Bob Robichaud, a warning preparedness meteorologist with Environment and Climate Change Canada, says Hurricane Lee is not expected to have the same intensity as Fiona at arrival — but he cautioned that it's a 'large storm' that people should prepare for, especially in western Nova Scotia and parts of southwestern New Brunswick.

The Government of P.E.I. has been targeted by a cyberattack that has led official websites to crash, according to the province.

A lack of ability to pump fuel at Irving's tank farm after post-tropical storm Fiona led to shortages across P.E.I. for days, but the arrival of a backup generator on Thursday should mean no repeat of that issue this weekend. 

The Global Climate Strike is Friday – part of a global effort to end the era of fossil fuels. The PEI edition of the Global Climate Strike is being held in Charlottetown on Richmond Street in front of the Coles Building.  Organizers say everyone is welcome and they’re asking participants to start gathering at 11:45am and then the event will begin at 12-noon.

Spokesperson Mille Clarkes says that for many years climate change was an issue that was intellectualized – it was something in our heads that we saw happening in the future.  But she says that after Hurricane Fiona last fall and the wildfires across Canada this year, she’s heard more and more Islanders this summer discussing the impacts of climate change.

The City of Charlottetown’s Planning Board is recommending that Council approve a couple significant variance applications.  One is for a one-year, temporary variance to establish an overdose prevention site in the Park Street area. The other is for a one-year, temporary variance to allow Park Street Emergency Shelter to continue to offer services.  The final decision to approve the variance applications will be determined by Council at a public meeting. The applications are considered active until a final decision by Council is made.

The City of Charlottetown's planning board recommended city council to approve two applications by the province at a special meeting on Wednesday night.

The Community Foundation of PEI has announced a new scholarship, Neil Robertson Memorial Scholarship Fund – established at the Foundation in 2022 in partnership with Sport PEI and the PEI Amateur Sport Fund. 

The Neil Robertson Memorial Scholarship Fund is intended for a PEI student who is in years 1-4 at UPEI or Holland College. The student must be competing as an ‘endurance sport athlete’.

While it is still far from the storm Fiona was, the forecast track for Hurricane Lee has shifted to the east in the last 24 hours, and that means a bigger impact on Prince Edward Island.

Summerside is getting set to host what’s being billed as the biggest kitchen party on PEI during the 2023 Fall Flavours Festival – it’s the inaugural Up West Kitchen Fest.  It will feature local chefs, farmers, producers, growers, and brewers, all bringing PEI to your plate. The festival will recreate dishes from Canada’s Food Island Cookbook in partnership with Dairy Farmers of PEI, showcasing a culinary experience with the best of PEI. Up West Kitchen Fest is a 19+ celebration that will be held on October 6 at the Credit Union Place. 

Two single vehicle collisions on Tuesday led to two impaired driving arrests.

First, at about 9:15am, Queens District RCMP got a call about a car in the ditch in Mayfield.  When they arrived on scene, police arrested the 32-year-old man driving the vehicle, and he’s facing charges for impaired driving.  

Then, at about 1:45 p.m., RCMP responded to a report of a camper that had gone into the ditch in North Winsloe.  Police located the driver of the camper, who they say was impaired. The 65-year-old man was arrested and will soon appear in court to answer to impaired driving charges.

No one was seriously injured in either incident.

The Canadian Hurricane Centre says that Hurricane Lee is shaping up to be a Saturday event for the strongest impacts, with lingering weaker conditions then on Sunday. It will be approaching as a category-1 hurricane and then becoming post-tropical at landfall.  While the centre of Lee could make landfall anywhere from Downeast Maine to western Nova Scotia as a strong tropical storm or post-tropical low late Saturday night or early Sunday, it is still expected to be a large and powerful system with impacts extending well away from the storm centre. 

P.E.I.'s environment minister says he's fully supportive of regulatory changes that would allow homeowners with solar panels to have backup battery storage in their homes, but the department in charge says that will have to wait.

A report examining the response to Fiona still hasn't been released. But Charlottetown Mutual Aid, a volunteer group that stepped up to help then, is hoping the province learned from that experience.

The wait for cataract surgery or hip or knee replacements could be 12-24 months, but it depends what surgeon’s list you’re on.

As Hurricane Lee makes its way toward the Maritimes this weekend, some homeowners on P.E.I. are still dealing with repairs related to Fiona almost a year ago. 

