Lobster fishermen leave Port Medway early on a November morning to set their traps. (Rick Conrad)

The Canada-China trade deal may be only a few days old, but it’s already having an effect on what lobster fishermen are getting for their catch, according to South Shore-St. Margarets MP Jessica Fancy.

“I’ve been talking to some of the executive directors for some of the different lobster associations in the area and they’re saying as quick as (Sunday), the price has been starting to go up. So they’re seeing this as a huge win.”

The Liberal politician spoke to QCCR on Monday about what the deal means for South Shore lobster and crab fishermen.

About $540 million worth of lobster was caught in the lucrative fishing grounds along the South Shore and around southwestern Nova Scotia last year.

And with the crab industry accounting for another $300 million, Fancy says that protecting those industries is vital for the area.

“Anytime you can get a better price, and not have to be dinged with the tariffs, that’s a good deal for me.”

Prime Minister Mark Carney and Chinese President Xi Jinping signed an agreement on Friday that would immediately reduce seafood tariffs to 15 per cent from 25 per cent. 

And on March 1, the tariffs on lobster and crab are set to disappear altogether. The deal lasts until the end of this year. The deal also affects canola, peas, steel and aluminum.

In exchange, Canada will drop its 100 per cent tariff on Chinese-made electric vehicles and allow 49,000 into the country each year.

“I was in Shelburne on Saturday night at one of the volunteer firefighter smoker events, and when I stood up to give my remarks, I had five or six men stand up and clapped for me in regards to the tariffs, and I had to stop for a second because I thought, ‘Wow, I, never thought I’d get a standing ovation in Shelburne County’, but it spoke to the importance of that deal, and the hard work that we’ve been doing, since October, in regards to trying to secure it.”

Fancy said she and her provincial counterparts, as well as representatives from the fishing industry, pushed the federal government to get a deal done.

Rick Perkins, the former MP for South Shore-St. Margarets, criticized the deal on his Facebook page. He called Chinese EVs “government-made spy machine cars” and questioned what happens to seafood tariffs next January.

“In regards to the term ‘spy machine’,” Fancy says, “I mean, we’re probably both holding a cell phone right now. So it’s kind of null and void and it’s unhelpful rhetoric in regards to the trade deal or what we are allowing in or out of the country.”

Fancy says the Canadian government plans to take the next nine months to continue talking trade with China, to try to get a longer term deal done.

“I’m going to use the analogy, as an educator, you know, when you have people in the playground, and they get upset with each other, and they have a fight, and you bring them in and you talk to them, you’re not going to repair that relationship overnight. So you’re not going to put in these lock and step long-term deals. You’re going to wait and look at how that relationship redevelops.”

She said she’ll travel to Ottawa later this week for Liberal caucus meetings where MPs will get a look at the deal in more detail. But she said she hopes this is just the beginning of more trade for South Shore fishermen.

“We’re seeing this as a huge win. … And it paves the way to resolve some of those long-standing trade barriers that were affecting different sectors.”

China is Canada’s second-largest trading partner after the United States. The government says it wants to increase exports to China by 50 per cent by 2030.

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Lobster boats leave Port Medway on Monday morning to set their traps on the opening day of the season. (Rick Conrad)

Hundreds of boats and thousands of fishermen set out early Monday morning from wharves along the South Shore for the opening day of lobster season.

Traditionally known as Dumping Day, it’s the first time that crews get out to set their traps for the biggest commercial lobster fishery in Canada.

Family and community members were on the wharf in Port Medway before sunrise to bid good luck to the 10 boats that left just after 7 a.m.

Jillian Perry drove from P.E.I. to see off her husband Bruce on his vessel All A’Boat Me. It’s his fourth season fishing with his own boat. The Island resident lives in Port Medway while he’s fishing.

“It’s just a really big day in the season,” she said. “It can be dangerous, but it’s also exciting. It’s the start of a new season and we just hope for the best and it’s always good luck to come over and wish everyone good luck on their big day.”

Claudine Bulley of Liverpool was also at the wharf on Monday morning to watch her boyfriend Nick Conrad head out on Donkey Riding.

“It’s a tradition to come down and watch them go because it’s the first day of the season. It’s quite exciting too, just to see the season start and see what the catch is going to be.”

Just under 1,700 vessels and 10,000 people headed out from Cow Bay to Digby County on Monday to try to get the best fishing spots. The area’s lobster fishery brought in about $540 million and 21,500 metric tonnes in 2024-25, according to preliminary figures supplied by the Department of Fisheries and Oceans.

More than 7,100 tonnes of lobster was caught in 2024-25 in LFA 33, the area from Cow Bay to Shelburne, which was worth over $180 million.

In the larger LFA 34, which covers Digby and Yarmouth counties, fishermen caught more than 14,400 tonnes for a value of about $360 million.

Crews had good weather on Monday to start the season.

