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Maple syrup producers see climate change as a threat to industry’s future

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Paul Renaud is only too aware of what the power of wind can do to trees.

After violent windstorms recently swept through southern Ontario and Quebec, uprooting trees and leaving a trail of damage across a vast territory, Renaud’s thoughts went right to his sugar maples in Lanark Highlands, Ont., where storms once considered rogue now seem more frequent.

“We’ve had two in six months,” he said in an interview. “Each one has taken out maple trees.”

Worsening storms aren’t the only changes Renaud sees. As chair of the climate change working group for the Ontario Maple Syrup Producers Association, he says dramatic weather is having a serious effect on his industry.

Syrup producers are recording declining yields due to increasing global temperatures, which are leading to more invasive pests, sap that is less sugary and shorter harvesting periods than the normal four-to-six-week season.

Longer and more severe droughts kill seedlings and stunt root growth. Unpredictable spring frosts, meanwhile, can shock and destroy new leaf buds, while milder winters with less snow cover leave bare roots exposed.

“Trees get stressed and then they are more susceptible to pests and pathogens,” said Joshua Rapp, an associate at Harvard University’s school of forestry.

The attacks keep coming. An infestation of tent caterpillars in 2018 left some Ontario producers with 30 per cent less syrup than the year before. The caterpillars eat the leaves, which help make the sugar, leading to less sugary saps.

With earlier and shorter tapping seasons, producers are scrambling to find workers. One third of North American producers said they missed their first sap flow of the season several years in a row, according to a 2019 survey of nearly 400 producers.

Each year between late February and early May, maple syrup producers rely on the delicate freeze-thaw cycles of spring. When nighttime temperatures drop below zero, the maple tree contracts and sap rushes up from the roots into its branches. When temperatures rise during the day, the tree’s wood expands, putting pressure on the branches and forcing the sap back down the trunk and into the taps.

The sap is boiled until most of the water evaporates, leaving behind the dense, sweet liquid we know as maple syrup. It takes about 40 litres of sap to make one litre of maple syrup.

By 2100, some U.S. states could see production shift one month earlier — and become nonexistent in some regions like Virginia. “As you go farther north, there’s still a sap season but it moves earlier in the year,” Rapp said in a recent interview.

The effects of changing temperatures are felt unequally. Warmer temperatures could benefit northern parts of Ontario and Quebec, which could see up to 40 litres more sap per tap each year.

“Moving it earlier in time actually makes the season better, because it lengthens the season out,” Rapp said. But he warned that higher temperatures produce less sugary sap, and as a consequence, more sap is needed to make the maple syrup consumers are used to.

Meanwhile, the growth in global demand for the sweet syrup shows no sign of abating. When the balmy 2021 winter and abrupt spring thaw brought low harvests, the industry had to dip deeply into its strategic reserves to meet global demand, which rose by 23 per cent. In response, Quebec Maple Syrup Producers drained nearly half its reserve — 23,000 tonnes worth $150 million.

The industry says keeping up with global syrup demand will require tapping 120 million more trees by 2080. That rise in consumption will add to the carbon levels in the atmosphere due to the wood or other fossil fuels burned to boil the sap.

“Eighty-five to 90 per cent of emissions that a maple syrup producer has relates to the boiling of sap,” Renaud said.

In their defence, producers contend that tapping more trees protects those trees from being harvested, ensuring that the industry sequesters more carbon than it releases.

Whatever the carbon math, the growing demand for maple syrup and diminished yields are requiring producers to look for ways to mitigate the effects of climate change. For example, thinning of maple stands encourages the growth of larger crowns on the remaining trees, “and that’s going to help them be healthier and produce more sap and sugar,” Rapp said.

But, he acknowledges that to save the industry, “the biggest thing is addressing climate change.”

This report by The Canadian Press was first published May 30, 2022.

— Meghan McGee is a nutrition scientist in Toronto and a fellow in the Certificate in Health Information program at the Dalla Lana School of Public Health, University of Toronto.