Birders on P.E.I. are thrilled by a crested caracara that has taken up residence on the Island this summer. But an expert says the bird's future on the Island isn't looking so bright.

P.E.I.'s newly proclaimed Missing Persons Act may have come into force too late to make a significant difference in the Summer Kneebone inquiry, says a mother whose family was helped by a similar act in Ontario.

The Texas Rangers beat the Toronto Blue Jays 6-3 Tuesday night. The Rangers extended their winning streak to four games and leapfrogged the Jays in the A-L wild-card standings. Texas moved into the second of three wild-card spots and also secured the tiebreaker advantage over Toronto should the teams finish with identical records. Seattle beat the Angels and tied Toronto for the third and final AL wild card spot.

Game 4 of the 22U Island Junior Baseball League Finals between the Capital District Junior Islanders and Stratford A’s has been rescheduled for Wednesday night at Memorial Field at 8:00pm.  Stratford is leading the best of five series 2-1 and can clinch the title with a win.

Melody Maker and Dale Spence took Tuesday night’s $3400 feature at Red Shores at the Summerside Raceway.  The Greg MacInnis owned and trained Melody Maker won in 1:53.4 .  It was one of four winning drives on the night for Spence.  Live racing continues Thursday evening at 6 P.M. at Red Shores Charlottetown. 

SCOREBOARD

Tuesday’s Scoreboard

MLB

American League

Texas 6 Toronto 3

Minnesota 3 Tampa Bay 2

Oakland 6 Houston 2

Seattle 8 L.A. Angels 0

New York Yankees 3 Boston 2, 1st game

New York Yankees 4 Boston 1, 2nd game

Chicago White Sox 6 Kansas City 2, 1st game

Kansas City 11 Chicago White Sox 10, 2nd game

National League

Atlanta 7 Philadelphia 6 (10 innings)

Pittsburgh 5 Washington 1

N.Y. Mets 7 Arizona 4

Milwaukee 3 Miami 1

Colorado 6 Chicago Cubs 4

L.A. Dodgers 11 San Diego 2

Interleague

St. Louis 5 Baltimore 2

Cleveland 3 San Francisco 1

Cincinnati 6 Detroit 5 (10 innings)

* * * * * * * * * *

Wednesday’s Games

(All times Eastern)

MLB

American League

Tampa Bay (Bradley 5-7) at Minnesota (Keuchel 1-1), 1:10 p.m.

L.A. Angels (TBD) at Seattle (Castillo 12-7), 4:10 p.m.

Texas (Montgomery 8-11) at Toronto (Kikuchi 9-5), 7:07 p.m.

Oakland (Blackburn 4-4) at Houston Brown 10-11), 7:10 p.m.

N.Y. Yankees (Schmidt 9-8) at Boston (Houck 4-9), 7:10 p.m.

Kansas City (Cruz 0-0) at Chicago White Sox (Clevinger 7-7), 7:40 p.m.

National League

Chicago Cubs (Taillon 7-9) at Colorado (Blach 2-1), 3:10 p.m.

Washington (TBD) at Pittsburgh (TBD), 6:35 p.m.

Atlanta (Strider 16-5) at Philadelphia (Sanchez 2-3), 6:40 p.m.

Arizona (Gallen 15-7) at N.Y. Mets (Senga 10-7), 7:10 p.m.

Miami (Garrett 8-6) at Milwaukee (Rea 5-5), 7:40 p.m.

San Diego (Snell 13-9) at L.A. Dodgers (Pepiot 2-0), 10:10 p.m.

Interleague

Cleveland (Allen 7-7) at San Francisco (Harrison 1-1), 3:45 p.m.

Cincinnati (Phillips 0-0) at Detroit (Rodriguez 11-7), 6:40 p.m.

—

(The Canadian Press)

The increasing cost of doing business — that’s the number one concern expressed by respondents in the Greater Charlottetown Area Chamber of Commerce’s 2023 Membership Survey.

Over 75% of survey respondents marked inflation/cost of doing business as the most pressing concern or issue impacting their business. Additionally, almost 40% of respondents marked rising interest rates as a top concern. 

