeff and Amy Bysterveldt’s dairy farm, Winterbay Farms.
One photo depicts damage the dairy farm suffered at the hands of Hurricane Fiona.