“I’ve checked with several captains throughout 33 and 34 and as far as I’m aware at this time, nothing, not a breakdown, no ropes caught in the gear,” Dan Fleck, executive director of the Brazil Rock 33/34 Lobster Association, told QCCR Monday afternoon.

“Everybody safe and the gear is getting set in the water, no issues to report. A beautiful day on the water though, gorgeous day.”

Fleck said it’s too early to know what the opening price will be this year. But he said fishermen in the Bay of Fundy are getting $10 a pound. The opening price last year was $11 a pound.

“If you look at what the captains are facing now, mackerel is, I think, $2.35 a pound for bait that’s just for mackerel. Herring’s expensive. Everything keeps going up except the price of lobsters.”

Fleck says fishermen are also keeping an eye on tariffs. China imposed a 25 per cent tariff on Canadian lobster in March, though so far, the U.S. has held off.

And he said fishermen in some areas off Digby and Yarmouth counties last year had to deal with female Jonah crabs getting into their traps early in the season and eating their bait. That led to lower catches for some.

“We had exorbitant numbers of female Jonah crabs which are illegal to possess bycatch or do anything with them, so people are just literally dumping out the traps. We see those numbers have dissipated quite a bit from last year, so we’re just hoping they haven’t moved into anybody else’s traps.”

There are 678 licence holders in LFA 33, with each limited to 250 traps per licence. There are 978 vessels in LFA 34, with each licence limited to 375 traps. The season runs until May 31.

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Some of the drugs seized in RCMP raids in southwestern Nova Scotia earlier in February. (RCMP Nova Scotia)

UPDATED Feb. 25 at 5:20 p.m.

RCMP have charged 21 people, including three from Queens County, with more than 50 offences after raids on Mi’kmaw-owned cannabis businesses in Queens, Kings, Lunenburg and Annapolis counties.

Southwest Nova RCMP called the operation Project Highfield. It began in October 2024 and involved 13 dispensaries throughout southwestern Nova Scotia.

RCMP said Tuesday it involved officers from various units, as well as police services in Kentville, Bridgewater and Annapolis.

Police raided the retailers between Feb. 4 and 13. Two of those were on the Wildcat and Ponhook reserves of the Acadia First Nation.

RCMP held a news conference in New Minas on Tuesday afternoon to announce the charges and items seized.

They conducted raids on dispensaries on- and off-reserve, Supt. Jason Popik of Southwest Nova RCMP told QCCR on Tuesday, including in Acadia, Glooscap and Annapolis Valley First Nations.

Police seized:

• 141.4 kg of dried cannabis
• 189.29 kg of cannabis edibles
• 46 kg of liquid cannabis
• 23.4 kg of hashish
• 9.5 kg of psilocybin, or magic mushrooms
• 958 cartons of unstamped tobacco
• 18 firearms (17 long guns and a handgun)
• $16,143.14 in cash
• 3 ATMs
• 7 shed-like structures

Supt. Popik told QCCR in an interview on Tuesday that organized crime is using indigenous communities to undercut the legal cannabis market, with unregulated product.

“I see them infiltrating the legal cannabis market and they’re really exploiting the indigenous communities,” he said.

“They’re trying to utilize the treaties to find a rational way for them to sell their drugs. And they’re doing it through the people running the different dispensaries. Organized crime will exploit any opportunity they have. … They’re making a lot of money, the dispensaries are the ones taking the risk and the dispensary owners are the ones being arrested.”

Supt. Popik said the wholesale value of all the drugs seized is about $1.25 million, while the street or retail value is between $2.5 and $3 million.

The Micmac Rights Association is protesting the RCMP action. Many of those charged belong to the organization.

The group says Mi’kmaw have a right under the Peace and Friendship Treaty of 1752 to sell cannabis at truckhouses on reserve.

They say officers desecrated sacred objects, destroyed personal property and traumatized Mi’kmaw men, women and children. The group plans a protest on the Angus L. Macdonald bridge in Halifax on March 10. On June 21, a 15-year-old boy will lead a 111-kilometre march from Annapolis Valley First Nation to the Dartmouth RCMP headquarters.

Twenty-one people are facing 52 charges under the Cannabis Act, Controlled Drugs and Substances Act, the Excise Act and the Criminal Code, including:

• Possession of cannabis for the purpose of selling
• Unauthorized sale of cannabis
• Possession for the purpose of trafficking (psilocybin)
• Possession of unstamped tobacco
• Possession of unstamped cannabis
• Careless use of a firearm
• Possession of prohibited or restricted firearm with ammunition

Service Nova Scotia’s alcohol, gaming, fuel and tobacco division, and the federal Public Prosecution Service, also assisted in the investigation, RCMP said.

Those charged will begin to appear in court in June, RCMP say. They say their investigation is ongoing and more arrests are expected.