A 59-year old Nova Scotia man has been charged with refusing to provide a breath sample upon demand and is facing a court date.  Just after 2:00am on Saturday, Charlottetown Police spotted a vehicle being driven erratically on Kent Street and conducted a traffic stop.  Police determined that the driver was impaired by alcohol and placed him under arrest.  He was brought back to the Police Station where police say he refused to provide breath samples.

Their Excellencies, Governor General Mary Simon and Whit Fraser will wrap up their Prince Edward Island visit on Wednesday.  The Governor General ends it with a visit to Charlottetown Rural High School in the morning.  During her visit to the school, the Governor General will meet with students and participate in a Q&A session.   She will also meet with new Canadian students who are learning English. 

The Governor General will head to Nova Scotia in the afternoon for a three-day visit.

Hurricane Lee, which will likely hit the Maritimes this weekend as a tropical low, is not expected to bring anything like the devastation Fiona did last year. It will still be a significant storm, though, says CBC meteorologist Tina Simpkin.

Kensington Police arrested a driver Tuesday morning after they failed a roadside screening device test.  It was the result of a traffic stop conducted by police at about 8:30 am.  Kensington Police say that the driver, a Kensington resident, later provided two breath samples that showed them to be more than double the legal limit.  Police also arrested the passenger of the vehicle for an unrelated matter.

The Canadian Hurricane Centre in Halifax says Hurricane Lee’s strength will be sapped by cooler sea-surface temperatures as it continues to move north.  The storm is expected to lash parts of the Maritimes with heavy rain this weekend, but its wind speeds are not expected to reach hurricane-strength, which is 119 kilometres per hour.  Still, the centre says western Nova Scotia will endure the worst that Lee has to offer, which includes heavy rain that could start as early as Thursday.  But meteorologist Ian Hubbard says the storm will not be as powerful as post-tropical storm Fiona, which caused widespread damage in Nova Scotia, P-E-I and southwestern Newfoundland almost a year ago.

Charlottetown police say they are investigating five separate reports of rental fraud related to an apartment hosting short-term rentals.
One woman says she paid a 23-hundred dollar deposit on the one-bedroom apartment after meeting with a man claiming to be the property
manager — but the man disappeared as the move-in date approached.
The woman says she later discovered that the apartment was a short-term rental, and the man who had said he owned it was just staying there for the night.
Police say there are three similar investigations being done by the R-C-M-P in Stratford and two others in the Moncton area, but no charges have been laid. 

A group of senators is touring farms on Prince Edward Island to get a clearer picture of the Temporary Foreign Worker Program and look at ways of improving it.

Health P.E.I. says it's keeping a close eye on the number of COVID-19, respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) and flu cases among staff and patients, as it weighs whether to bring back mandatory masking at its facilities. 

Jan Vanderzwaag, who also goes by John, has pleaded not guilty to sexually assaulting two boys more than 20 years ago.

Profits at the P.E.I. Energy Corporation were slashed by more than half last year, with auditors warning revenues will drop even further as the Crown enterprise tries to repair one of the province's biggest wind farms.

A P.E.I. man accused of trying to kill the mother of his child in late June pleaded not guilty to all charges in Charlottetown Supreme Court on Tuesday.

Jori Livingston discovered the apartment she thought she'd rented wasn't a long-term rental at all, and the person who appeared to be renting it to her had actually rented it himself on Airbnb.

With a deadline for proposals from other ship suppliers passed, Transport Canada is negotiating for the purchase of MV Fanafjord to replace MV Holiday Island, which caught fire and burned in the Northumberland Strait in the summer of 2022.

The City of Charlottetown is part of a pilot project to add two more safe-disposals to the city, but some city councillors wonder how effective they will be.

The RCMP says its Major Crime Unit continues to investigate the sword attack earlier this month in Seacow Pond, and is following up on tips. Anyone with information that could assist in the investigation is asked to reach out to West Prince RCMP at 902-853-9300.  The RCMP says rumours are circulating that an arrest was made in the investigation, but those rumours are false. 

On day two of the visit to PEI by their Excellencies, Governor General Mary Simon and Whit Fraser, the Governor General is to visit Abegweit First Nation and Abegweit Biodiversity Enhancement Hatchery.  During the visit, the Governor General will also meet with members of the Abegweit First Nation community.  A focus of this visit is reconciliation, and yesterday the Governor General met with Chief Darlene Bernard of Lennox Island First Nation, and Chief “Junior” Gould of Abegweit First Nation.  This afternoon, the agenda also includes a visit to the Canadian Centre for Climate Change and Adaptation in St Peters Bay.  

