We do raise queens in western Canada. The way the weather falls in Canada, there really isn't an area that can get an early jump on the spring. Even in the Okanagan, you might get a 10-day jump on queen rearing. For queen rearing you need 75-degree weather and lots of drone population for proper mating, and it all seems to fall within a 7- to 10-day period when that starts in any given area.
To have a Canadian queen rearing industry, you can do it anywhere. In the Peace River district, which is what I am familiar with, we have 40,000 or 50,000 hives in the area and we probably raise 30,000 queens in June. Unfortunately, that's good for next year. For this year, we need that queen around May 1, in ballpark terms, so we are reliant on the importation of queens for early use.