Agriculture Committee on May 9th, 2013

[Bob Zimmer, Conservative, Prince George—Peace River, BC]

Do you have a number for the years?

[Scott Kirby]

I think the target is 2017 or 2018, but as I said, that is for the completion of the re-evaluation. Because this data is coming in at any time and we're reviewing it as it comes in, we can take action if we see something that is of concern.

[Bob Zimmer, Conservative, Prince George—Peace River, BC]

Thank you.

[The Chair, Conservative, Merv Tweed]

Thank you.

Ms. Brosseau.

[Ruth Ellen Brosseau, NDP, Berthier—Maskinongé, QC]

Thank you, Chair.

Thank you to our witnesses.

You were talking about the environment and how you were surveying where we were last year, with the type of weather we had. You're following it now.

How are we now compared to where we were last year? I don't remember this time last year how warm it was; I'm sure I could check and find it. To date, do you know if temperatures are comparable today to where we were last year? Do we foresee the same kinds of losses as we did last year, or are we in the clear this year?

[Scott Kirby]

This year is much more favourable than last year. It was more of a normal year in terms of temperature, snowfall, and moisture levels. We can't come to a final conclusion yet, but to date more than 70% of all the corn has been planted in Ontario. We have had no major incidents reported to date. We have had a few minor ones, which are being looked at right now, but they are nowhere close to the scale we saw last year. So I am very hopeful that this will be a normal year with respect to both corn planting and bee health in terms of corn dust-off.

[Ruth Ellen Brosseau, NDP, Berthier—Maskinongé, QC]

The national farm-level biosecurity standard for the bee industry was announced by your minister yesterday. I started to go through it. It was released from CFIA.

I think it would be a good idea if we had CFIA come in and maybe explain this to us, or if we had some time to look at this report. It's a national strategy for farm-level biosecurity, concerning bumblebees and moving forward. I think it would be really important.

These moving forward suggestions and best management practices are great, but they are voluntary, right? There's no way to make sure people are using these best practices. It's like suggesting somebody stop at a stop light, but there are no consequences for their actions.

That came out wrong. This is not a very good day for me.

I was wondering, would it be possible to invite CFIA to come in?

[The Chair, Conservative, Merv Tweed]

We would have to have that discussion. This was actually the last meeting designated for this.

[Ruth Ellen Brosseau, NDP, Berthier—Maskinongé, QC]

Would I have to have a motion or something to prolong the meeting?

[The Chair, Conservative, Merv Tweed]

We can discuss it as a subcommittee, for sure.

[Ruth Ellen Brosseau, NDP, Berthier—Maskinongé, QC]

Okay.

I guess that's it.

Do you have any questions, Irene?

[Irene Mathyssen, NDP, London—Fanshawe, ON]

Yes, I do have one that I didn't get to ask before. It has to do with some of the things Davis Bryans was saying that I'd like to follow up on.

He described a situation in his apiary where there was supposed to be a test in regard to dust. One of the plots was going to be planted with seed that was bonded differently, I guess. The test couldn't go ahead because the loss of the flying bees was such that there was no point in proceeding. Have you gone back to him to find out what's going on? You said there were follow-up studies. Is he one of those people you will talk to?

I think Mr. Bryans made a good point in regard to best practices. You can start out on a day when the wind is calm and within minutes you have a 20-mile-an-hour wind. I understand that you did say that it's a suite of interventions, but that's still an issue.

Finally, he said that Bayer has seed that is not treated. I wonder if you know about that. If it's an effective seed, why aren't we hearing more about it?

[Scott Kirby]

I'll try to remember all the questions.

On the first one with respect to the research project that's ongoing, I'm not 100% sure if it's the same project I'm thinking of, but there is a study being done, I think in collaboration with the Province of Ontario, looking at dust-off from treated corn. We haven't heard the results of that. I think that's ongoing. At this point, at least on my part, there has been no discussion with the people who are doing that study.

[The Chair, Conservative, Merv Tweed]

Thank you.

Mr. Lemieux, a final comment.

[Pierre Lemieux, Conservative, Glengarry—Prescott—Russell, ON]

Thank you very much, Mr. Chair.

First, I'd like to thank Ruth Ellen for the thumbs up that she gave our minister for the announcement just yesterday.

I want to say I really enjoyed your brief. One of the things that struck me was our interaction or Health Canada's interaction internationally, the fact that Health Canada is co-chair of the OECD working group on pesticide effects on insect pollinators, that you participate in the International Commission for Plant-Pollinator Relationships, and you recently collaborated with the U.S. on a joint Canada-U.S. risk assessment framework as well. I think that's encouraging. It's good for the committee to hear that. It's good for Canadians to hear that. Beekeepers have support through these joint efforts. I think that's good.

The other thing that caught my interest was that you had made a comment here that one of the leading causes of Canadian honeybee losses appears to be associated with pests and diseases, and then you listed the varroa mite, tracheal mite, American foulbrood, and nosema. That's interesting because our conversation has tended to go to the neonicotinoids. However, we heard from Alberta that mites are a huge risk to bee colonies.

You mentioned Health Canada has registered three new in-hive treatments to help combat these pests. Could you explain some of those to us, one or three, depending on the time, and sort of how it is applied and what's the outcome? What's the hope for outcome when those types of products are used?

[Scott Kirby]

I would actually have to get back to you on that because I'm not the product value person. I know that they're hung inside the hives and they impact the pests, but if you would like details, I can certainly provide you with—

[The Chair, Conservative, Merv Tweed]

I would have to ask that you submit that through the chair to the committee.

[Pierre Lemieux, Conservative, Glengarry—Prescott—Russell, ON]

Great. I will just conclude, Mr. Chair, by saying that I find it interesting that industry is also responding to hive distress and bee losses with products that could be used in-hive to reduce bee losses, which I think shows that all stakeholders—farmers, beekeepers, companies, businesses, agrifood businesses—have a vested interest in a healthy honeybee population. I think that's what we've heard over these last couple of days. People and groups and different stakeholders are responding in very positive ways to minimize and reduce the problem.

Thanks, Chair.

[The Chair, Conservative, Merv Tweed]

Thank you.

With that, I'll thank our guests. I appreciate your time here today and look forward to further discussion as we move forward. Thank you.

For the committee, I'll just remind you that after the constituency week.... You'll have received your red meat recommendations and you'll also have received version one of the grains and oilseeds package, so please read them over your time away.

I will advise again that we are looking for a list of witnesses for the animal welfare discussion, and I would hate to see somebody left out if the lists weren't in. I know we have one list in as of today.

Thank you. Have a nice week in your homes. The meeting is adjourned.