Ottawa, April 25, 2007 The Honourable Chuck Strahl, Minister of Agriculture and
Agri-Food and Minister for the Canadian Wheat Board, today announced new regulatory
measures in response to new Brown Spruce Longhorn Beetle (BSLB) detections in Nova Scotia.
The new measures, developed through consultation with stakeholders and the Canadian Food
Inspection Agency (CFIA), work to contain the BSLB while allowing scientists and
researchers to better understand the pest, and will come into effect on May 14, 2007.
These new measures will allow the industry in Nova Scotia to continue to move
regulated items to mills and markets while limiting the spread of BSLB, said
Minister Strahl.
Under the Plant Protection Act, the CFIA is responsible for the implementation
of science-based regulatory measures to protect areas free of quarantine pests such as BSLB
in Nova Scotia and to fulfill international obligations.
The new measures redefine regulated articles to include only the higher risk
commodities of spruce logs, bark and unprocessed wood chips. In addition, less restrictive
conditions for processing and controlled movement of the regulated articles will help
producers move their product to market. Also, there will be an expansion of the
containment area to include new detections plus a 10 kilometre buffer zone. The
containment area, to which these measures apply, will include central Halifax County and
very small adjacent portions of Colchester and Hants Counties. Mills and other processors
outside of the containment area will be allowed to process regulated articles which
originated inside the containment area once they have obtained a Risk Mitigation Agreement
from CFIA.
The province of Nova Scotia is committed to working with CFIA and stakeholders to
protect the provinces natural resources from this pest, said David Morse, Nova
Scotia Minister of Natural Resources.
Complete details, including
a map of the new containment area, will be posted to the CFIAs website at
www.inspection.gc.ca.
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For more information, please contact:
Canadian Food Inspection Agency
Media Relations: 613-228-6682