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Ronnie Conrad on the West Berlin Wharf on Friday, on the last day of lobster fishing season. (Rick Conrad)

Friday was the last day of lobster fishing season on Nova Scotia’s South Shore.

And fishermen at wharves in Queens County say it was a good one.

Ronnie Conrad of West Berlin has been fishing for 44 years. He said conditions on the water were rougher than last year, with more wind, but catches were up. 

“(It’s) been a real good season. It started off good, but it didn’t sound like it was going to be a real good season all over, but I call it a real good season.

“We were up probably stock-wise another 25, 30 per cent.”

Almost 1,700 licensed vessels fish along Nova Scotia’s southwestern shore, from Cow Bay near Halifax, around the southwestern end of the province to the Bay of Fundy.

The season opened in lobster fishing area 33 on Nov. 26. That’s the area from Cow Bay to Shelburne. And it began a couple of days later in LFA 34, which takes in the rest of southwestern Nova Scotia to Digby County. 

Conrad said he thinks most fishermen in both districts did well.

“Overall, I think everybody came out pretty good. Southwest, District 34, was down all fall and all winter, but they had a real good spring. So that was a plus for them.”

He said he usually fishes about 25 kilometres off shore in the winter time, leaving at 3 in the morning and getting back about 12 hours later. And for the first few days of the season, if catches are good, he and his crew will be out for up to 20 hours, hauling as many as 500 traps total, double what they would do on a normal day.

This year, though, he decided to stick closer to the coast.

“Normally, I go out there probably about 16, 17 miles in the wintertime. But this year, I didn’t venture out that far because there weren’t any lobsters offshore.

“It got cold quick. It started off colder than last year too. It keeps the catch down. Lobster won’t crawl in cold water. This spring it warmed up quick and we had an excellent spring. Everywhere along the coast we had a real good spring.”

Lobster fisherman Mike Mattatall unloaded his last catch of the season at the wharf in Port Medway on Friday. (Rick Conrad)

38-year-old Mike Mattatall from Sable River has been fishing most of his life. For the past three years, he’s had his own boat out of Port Medway. 

“Every season is so different. Last year was probably a little more in catch, but the average price through the winter helped sell some more lobsters through (last) winter because the water was warmer. Colder water made the winter pretty slow this year.”

Mattatall said prices started out around $9 a pound this season, went up as high as $20 in the winter when the catch was scarce and settled around $7 a pound this spring.

Just because the season’s over, though, it doesn’t mean the work stops. Fishermen will spend the summer and fall fixing up their boats, building new traps and spending some time with their families.

But you won’t hear people like Mattatall and Conrad complain.

“It’s a lifestyle, though. I don’t really know what it is, comparable to other kind of work. You’d probably have to come do it and tell me how much different it is than your job. It depends on who you are. We don’t find it hard. We like it.”

Conrad says he’s not going to retire yet.

“My wife wants me to be done now, but the money’s just too good yet, so I’m gonna hang in for another year or two anyway.”

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Nova Scotia Premier Tim Houston told reporters Thursday that a $25,000 fine for violating burn restrictions is about preventing more wildfires. (Nova Scotia Government)

With wildfires breaking out in western Canada, Nova Scotia has increased the fine for violating the daily burn restrictions to $25,000.

From March 15 to Oct. 15, daily burn restrictions are in place across the province to help prevent wildfires.

Burning is not permitted anywhere between 8 a.m. and 2 p.m. because that is when the wildfire risk is greatest.

Premier Tim Houston told reporters on Thursday that the increased fine is to help prevent the wildfires from happening in the first place. The basic fine for violating burn restrictions is $237.50. The larger fine is in place until the end of wildfire season.

“We encourage all Nova Scotians to check before you burn,” Houston said. “Check the website, reach out to find out what’s the situation in your community. … With the weather changing, the risk increases and we know the experience that we had in this province last year and we are seeing what is happening across the country, significant forest fires across the country. We should do what we can to prepare and encourage prevention.”

Last spring, wildfires in southwestern Nova Scotia and in the Halifax area consumed more than 25,000 hectares and destroyed 200 homes. 

Houston said people should check the province’s BurnSafe map every day to check the restrictions in their area.

The daily burn restrictions also now apply to campgrounds. Open fires like campfires are permitted only after 2 p.m. when the BurnSafe map is green or after 7 p.m. when the map is yellow. Those are the same standards for open fires in people’s backyards.

The province increased the fine to $25,000 last year when the Nova Scotia wildfires were still burning. Houston said Thursday he’s confident that if somebody violates the burning restrictions, they will be fined.

“So the enforcement is there. We’re serious about preparation, we’re serious about prevention. I would personally push for if anyone ignores the burn ban, I want them charged for sure.”

So far this year, crews have responded to 41 wildfires across the province that have burned about 39 hectares.

Email: rickconradqccr@gmail.com