Month: September 2025

By Ashley Sharp

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    LAKE TAHOE, California (KPIX) — A mother black bear and her cub are causing quite the stir in South Lake Tahoe, as some neighbors are now rallying community support for the duo.

It comes as the California Department of Fish and Wildlife confirmed to CBS Sacramento on Wednesday that they are monitoring the bears and plan to euthanize the mother, which is identified by its tag number as bear number 753.

“CDFW had determined that the bear is ‘habituated’ – meaning it has learned to associate people, homes and neighborhoods as sources of food and has become completely reliant and dependent on those human food sources. Consequently, CDFW has determined that management action is required, and bear 753 has been approved for lethal removal,” a spokesperson for the agency told CBS Sacramento in a statement.

On both Tuesday and Wednesday evenings, Tahoe’s nonprofit BEAR League and south shore neighbors teamed up to call attention to the plans and send a message that bears should not be killed. They hosted a roadside protest near the Tahoe Keys Marina.

The Tahoe community has lovingly named the mother, Hope, and her playful cub, Bounce.

“We want to evolve. We want to coexist,” said Staci Baker at the roadside rally Wednesday night.

Baker is a veterinarian of 30 years in the greater Tahoe region.

“We can be kinder and smarter. We can do this as a community. We don’t want CDFW trapping and slaughtering anymore,” Baker said.

The CDFW said the approved “lethal removal” follows a series of more than a dozen home break-ins by the bears this summer.

“This sow and now its dependent cub have repeatedly broken into homes, including occupied homes and including situations that were no fault of the property owners. Obviously, this creates an unsafe situation when an adult bear is actively looking to break into homes and other buildings. From our long experience in the Tahoe Basin and other parts of the state, this conflict behavior is likely to continue and escalate over time as the bears persist in seeking out human food sources. While this bear has not shown aggressive behavior toward people, that is too often the outcome in situations such as this, once a bear has lost its natural fear of people,” a spokesperson for the agency told CBS Sacramento.

Kathi Zollinger, a volunteer team leader for the BEAR League, says she has been working round-the-clock daily to humanely ‘haze’ the bears with paintball guns, vehicles and other non-lethal options to help push the bears back to the wild where they belong.

“People call and we will go haze her out of mainly the keys, sometimes up to 9 hours a day,” said Zollinger, describing the work as a full-time job.

She says now it feels like time is running out since CDFW confirmed its plans to euthanize the mother.

“I cry regularly about it. It’s awful they think the only thing they can do is kill the bear,” Zollinger said. “She’s not the only one doing this. There are six moms in the area we are aware of. What are they going to do? Kill them all? That is ridiculous.”

Zollinger says the BEAR League would rather see the animals relocated and even offered to pay for it.

“It’s not the perfect answer but it’s better than her being dead,” Zollinger said. “You can’t kill your way out of this. That doesn’t solve the problem.”

CBS Sacramento asked CDFW what will happen to ‘Bounce’ the cub if its mother is euthanized.

“The cub will be evaluated if and when we are able to catch it. Our goal was to get the cub into a permitted wildlife rehabilitation facility – to break this generational pattern of human conflict and home invasions – and return it to the wild in the spring when it is big enough and old enough to care for itself and when there are a lot of natural resources on the landscape to support its transition to being a wild bear,” a spokesperson for CDFW responded.

The agency clarified it is not actively setting traps for any bears in this area at this time.

BEAR League advocates disagree with CDFW’s approach and say human error can be at least partly to blame for the “break-ins.”

Zollinger says in several cases their group believes home doors were left unlocked or windows were left open, which allowed the bears easy entry and says they cannot be blamed for searching for food to survive in bear country, where the loss of habitat is threatening their kind.

“We do want people to learn how to coexist with the bears. We do that through education. We want people to wire their homes now,” Zollinger said.

She says electric wiring homes in the Tahoe region, which will administer a non-lethal shock when the bears get too close, is the best way to save the animals and protect property.

They also advocate that Tahoe neighbors keep their doors and windows shut and locked, properly secure and dispose of garbage, clean up fallen fruit from trees in their yards and actively work to scare away any bears near a home so they do not get too comfortable.

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By Maria Sarrouh

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    CHARLOTTETOWN, P.E.I. (CTV Network) — The global cocoa shortage has hit a Prince Edward Island ice-cream shop, jeopardizing a fan favourite.

Holman’s Ice Cream Parlour in Summerside, P.E.I. is testing new cocoa powders after its go-to was taken off the shelves amid a global shortage, owner Daniel Meister says.

The shop has backup batches in the freezer while it searches for the right replacement with similar fat content, pH and colour. Alternatives exist, but some cost up to four times more than before.

“We wouldn’t dare take chocolate ice cream out of the lineup. It’s a very, very popular flavour,” Meister said. “It’s a staple… it’s not really something we can take off the menu.”

