Agriculture Committee on May 7th, 2013

[Frank Valeriote, Liberal, Guelph, ON]

The other question was about technology application.

[Pierre Petelle]

We have had some dialogue with the Ontario Beekeepers' Association, especially early last year. More recently, we've made an overture to sit down again and have more dialogue with them, between our industry and the OBA directly. We haven't heard back yet, but we're still hoping that will be the case.

In terms of the equipment manufacturers, I don't want to speak for them, but what they've told us is that they are working on some very specific ISO standards, some international standards, that say all equipment after a certain point will have to meet certain criteria for dust generation. That's being worked on by the entire industry, so that'll be across the board. They're willing participants of this talc replacement work that's going on throughout North America, to make sure that this lubricant alternative works in all the different types of seeders that are out there.

[Frank Valeriote, Liberal, Guelph, ON]

Is there an opportunity for farmers to seed at a specific time, and under perfect conditions, so that they could appease the beekeepers somewhat? Or is that unrealistic when we're talking about farming?

John, perhaps you can answer that?

[John Cowan]

I would suggest that certainly we can be aware. The first thing is communication between the local farmer and a beekeeper in his area, so the farmer knows exactly where the aviary is or where the hives are located, because they do move them around during the season. During the planting time, we need to be aware of it so that we can think about it. If a farmer has 10 fields to plant and pays attention to which way the wind is blowing, he might choose to go to one field as opposed to another that has hives around it, if the wind is out of the east on that particular day. He can take those things into account. Can a farmer decide he's not going to plant today? No. It's critical that he puts his crop in the ground when the soil is ready to receive the seed. Our manufacturing plant is out of our control in terms of what we do.

The other thing I want to mention, in terms of equipment, is that not all equipment has this problem. First of all, the seed treatment is on the seed, and adherence to the seed is one of the issues, but not all equipment is a pneumatic planter. The seed is planted four to eight centimetres deep. Bees do not burrow, so it is really not the treatment that's on the seed when it's in the ground; it's the dust that comes from it, which is where the pneumatic planters come in. The original pneumatic planters actually had some guards when they exhausted out of the sides, and they've changed those. The new planters they have now exhaust toward the soil and are about 18 inches off the soil.

Certainly, the equipment manufacturers have made some improvements already. Farmers quite often will change equipment that works better for themselves. A planter is one of the pieces of equipment that it's most difficult to change. We put an exact number of seeds per acre in the soil, and if we change the equipment, it changes the equation on how that piece of equipment works. When we change the number of seeds in the soil, we certainly change what we did for our fertility programs, what we did for our expected yield goals. Those are all things we have to take into account. And the planter is the most difficult equipment to modify.

[The Chair, Conservative, Merv Tweed]

Thank you.

Mr. Richards.

[Blake Richards, Conservative, Wild Rose, AB]

Thank you.

I have a couple of questions for each of you, Mr. Petelle and Mr. Cowan, so I hope we'll have time for both sets.

I'll start with you, Mr. Petelle. As I understand the situation, this certainly isn't a new issue. I understand there have been beekeepers reporting higher than average hive losses for a decade or more.

I know that quantifying something like this can be difficult, but could you give us a bit of a sense of your perspective? Is there an accurate assessment of the extent of the losses, what that might be?

[Pierre Petelle]

I think you have some actual beekeeper witnesses later that might be more qualified to answer this, but simply based on what we have as public information...Statistics Canada does track the number of colonies in Canada. Other than a few dips for a number of reasons, when the borders were closed, etc.... In terms of the trend, it's been generally trending upward. We took that trend line for Alberta specifically and superimposed the trend line for canola acreage, and those two lines are almost parallel. As the acreage of canola increased, the number of colonies also increased. For us to believe that neonics are having a significant impact on the chronic health of bees...the numbers don't match up.

[Blake Richards, Conservative, Wild Rose, AB]

As far as some of the explanations out there, there are a number of them. I've heard a whole variety of explanations. Mr. Cowan mentioned in his opening remarks that everyone wants to have the finest silver bullet, which he asserted didn't exist.

I want to hear your opinion. Do you believe there is one particular factor, or do you think, as seems quite likely, a combination of factors leads to the losses?

[Pierre Petelle]

Again, I don't profess to be a bee expert, but John mentioned a study. The U.S. Department of Agriculture just released a fairly significant paper, and in it they're very clear that this is multifactorial. Pesticides are one very small component. In fact, I think they said it's one of the least significant components, and that hive health through nutrition could probably solve most of the issues they're experiencing, at least in the U.S.

[Blake Richards, Conservative, Wild Rose, AB]

Thank you.

Mr. Cowan, I'll go to you now.

I know that the Grain Farmers of Ontario have been out in front on this issue. Thank you for that. I think you've been doing what you can to try to provide farmers with suggestions to minimize the threats to bees, particularly from short-term exposure to elevated doses of an insecticide, etc.

Can you tell the committee a little more about some of the steps you've taken or some of the things you've done to try to inform farmers about some of the basic things, like maybe avoiding seeding on a particularly windy day, for example? Maybe you can just give us a bit of a sense of some of the initiatives you've been taking.

