Nova Scotia will urge Ottawa to consider all options before imposing a quarantine in the woods of Halifax County, the province's agriculture minister said Friday.

The Canadian Food Inspection Agency wants the quarantine in order to stop the brown spruce longhorn beetle from spreading.

"We would expect Ottawa to explore all other options before they dare expand the [quarantine] zone," Agriculture Minister Brooke Taylor told CBC News.

A day earlier, the province's Natural Resources Minister, David Morse, said it was up to the federal government to decide how to eradicate the beetle.

The inspection agency's quarantine plan has been criticized by local politicians and people in the forestry industry who fear hundreds of jobs will disappear.

Taylor is the MLA for Colchester-Musquodoboit Valley, where there are sawmills that could be closed if the quarantine is put in place.

Casey to meet with Strahl

Representatives from the Forest Products Association of Nova Scotia contacted Morse, looking for an explanation of his remarks to reporters Thursday.

They say he claims he was misunderstood.

Meanwhile, Bill Casey, MP for Cumberland-Colchester-Musquodoboit Valley, plans to meet with federal Agriculture Minister Chuck Strahl on Monday.

Casey said he wants Strahl, who oversees the federal food inspection agency, to make no decision on a quarantine until the forest industry is fully consulted.

Representatives from the forest industry will submit their plan to deal with consequences of the beetle infestation next month.