Christmas Tree Council of Nova Scotia

Please note that the new email address to contact Danielle Wile, the secretary for the Christmas Tree Council of Nova Scotia, is now info@ctcns.com . If you have general inquiries please feel free to utilize this direct email to Danielle.

Matthew Wright, Executive Director, can be reached at mwright@ctcns.com .

The new mailing address is: P.O. Box 148, New Germany, N.S. B0R 1E0

Phone Number is 902-644-2771, although if this number is problematic try 644-2605. ( We are still in the process of testing the new two line phone service.)

The new fax number will be 902-644-2715.

CCTGA to seek HST zero-rated status for Christmas Trees

At a recent Board Meeting via telephone conference call, the Canadian Christmas Tree Growers Association approved a motion to seek zero-rated status for Christmas trees in Canadian provinces with a harmonized sales tax. This would reflect the tax status of a great many agricultural products in Canada. As mentioned in the Canadian motion, this initiative, if successful in implementation with the federal government, will certainly help remove a competitive disadvantage HST registered producers currently face when attempting to sell Christmas trees and greenery in Canada. Zero-rated HST means that your HST on purchases would still qualify as an input credit, but you would not have to charge the tax on trees when you sell them. This would remove a huge pricing disadvantage for registered growers. Many growers often do not see this type of work that the CCTGA does on their behalf. The association's work at the Minor Use Registration of Pesticides Workshop in Ottawa each year alone has brought hundreds of thousands of dollars to the Christmas tree industry in research support for newer, "bio-friendly" pesticides. To find out more attend the Annual Meeting of the CCTGA this summer in Truro, more information below!

Exporter Listing Cut-off

Note - all exporters - the Nova Scotia exporter contact listings will be removed in early July if the subscription is not updated. The cut-off for the listing on the Canadian Christmas Tree Growers Association web page will be July 15 of this summer. Any exporter can be listed on the Nova Scotia page for $ 50.00, on both for $ 100.00. The Christmas Tree Council will send out a reminder email to all exporters, but if you would like to be included contact Leslie Samson at the Council office in Hilden (see the "Contacts" page).

Nova Scotia SMART Tree share purchase form

Needless to say, the purchase form was not included with the mail-out for the invitation to purchase member and investment shares in the SMART Tree Christmas Tree Research Cooperative. Unfortunately, somehow the form was blank on the email forwarded (isn't technology wonderful!). You can get a "pdf" form by clicking the following link. PDF readers are available free online if you do not yet have one on your WEB browser. SMART Tree Purchase Form. For more information about SMART Tree, see below.

Promotions

It is now time to update commercial listings for exporters, retailers and u-cutters. Please respond to the mail-outs so we can be sure listings are current for this year. The Promotions Committee, amongst other things, is actively working with Agriculture Nova Scotia within their "Select Nova Scotia" campaign. There will be much more on this later.

New Brunswick Meeting

The Semi-Annual Field Day and Meeting of the New Brunswick Christmas Tree Industry Association of New Brunswick will be held in Grand Falls, New Brunswick on July 10 and 11, 2009. The activities will be centered around the Auberge Pres du Lac hotel. The telephone number for the hotel is 506-473-1200, it's website is www.presdulac.com.

The meeting will include a tree and wreath competition, equipment demonstrations, and presentations on organic fertilizers, SMART Tree, certification, and recent changes to border crossing requirements. The Field Tour will include information stops and equipment demonstrations. It will be an excellent meeting, phone now to get a reservation - the hotel is actually owned by a tree grower! The registration form can be obtained by clicking this link: New Brunswick Summer Meeting Registration.

On Friday, July 10, the meeting will commence at 6:00 PM with the tree and wreath registration, and follow with the Semi-Annual Meeting at 7:00 PM. Saturday morning starts at 8:00 AM, with demos and technical sessions; the Field Tour begins at 2:00 PM.

Canadian Annual Meeting

Just posted in early June is an updated link for the registration form for the Canadian Christmas Tree Growers Association Annual Meeting, slated for Truro this summer. The updated form has more extensive information of the tours, especially the spouses tour which is really making me question if I want to go the Meeting! Click this link, 2009 Canadian Annual Meeting Form, (or en francais, La Réunion Annuelle Truro 2009 )to bring up the document. Canadian Executive Director, Lewis Downey, has also prepared a more extensive itinerary for the meeting. I have posted it as an "rtf" word processor document, which can be picked up by virtually any word processor, MAC or Windows. Use this link to acquire the French itinerary:

La réunion annuelle de l’Association des producteurs d’arbres de Noël agenda

The host site for the Annual Meeting will be the Holiday Inn in Truro, while the tours will be to numerous attractions in the greater Truro area. More information will follow later this summer right here on this page. PLEASE get you registrations in soon to allow for detailed planning!.

SMART Tree Research Cooperative

Starting around or about June 4, Christmas tree growers around Nova Scotia will begin receiving a mail out from the Smart Christmas Tree Research Cooperative, Ltd. asking individuals to purchase shares in this new venture set up to support Christmas tree research, most significantly the very extensive "SMART Tree" research program centered out of the Nova Scotia Agriculture College. Dr. Raj Lada, a plant stress physiologist, will chair this initiative, but he has enlisted specialists the world over to help study, define, isolate and then improve the needle retention properties and overall quality of our Atlantic Canadian balsam fir Christmas tree and greenery business. We already have agreements in place for funding support from our Provincial Governments, INFOR of New Brunswick, the Christmas Tree Council of Nova Scotia, Agri-Futures and the National Science and Engineering Research Canada programs. We are currently awaiting a decision from ACOA on a very extensive "Atlantic Innovations Fund" proposal we have submitted. Critical to all of this is the need for growers to illustrate support through matching funds. Consequently the cooperative has been set up to allow all growers to participate, but most importantly, in a way that will eventually return dividends, not just with better trees and technology for the cultivation side, but possible real monetary returns from the development and sale of new products and technologies that can be applied to both Christmas trees and many other horticultural crops. The cooperative and it's members will have first marketing rights to such developments.

The first and major priority drawn by growers from around Atlantic Canada is the issue of needle retention for trees that have been cut and sent to market. This aspect of tree performance is often referred to as "keepability". To this end extensive tests are already underway to find our best and discover exactly what makes them the best. Many growers have had the opportunity to witness Dr. Lada's presentations first hand at various grower association technical sessions. Included below is just one photo illustrating some of the dramatic differences in the keepability performance of some sample limbs from the Nova Scotia plus tree orchard. By the way, it has been proven for some time now that the performance of a limb will exactly match the performance of a whole cut tree.

All the samples above where cut at the same time, placed in water, and then let stand until needle drop occurred - or in the case of some - didn't occur! The very best trees are already grafted and will be moved to the new orchard site in Bible Hill, Nova Scotia. (see below)

It is imperative that growers involve themselves with the cooperative. If you have not received any information please use the contacts page to alert the Executive Director for the Christmas Tree Council, Matthew Wright, and we will certainly get the information out to you. Currently, membership in the cooperative, ably led by grower and accountant Georg Ernst, is limited to growers or individuals with a vested interest in the Christmas tree and greenery business. We want this to be for growers, by growers, and controlled by growers.