Holman’s previously paid $9.99 for 700 grams. Over the last couple of years, that rose to $20. But the shop needs much bigger quantities. One product they’re testing goes for $600 for a 20-kilogram bag. Meister says that bag might cover five or six batches.

“It makes a significant difference in our cost,” he said. “Can we find something that matches the quality that we’re expecting while also not bankrupting ourselves or having to pass on that cost to our customers?”

Holman’s isn’t alone, Meister says. Recently, another business in the area couldn’t find cocoa and posted on social media asking for a supplier. The Holman’s team ran over with a few packages they had in store to tide them over.The math matters even more for small businesses managing their margins. Holman’s raised prices by $1 across the board earlier this year and hopes to keep them steady next.

Cocoa costs have surged since late 2023 due to production challenges in countries including Ghana and the Ivory Coast, which experts link to climate change.

Some companies have cut cocoa-related products altogether, says food expert Sylvain Charlebois, a visiting scholar at McGill University’s Faculty of Agriculture.

“They knew they couldn’t sell some of these products at a higher price, essentially. So, they stopped carrying some of these products,” Charlebois said.

His advice to businesses and manufacturers across the Maritimes and the country is not to rely on a single source. Instead, he said it’s safer to have a few suppliers for important ingredients.

“I wish I could say that there is some good news, but it’s quite problematic,” Charlebois said. “The same is happening with coffee…prices are way up.”

Holman’s is known for making more than 100 handcrafted flavours, with 16 on the daily rotation. The shop says that while some recipes may shift, the standard won’t.

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By Judy Trinh

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    OTTAWA (CTV Network) — Prime Minister Mark Carney is embarking on a pivotal meeting with Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum on Thursday, just as the United States officially launches the process to review the North American trade agreement.

The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative will seek public comments on the Canada-U.S.-Mexico Agreement (CUSMA) over 45 days and has scheduled a public hearing in November.

Public consultation is required by law and is a clear sign that the Trump administration is preparing to renegotiate, not just review, the trilateral agreement, says Eric Miller, president of Rideau Potomac Strategy Group.

“They’re trying to get stakeholders a list of all the things they have concerns about. It doesn’t mean all of them become priorities, but they’re starting with a big list and are going to shrink it down to a smaller list,” said Miller, whose client list includes Canadian exporters.

Under the current agreement, Canada’s trade with the U.S. is 85 per cent tariff free, but that could change when CUSMA expires next June.

“Donald Trump doesn’t have a commitment to a bigger vision of North American collaboration,” Miller said.

Diversifying trade with Mexico

Squeezed by Trump’s sectoral tariffs on steel, aluminum and autos, Canada’s GDP shrunk by 1.6 per cent in the second quarter of 2025.

It’s under this pressure that Carney is meeting with Sheinbaum to strengthen their bilateral relationship and increase trade.

Mexico is Canada’s third biggest trading partner and last year, the two countries did $56 billion in imports and exports.

Foreign Affairs Minister Anita Anand and Minister Dominic LeBlanc, the government’s point person for U.S. trade negotiations, will also be part of the meetings in Mexico City.

Ahead of the prime minister’s 36-hour whirlwind trip, senior government officials told reporters in a briefing that Carney and Sheinbaum will hold one-on-one meetings, followed by a working lunch with their cabinet ministers and secretaries.

A new strategic partnership will be signed that would include commitments for more frequent high-level contact between the two governments.

Other than in June, when Carney met with Sheinbaum on the margins of the G7, the last time there was an official meeting between the leaders of Canada and Mexico without the U.S. was in 2017.

The prime minister will also visit a train terminal to watch Canadian Pacific Railway offload a delivery of Canadian wheat, and host a reception to connect business leaders from both countries.

‘Aligning’ interests Goldy Hyder, CEO of the Business Council of Canada, says the government needs to use the meeting to better position itself for the CUSMA review by working “in tandem with Mexico to align” interests.

Hyder says Canada also needs to pitch itself as an “investment destination” for mining and energy, as well as for developing port infrastructure.

According to John Boscariol, who leads the International Trade and Investment Law Group at McCarthy Tetrault, Canada only represents five per cent of Mexico’s international trade.

As Canada looks to diversify its trade, Boscariol says Mexico is the “natural next best trading partner to the United States.”

Boscariol sees an opportunity for Canada to sell more auto parts to Mexico, along with agricultural products such as potash.

Co-operation vs. competition

But the two countries cannot replace the U.S. with each other.

Duncan Wood, with Washington-based Hurst International Consulting, has researched Mexican trade and supply chains. Wood says as CUSMA negotiations progress, tensions between the two smaller partners could increase.

“I find it very difficult to imagine how the two countries are going to find a lot of common ground. There’s so much pressure right now pushing them away from each other as each one tries to secure preferential treatment from Washington.”

Wood says Carney and Sheinbaum need to discuss aligning their policies on China if they want a stronger position when CUSMA is renegotiated.

“The big thing that matters in Washington is if you can show how Mexico and Canada can help with the United States’ geopolitical competition with China.”

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