 

Meghan McGee, The Canadian Press

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TC Energy cuts cost estimate for Southeast Gateway pipeline project in Mexico

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CALGARY – TC Energy Corp. has lowered the estimated cost of its Southeast Gateway pipeline project in Mexico.

It says it now expects the project to cost between US$3.9 billion and US$4.1 billion compared with its original estimate of US$4.5 billion.

The change came as the company reported a third-quarter profit attributable to common shareholders of C$1.46 billion or $1.40 per share compared with a loss of C$197 million or 19 cents per share in the same quarter last year.

Revenue for the quarter ended Sept. 30 totalled C$4.08 billion, up from C$3.94 billion in the third quarter of 2023.

TC Energy says its comparable earnings for its latest quarter amounted to C$1.03 per share compared with C$1.00 per share a year earlier.

The average analyst estimate had been for a profit of 95 cents per share, according to LSEG Data & Analytics.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 7, 2024.

Companies in this story: (TSX:TRP)

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BCE reports Q3 loss on asset impairment charge, cuts revenue guidance

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BCE Inc. reported a loss in its latest quarter as it recorded $2.11 billion in asset impairment charges, mainly related to Bell Media’s TV and radio properties.

The company says its net loss attributable to common shareholders amounted to $1.24 billion or $1.36 per share for the quarter ended Sept. 30 compared with a profit of $640 million or 70 cents per share a year earlier.

On an adjusted basis, BCE says it earned 75 cents per share in its latest quarter compared with an adjusted profit of 81 cents per share in the same quarter last year.

“Bell’s results for the third quarter demonstrate that we are disciplined in our pursuit of profitable growth in an intensely competitive environment,” BCE chief executive Mirko Bibic said in a statement.

“Our focus this quarter, and throughout 2024, has been to attract higher-margin subscribers and reduce costs to help offset short-term revenue impacts from sustained competitive pricing pressures, slow economic growth and a media advertising market that is in transition.”

Operating revenue for the quarter totalled $5.97 billion, down from $6.08 billion in its third quarter of 2023.

BCE also said it now expects its revenue for 2024 to fall about 1.5 per cent compared with earlier guidance for an increase of zero to four per cent.

The company says the change comes as it faces lower-than-anticipated wireless product revenue and sustained pressure on wireless prices.

BCE added 33,111 net postpaid mobile phone subscribers, down 76.8 per cent from the same period last year, which was the company’s second-best performance on the metric since 2010.

It says the drop was driven by higher customer churn — a measure of subscribers who cancelled their service — amid greater competitive activity and promotional offer intensity. BCE’s monthly churn rate for the category was 1.28 per cent, up from 1.1 per cent during its previous third quarter.

The company also saw 11.6 per cent fewer gross subscriber activations “due to more targeted promotional offers and mobile device discounting compared to last year.”

Bell’s wireless mobile phone average revenue per user was $58.26, down 3.4 per cent from $60.28 in the third quarter of the prior year.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 7, 2024.

Companies in this story: (TSX:BCE)

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Canada Goose reports Q2 revenue down from year ago, trims full-year guidance

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TORONTO – Canada Goose Holdings Inc. trimmed its financial guidance as it reported its second-quarter revenue fell compared with a year ago.

The luxury clothing company says revenue for the quarter ended Sept. 29 totalled $267.8 million, down from $281.1 million in the same quarter last year.

Net income attributable to shareholders amounted to $5.4 million or six cents per diluted share, up from $3.9 million or four cents per diluted share a year earlier.

On an adjusted basis, Canada Goose says it earned five cents per diluted share in its latest quarter compared with an adjusted profit of 16 cents per diluted share a year earlier.

In its outlook, Canada Goose says it now expects total revenue for its full financial year to show a low-single-digit percentage decrease to low-single-digit percentage increase compared with earlier guidance for a low-single-digit increase.

It also says it now expects its adjusted net income per diluted share to show a mid-single-digit percentage increase compared with earlier guidance for a percentage increase in the mid-teens.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 7, 2024.

Companies in this story: (TSX:GOOS)

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