Thank you, Chair.
Thank you to the witnesses.
Mr. Petelle, let me say this up front. We recognize that for a number of years—and to Mr. Cowan as well, because Mr. Cowan and I have talked about this before—there didn't seem to be an issue.
Mr. Valeriote suggested a perfect storm. Madam Trainer, you suggested maybe that's an accurate description. But to my friends across the way, we understand that this particular piece.... Mr. Petelle, you said you understood that neonic was a contributing factor last year—to whatever happened to colonies in Ontario specifically, whether it be because of the weather or the dust and all the rest of the things.
The thing I really want to talk about is this sense of.... In municipal governance, we used to call it the 100-year storm, so in everything we did we planned for that one storm. We stopped planning for 100-year storms about six or seven years ago. We now plan for the one storm in 250 years. Last year's perfect storm may be an indicator that there are more of those to come, because that's not one in 100 years.
Notwithstanding all of that, that it occurred, can you help me understand, Mr. Cowan and Mr. Petelle, how we get all of these groups who have started the discussion, by the way, which is very positive and will include equipment manufacturers as well.... I mean, farmers have invested in equipment. Mr. Cowan has articulated that about seed planters. You don't run out and buy a seed planter tomorrow when you bought one only a few years ago. How do we bring all of these groups together over the longer term so that when the next one comes—because it will—we're more prepared than we were last time to address it from every angle?
The beekeepers themselves, who have a role to play, by the way—I'm not leaving them out of the equation, that they can simply go about doing what they've done in the same way forever—need to do things differently as well. How do you see all of these tentacles coming together to build something that helps protect us from the collapse we saw last year? We're only going to talk about this one piece, but I recognize and admit that there are multifaceted problems in the aviary; we accept that as a fact. But this is the piece where you intersect. How do we continue to work on all of those facets to try to at least eliminate that potential?