The Canadian Hurricane Centre says the track of Hurricane Lee could take it anywhere from Maine to southeastern Nova Scotia by this weekend.   

In the Centre’s first statement on the storm released Monday, it says Lee will likely approach the Atlantic region as a weak hurricane or strong tropical storm that could dump heavy rain over the area.   

The centre says that as the hurricane moves northward, it is expected to grow in size, but it is not expected to gain strength by merging with other weather systems. 

Lee is expected to make a turn to the north on Wednesday, which will slow its progress and could weaken the storm as it lingers over cooler waters to the north.  At this point it looks like the storm should hit land late Saturday night.

The Charlottetown Pickleball Club is searching for places to play as its numbers boom after a successful summer program at UPEI.

Some parents on Prince Edward Island have received notice that their daycare costs will go down to $10 a day on Jan. 1, 2024, though the date has not yet been officially announced by the province.

The King's representative in Canada will meet with local officials and residents during her three-day visit to Prince Edward Island.

Charlottetown Police confirm they are investigating five different reports of rental fraud at the same location: a unit that was rented out on Airbnb and then shown to a number of prospective long-term tenants.

The federal and provincial governments have officially unveiled a new five-year, $46-million agreement to fund sustainable agriculture on P.E.I.

Charlottetown police are hoping cellphone and social media records will help pinpoint Summer Kneebone's whereabouts — or at least narrow down the list of possible search locations.

After some declines in the late spring, Prince Edward Island saw growing job numbers for a second month in a row in August.

The federal and provincial governments plan to spend 46-million dollars to support the Island’s agriculture industry. Federal Agriculture Minister and Cardigan MP Lawrence MacAulay made the announcement today with provincial Agriculture Minister Bloyce Thompson, saying the money will come from the Sustainable Canadian Agricultural Partnership — a 3.5-billion dollar, five-year agreement between the federal, provincial and territorial governments.  Among other things, the cost-shared program will be used to encourage the development of land management practices for establishing perennial crops that help build resiliency in soils and reduce erosion.  As well, it will help support the development of the livestock industry.

Their Excellencies, Governor General Mary Simon and Whit Fraser, will be visiting Prince Edward Island this week, Monday through Wednesday.  The visits to PEI and then Nova Scotia will focus on reconciliation, mental health, climate change and Canada’s history. They will also highlight the efforts of first responders and community members during the recent wildfires. While in PEI, the Governor General will meet with Lieutenant Governor Antoinette Perry; Premier Dennis King; Chief Darlene Bernard of Lennox Island First Nation; and Chief “Junior” Gould of Abegweit First Nation. 

Atlantic Canadians can expect to feel the impact of Hurricane Lee this weekend but it is not forecast to be a repeat of post-tropical storm Fiona last year, which caused widespread devastation.

New rules in the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League this season may not eliminate fighting altogether, but players will have to think twice before dropping the gloves.

Tails were wagging in Cavendish, P.E.I., on Saturday as "lovable" dachshunds from around the Maritimes gathered for the second annual Wienerpawlooza.

Federal and provincial leaders will announce new supports for the agriculture industry on Monday at the Harrington Research Farm at 10.00 in the morning.

Federal Agriculture Minister and Cardigan MP Lawrence MacAualy will be joined by PEI Agriculture Minister Bloyce Thompson who is also Deputy Premier.

Canada’s Governor General will visit the Island this week.

Mary Simon will be welcomed by PEI Lt. Governor Antoinette Perry, Premier Dennis King and Chiefs Darlene Bernard and Junior Gould at Government House at 1.00 in afternoon on Monday. 

The Governor General will meet with Premier King at 2.00 and with the Indigenous leaders at 2.30.

She will also visit Serene View Ranch at 5.00 on Monday evening.

The on Tuesday there will be a visit to Abegweit First Nation and the Abegweit Biodiversity Enhancement Hatchery at 10 a.m.  in Mount Stewart.

That will be followed by a visit to the Canadian Centre for Climate Change and Adaptation in St. Peters Bay at 1.30.

There will be an official reception at Government House in the evening at 5.00.

On Wednesday the Governor General will visit Charlottetown Rural High School to meet with students at 9.15 a.m.

She will later depart for Halifax.