Evidence of meeting #44 for Agriculture and Agri-Food in the 41st Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was corn.

A recording is available from Parliament.

On the agenda

MPs speaking

Also speaking

Rod Scarlett  Executive Director, Canadian Honey Council
Bill Ferguson  Owner, Ferguson Apiaries
Davis Bryans  President, Munro Honey & Munro's Meadery
David Schuit  President, Saugeen Country Honey Inc.
Hendrika Schuit  Member, Saugeen Country Honey Inc.

4:55 p.m.

President, Saugeen Country Honey Inc.

David Schuit

We're from Hanover.

4:55 p.m.

President, Munro Honey & Munro's Meadery

Davis Bryans

We're in Lambton, Middlesex, Elgin, Kent.

4:55 p.m.

Owner, Ferguson Apiaries

Bill Ferguson

We're mainly in Huron county now.

4:55 p.m.

NDP

Ruth Ellen Brosseau NDP Berthier—Maskinongé, QC

Okay.

Rod, how are you doing?

4:55 p.m.

Executive Director, Canadian Honey Council

4:55 p.m.

NDP

Ruth Ellen Brosseau NDP Berthier—Maskinongé, QC

Is there anything you would like to add? I feel like you're neglected.

4:55 p.m.

Executive Director, Canadian Honey Council

Rod Scarlett

No, I am not neglected. This acute incident has happened to those three beekeepers. They are the ones who are experts on it.

The only comment I would have is that the programs that were mentioned—AgriStability and a couple of others—are not well suited for beekeeping, mainly because, as these gentlemen know, you go up and down in numbers of hives depending on the year. Those programs are not well suited for beekeeping.

In my initial statement, I mentioned that perhaps it would be good for the government to at least investigate a program that is a little better suited for beekeeping, or have a redesigned program so that for events like this, which could occur and have occurred in the past, there is a backstop.

4:55 p.m.

NDP

Ruth Ellen Brosseau NDP Berthier—Maskinongé, QC

You are basically advising for the government to have more programs suited for beekeepers and their farms, and also perhaps more research done?

4:55 p.m.

Executive Director, Canadian Honey Council

Rod Scarlett

Definitely more research. We're trying to develop a database of our bee health in Canada. We need the government to help us facilitate that. Certainly, we're going to be using Beaverlodge and Dr. Pernal, who was mentioned and who is an expert in this. That's a very key major component in our [Technical difficulty--Editor]ability of the honeybee industry, and the bee, pollen, pollinators, and honey industries.

5 p.m.

Conservative

The Chair Conservative Larry Miller

Okay, thank you very much.

Mr. Zimmer.

June 4th, 2012 / 5 p.m.

Conservative

Bob Zimmer Conservative Prince George—Peace River, BC

Thanks to all of you for coming.

I think a lot of our consumers of our agri-goods don't really fully understand how much bees are a part of our food chain. A lot of us get it because we are on the agriculture committee. I guess we empathize with your concerns. We see them as definitely valid concerns as well. We're taking it seriously.

What I would like to comment on is that it seems to be there are assumptions made that this particular chemical is causing this effect. I guess what I would like to see is a more substantive answer to that, as opposed to “we think it's this that is doing this”. For me, unless we know it is that, then I don't even want to mention it in the same sentence because it's a false accusation. I'm not saying that's what it is, but I'm saying what we need to do is get to the bottom of it and to make sure we are fixing the right thing. Again, this study that was out.... I'm a fairly new member of the agriculture committee. I have been here about a year, but I would be happy to start looking into that study and taking it a little bit further than that.

I did have a question. I will start off with Rod. I am from the west. I am from the B.C. Peace River area. I just had a question in terms of beekeepers in general. Have there been significant losses in the past? I still remember 20 years ago I was a kid out on a farm, and I remember the bees that were there—there were quite a bit on the ground that had obviously died through the winter or whatever it was. I have seen that before many years ago. I don't know what caused it. Have there been losses in the past? What has caused that loss, if you can answer that, Rod?

5 p.m.

Executive Director, Canadian Honey Council

Rod Scarlett

There certainly have been instances of acute bee losses. That's a little bit different from the systemic bee losses that I was talking about in my preamble. Our winer mortality rates running at 30% for the last five or six years—that's a little bit different from the acute events. There have been acute events in Alberta and B.C. that have occurred in the past—one-year events in regions.

5 p.m.

Conservative

Bob Zimmer Conservative Prince George—Peace River, BC

So that's as opposed to this, where it seems like a systemic issue and over the years it's remaining as a loss for you.

Have you seen any losses similar to this, though, where over the years it has been a steady decline in numbers? Have you seen anything like this in the past?

5 p.m.

Executive Director, Canadian Honey Council

Rod Scarlett

This is unique to the Canadian bee industry over the course of the last five, six, seven years. It's a result of a number of different factors, of course. I don't think we can pinpoint any one. A lot of the research indicates it's a combination of a number of things.

5 p.m.

Conservative

Bob Zimmer Conservative Prince George—Peace River, BC

Would you mind alluding to what you think those issues are?

5 p.m.

Executive Director, Canadian Honey Council

Rod Scarlett

It could be pathogens. It could be environmental causes. It could be varroa, of course, the mites, or nosema. It could be management practices. It could be how beekeepers offer the treatments at different times and it has different impacts. And, of course, it could be winter.

5 p.m.

Conservative

Bob Zimmer Conservative Prince George—Peace River, BC

Right. In asking that, what I wanted was to get to the bottom of...and I think most of us do here. I think without exception everybody in this committee is concerned about the fate of bees. I would just like to find out what the problem is, and then accurately get to the bottom of it. I would argue that none of us would argue against finding a solution to that.

Thanks.

That's all my time, Chair. That's all I need.

5 p.m.

Conservative

The Chair Conservative Larry Miller

You still have some time.

Mr. Ferguson, you wanted to make a comment?

5 p.m.

Owner, Ferguson Apiaries

Bill Ferguson

There has been a study. It has been tested in Ontario, and they know for a fact that 28 out of 37 samples were affected by clothianidin, and they were doing more studies to see what was involved with the other samples. So there's a fact in that.

5:05 p.m.

Conservative

Bob Zimmer Conservative Prince George—Peace River, BC

Do you know what study that is so we can—

5:05 p.m.

Owner, Ferguson Apiaries

Bill Ferguson

CFIA just gave that out.

5:05 p.m.

Conservative

Bob Zimmer Conservative Prince George—Peace River, BC

Okay, that's the study that was referred to earlier?

5:05 p.m.

Owner, Ferguson Apiaries

Bill Ferguson

No. I'm not sure where that one is. We're just getting reports back—

5:05 p.m.

Conservative

Bob Zimmer Conservative Prince George—Peace River, BC

If you can name the study, that would be nice for us to be able to check into.

5:05 p.m.

President, Munro Honey & Munro's Meadery

Davis Bryans

I just got the results back from my tests today. My wife sent them to me.