Icebreaking near Whitefish River, Ontario
25 Apr 2025, 19:13 GMT+10
April 25, 2025
Sarnia, Ontario - The Canadian Coast Guard advises residents of Whitefish River, Ontario that the CCGS Samuel Risley will carry out icebreaking operations in the area on or around April 26, 2025. The purpose of this operation is to break up the ice to allow commercial vessels safe access to the Lafarge Whitefish River Terminal on La Cloche Peninsula, Ontario.
It is recommended that all traffic on the ice, including pedestrians, fishers, snowmobilers, and all-terrain vehicle operators, leave the ice during icebreaking operations. The ice may move, creating a real danger for anyone on it. Additionally, plan activities carefully and use extreme caution after operations are complete as the ice will remain unstable even once the icebreaker has left the area.
Icebreaking on the Great Lakes and connecting waterways is delivered through close co-operation between the Canadian and United States Coast Guards. By working together, the two Coast Guards ensure scheduled vessel traffic can move through the shipping channels and in and out of community harbours. Vessels will be assigned as needed to provide this service.
The date and assets are subject to change with no notice, as activities could begin before or after that period, depending on operational requirements or weather conditions.
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Global News
10 hours ago
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Winnipeg Free Press
12 hours ago
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Researchers chase storms, study fist-sized stones in Alberta's ‘Hailstorm Alley'
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Vancouver Sun
a day ago
- Vancouver Sun
From potatoes to cocoa and coffee, severe weather spikes food prices worldwide, study finds
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The next issue of West Coast Table will soon be in your inbox. Please try again Interested in more newsletters? Browse here. The impact of severe weather on Canadian wheat prices is far from an isolated case. From Japanese rice to Spanish olive oil , countries around the world have experienced similar food price spikes resulting from extreme weather events, highlights new research by a team of international scientists led by Maximillian Kotz, a Marie Curie postdoctoral fellow at the Barcelona Supercomputing Center . Published in Environmental Research Letters , the study investigated 16 foods in 18 countries over two years (2022-2024). It found that foods affected by climatic extremes (heat, drought or floods) raised prices for consumers, contributed to overall inflation and could trigger societal risks. In 2023, Kotz led a statistical analysis for the European Central Bank examining the impact of increased temperatures on inflation. The researchers studied a global dataset of monthly consumer price indexes over the last 30 years to understand how prices respond to shifting conditions. 'What we found is very strong evidence that abnormally high temperatures drive increases in the price of food and overall inflation, and that therefore, under future climate change, with heat extremes intensifying, we're going to be expecting to see more and more of these kind of increases in consumer price indexes, broadly,' Kotz said in a media briefing on July 16, adding that these findings were the starting point for the new study. While their econometric analysis confirmed that severe weather results in higher food prices, changes in consumer price indexes typically happen slowly. In contrast, the cost of specific foods can spike within one to two months of extraordinarily high temperatures or droughts. 'What's been really interesting for us scientifically is that over the last year, what we've started to see is a number of examples from specific countries where climatic extremes have caused substantial spikes in the price of specific food goods. So, not just looking at the level of an aggregate consumer price index, but for specific goods.' For example, in a phenomenon dubbed 'heatflation,' South Korean cabbage prices rose 70 per cent last year amid hot weather and drought. With water temperatures rising, seafood prices also increased due to fewer catches. The researchers began their investigations by looking at media reports from 2020 to 2025, in which industry specialists and producers documented changes in food prices. They found instances around the world. 'Compared to our analysis with the European Central Bank, that was very much a statistical approach, this was more of a narrative-based approach, relying on these experts on the ground to connect food price spikes with adverse climatic conditions. And we can see that there's a broad global context for this happening in recent years that extends all the way from East Asia through to Europe and also to North America.' After finding evidence that food price shocks associated with extreme heat, drought or heavy precipitation are widespread, the researchers analyzed the climatic conditions driving them and compared them to historical patterns. Following a May 2024 heatwave in India , for example, onion and potato prices increased by 89 and 81 per cent respectively in the second quarter of the year. In California and Arizona, vegetable prices jumped by 80 per cent in November 2022 after a drought. Given that the U.S. supplies 67 per cent of Canada's vegetable imports and 36 per cent of fruit imports, according to Kushank Bajaj , a postdoctoral research fellow at the University of British Columbia (who wasn't involved in the study) and co-creator of Canada Food Flows , the impact on consumers clearly stretches across borders. The price fluctuations of commodities such as coffee, cocoa and olive oil travel even further. In Ivory Coast and Ghana, global cocoa prices soared 280 per cent in April 2024 following a heatwave two months earlier. A team of international scientists found that this 'dangerous humid heat' was roughly four degrees hotter due to climate change. In Vietnam, the world's biggest exporter of robusta coffee, prices increased 100 per cent in September 2024 after an August heatwave. And in Brazil, the leading exporter of arabica, prices were 55 per cent higher in August 2024 following a 2023 drought. 'What we were quite interested to see was that, particularly for East Asia, last summer, really, across the continent, from India to China, Korea, Japan, there were these spikes in the price of food happening as a result of temperatures that were completely unprecedented from a historical perspective,' said Kotz. The researchers also investigated the potential societal impacts of climate-induced food price spikes, including food security and public health. When food prices go up, fruit and vegetable consumption is 'very vulnerable,' underscored study co-author Anna Taylor, executive director of the Food Foundation . 'Food-insecure households are much more likely to report cutting back on fruit and veg purchases compared to food-secure households,' said Taylor. 'That really, really matters for health, because fruit and vegetables are sort of health-giving, if you like. They are massively important for immunity, but they also create long-term protections from a whole range of chronic conditions.' In addition to contributing to overall inflation, the authors identify political unrest as another potential societal risk. 'Our paper is really a call to action for us to consider these wider effects of food price increases in response to climate change for our societies more widely, as these effects are going to continue to become worse in the future,' said Kotz. A figure in the study maps the 16 examples of climate-induced food price spikes since 2022, colour coded by degree and type of event (heat, drought and floods). 'If you looked at Max's global picture, what you'd see through the eyes of an economist is well-functioning markets,' said Raj Patel, a member of the IPES-Food panel and a research professor at the University of Texas at Austin , who wasn't involved in the study. 'The weather turns, the crop becomes less likely to come out of the ground, and prices spike. But there is a political-economic consequence for that.' The researchers note that food price volatility has been linked to political instability throughout history, such as 2011's Arab Spring and the French and Russian revolutions of the 18th and 20th centuries. 'The meaning of food price inflation is political. It's always political,' said Patel. He cites Mozambique's 2010 bread riots , the roots of which were planted in Russia, where wildfires burned during the country's worst heatwave in more than a century. A lack of firefighting infrastructure made it difficult to put them out, and the country's main growing areas were decimated. As a result, Russia imposed an embargo on wheat exports, and global prices surged. People died due to the wildfires in Russia and during protests, sparked by sky-high bread prices, on the streets of Mozambique . 'This is how a heat spike in Russia can cause deaths by live ammunition in Mozambique,' adds Patel. 'These are the kinds of arcs that we need to be looking for when we understand climate change. Because climate change isn't just, 'Oh, it's hot outside.' Climate change is always freighted with a political valence.' Our website is the place for the latest breaking news, exclusive scoops, longreads and provocative commentary. Please bookmark and sign up for our cookbook and recipe newsletter, Cook This, here .
