No summer problems with bears

This plump bear eats clover blossoms on our property a couple nights ago

By all reports there have not been many problems with bears in Northwestern Ontario this summer. Typically the bruins run afoul of humans by raiding garbage cans, barbecues and bird feeders. However few bears have been seen anywhere, including along roadsides. What does this mean?
One of our neighbours who has a bear hunting business says there is a bumper crop of berries and the bears are feasting on them rather than in people's backyards. That makes sense. When bear problems are at their worst a poor berry crop is usually to blame.
I wonder, however, if we lost some bears last winter to the exceptional cold. We experienced a lot of -40 temperatures and when coupled with a scarcity of snow could have killed some bears in their dens. A typical bear den is just a few inches beneath the surface. A common site is in the cavity made by tree roots when a tree has blown over.