[John Cowan]

We worked with the PMRA in putting together what we would call best management practices for corn seeding. The head entomologist for OMAF was involved in putting these together as well.

In those best management practices, some things seem quite simple, but the reality is that when you go to the field and empty a bag of seed into your planter, you don't shake out the bag so that the dust that might exist in the bag gets into the environment.

Other things include being aware of where the hives are around your field. It's critical. Again, it's about cooperation and discussions with beekeepers. Another is being aware of which way the wind is blowing. As I mentioned, it's probably not in the realm of practical farming to say “don't plant on certain days because it's too windy”, because in our manufacturing plant, our window for planting is sometimes limited and we have to do it.

I believe there are 10 different best management practices. I don't have them listed with me right now, but we've put that list on our website and have published it in our magazine. We talk to the press on a regular basis to try to get the message out. Again, we had a full delegates session of our elected delegates and asked them to take the message back to their members in terms of each county or district that we have across Ontario.

[The Chair, Conservative, Merv Tweed]

Thank you.

Time flies, Mr. Richards.

Madame Raynault.

[Francine Raynault, NDP, Joliette, QC]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

My question has to do with the reason for the loss of bees and the Health Canada report.

The purpose of the Health Canada report, released on April 8, 2013, was to outline “measures to reduce risk to pollinators from exposure to dust generated during planting of insecticide treated seed.”

Do you think such measures are necessary? Perhaps you have already answered this previously, but it would be helpful if you could come back to this issue for the benefit of people listening.

[John Cowan]

In terms of seed treatments, as I mentioned, lindane was taken off the market. Diazinon Lindane is a product farmers used up until 2004. Most of it was taken off the market in about 2001. The current insecticides that we have on our seeds are safer to farmers than the D and L, and probably more effective than D and L.

Foliar sprays, which might be used, don't address the seed maggot, wireworm, and grubs that exist in the soil along with what these insecticides are trying to actually help us save. I'm not aware of other products that are available to farmers.

[Francine Raynault, NDP, Joliette, QC]

Is any research under way to obtain another product to replace that one?

[Pierre Petelle]

In terms of research into new products, that's an ongoing initiative. Especially our R and D member companies are continually looking for new solutions for a variety of different pest pressures that growers face. It's not just to replace products that are currently on the market; it is to make sure there are enough different modes of action out there to delay resistance development, for example, if you're always using the same product.

The companies are always investing in new technologies. I stated earlier the importance of a science-based, predictable regulatory system. I can't stress that enough. That innovation and those investment dollars depend on that predictability and a science-based regulatory system in order to deliver solutions to growers.

[Francine Raynault, NDP, Joliette, QC]

According to the Health Canada report, the date and location of bee losses, between April and June 2012, have coincided with corn planting in the major producing areas in the provinces. Neonicotinoid insecticide residue has been detected in about 70% of dead bees and in 80% of Ontario apiaries where dead bee samples have been collected and analyzed.

Do you think, in this case, that there is a direct correlation between the bee losses and the insecticide used?

[Pierre Petelle]

With the acute loses that were seen last year in Ontario, PMRA did some analysis and did find levels of neonic insecticide in some of the dead bee samples. Clearly the insecticide was in those bees. It was detected. Was it a contributing factor in their deaths? The conclusion from PMRA is that, yes, it was likely a contributing factor in the deaths.

We're not shying away from that. What we're saying is that with the solutions we have in place, the best measurement practices we worked on with growers and the regulators, and the new innovations that are coming in terms of talc replacements and the coatings, the polymers, that particular route of exposure for bees in the future should not be a concern.

[John Cowan]

Can I just add to that? I believe Mr. Valeriote mentioned the perfect storm. The year 2012 was very unusual. Where I come from, the southwest part of the province, virtually all of the corn was planted in April, which is not always usual because I can tell you that in 2011 we never started planting corn until June. So my determination is that May was a bad month to plant for the last two years.

With that early planting, we also had bees foraging earlier than normal. We also had probably a poor supply of food because of their early foraging, and—again, this is just observation—we also had a killing frost in May, which again was unusual in terms of bees being out early. So there were a lot of things that came together, and I believe the term “perfect storm” is quite appropriate for 2012.

[The Chair, Conservative, Merv Tweed]

Thank you. Merci.

Go ahead, Mr. Payne.

[LaVar Payne, Conservative, Medicine Hat, AB]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

My question is through you, Chair, to the witnesses. Thank you for coming today. It's an important study that we're doing. I'm not sure who wants to answer this, but as I understand it, the neonics were approved by PMRA back in the nineties. Is that correct?

[Pierre Petelle]

Yes.

[John Cowan]

Between 1995 and 2003. The current products on the market were in that timeframe.

[LaVar Payne, Conservative, Medicine Hat, AB]

Okay.

Mr. Petelle, you did talk about an increase in canola planting in the prairie provinces. I wasn't sure if you were also talking about an increase in the bee colonies as running parallel.

[Pierre Petelle]

Yes.