In the news today: Climate change taking toll on Canada’s lighthouses

Here is a roundup of stories from The Canadian Press designed to bring you up to speed…

‘It isn’t a future thing.’ Climate change is taking a toll on Canada’s lighthouses

The recent decision to move a Nova Scotia lighthouse inland to prevent it from falling into the Bay of Fundy is highlighting the impact of climate change on the province’s coastline. For more than 150 years, the Walton Harbour lighthouse stood watch from a cliff overlooking the bay — but in recent years, coastal erosion had left the wooden tower perilously close to the edge. John Ogilvie, vice-president of the Walton Area Development Association, says the rate of erosion has increased in the past 10 years. In November, the municipality spent about $100,000 to drag the lighthouse to a safer location about 45 metres inland. The Canadian Centre for Climate Change and Adaptation in PEI has determined that 17 of the Island’s 61 lighthouses and range lights are threatened by coastal erosion.

Quebec heritage site destroyed by fire

A Quebec heritage site on the Island of Montreal that was the former home of a renowned artist has been destroyed in a fire. A Montreal fire department spokesperson says it took some 40 firefighters about five hours to extinguish the blaze that began Sunday night at the vacant residence in the on-island suburb of Kirkland. The former home and studio belonged to Charles Daudelin, a well-known sculptor and painter whose art has been displayed in Ottawa, Quebec, Montreal, Charlottetown and Paris. Built beginning in 1951 and later enlarged, the flat-roofed, cedar-clad building, as well as its stand-alone studio, was Daudelin’s home and workplace for some 50 years until his death in 2001.

Here’s what else we’re watching…

Manitobans may get new tax, affordability help

Manitoba Premier Wab Kinew is leaving the door open to new financial support for people affected by United States trade policies, and businesses hit by property tax increases. Kinew says the provincial government is willing to consider financial aid if U.S. president-elect Donald Trump follows through on a threat to impose tariffs on Canadian goods. He says the impact of tariffs could be severe, and some range of affordability measures would help people through economic uncertainty. Kinew says those measures are yet to be determined but that he also wants to offer new aid to small businesses facing higher property taxes.

Could Quebec deal ease high Labrador flight costs?

As officials look for ways to lower soaring flight costs for people in Labrador, one airport executive hopes a massive new energy deal with Quebec will help out. The northern region is served by PAL Airlines and its partner, Air Borealis, and Rex Goudie of the Goose Bay Airport Corporation says an increased need for more rotational workers could attract a competing carrier. Quebec and Newfoundland and Labrador signed a tentative agreement earlier this month to build new hydroelectric facilities along the Churchill River that promise thousands of jobs and billions of dollars in revenue. An October report commissioned by the Goose Bay Airport Corporation found that flight costs in Labrador increased by 33 per cent since 2019, compared with just nine per cent across Canada.

Happy B-day, Celsius: 50 years of metric in Canada

Environment Canada’s use of Celsius will be celebrating its golden birthday in 2025. The staple of the country’s weather culture stirred up confusion and anger when it was first introduced on a bone-chilling April Fools’ Day in 1975. Climatologist David Phillips says those used to Imperial measurements may have seen it as a joke when they heard below-zero weather forecasts. Celsius was the catalyst of a lengthy national metric conversion that abruptly ended a decade after it began. The result is seen and felt every day, as Canadians wear clothes measured in inches, buy gas by the litre, drink from millilitre beer cans and step on bathroom scales in pounds.

Christmas count documents 125 years of Ont. birds

Bird enthusiasts across Ontario are bringing out binoculars for the 125th edition of the annual Christmas Bird Count. The count is billed as one of the longest-running citizen-science projects in North America and is overseen in Canada by the conservation group Birds Canada. The results from roughly 475 counts across the country help underpin the federal government’s major State of Canada’s Birds report. Geoff Carpentier, a retired public servant and avid birder, has been taking part since the 1970s and hopes it inspires more people to get involved in nature conservation. The volunteer-run counts happen annually from December 14th through to January 5th.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Dec. 31, 2024.

The Canadian Press