Agriculture Committee on May 30th, 2016

[The Chair, Liberal, Pat Finnigan]

Welcome, everyone, to our meeting this afternoon.

I want to welcome our guests here with us today. We have Mrs. Anne Fowlie, executive vice-president of the Canadian Horticultural Council, and Dr. Peter Kevan, professor emeritus, School of Environmental Sciences, Ontario Agricultural College, University of Guelph.

We also have, by teleconference—we don't have video, unfortunately—Dr. Chris Cutler, associate professor at the Department of Environmental Sciences, Dalhousie University. We also have, by teleconference from Red Deer County, Alberta, Mr. Kevin Nixon, chair of the Canadian Honey Council.

Welcome to our session about bees—not the birds and the bees, just bees.

We will start with Dr. Chris Cutler.

We will give you 10 minutes to introduce yourself and your knowledge about the bees. Thank you.

[Professor Chris Cutler, Associate Professor, Department of Environmental Sciences, Dalhousie University, As an Individual]

Thank you, Mr. Chair and members of this committee for the invitation. It's a pleasure and an honour.

Dr. Kevan and I spoke previously two years ago now to the Standing Senate Committee on Agriculture and Forestry on the importance of bees and bee health in the production of honey and food in Canada. It's good to see that this is still of interest and this work is ongoing.

I'm not exactly sure what you're looking for from me, so I'll try to hit on a number of different things. I probably won't take the whole 10 minutes.

Just as some personal background, I'm an associate professor at Dalhousie University. As you've heard, I'm at the faculty of agriculture, which is in Truro, which is about an hour north of Halifax. My speciality and background is in entomology, which means I work with insects. I do a lot of different things with insects including basic ecology and biological control and behaviour, and I do a lot of work with bees as well. I have a particular interest in insect ecotoxicology, which essentially looks at the effects of poisons on insects, mainly in an agricultural setting, and that mainly concerns pesticides. This includes studies into the hazards and risks certain pesticides pose to pollinators, including some of the ones I'm sure you've heard of like the widely used and debated neonicotinoid insecticides.

I can start off with a couple of comments about the importance of bees in general. I'm sure the other people who will be speaking will talk to you about that as well. Most angiosperms or flowering plants that are on the planet require pollination by pollinators and most of those pollinators are bees. About three-quarters of the food crops that we depend on require bees as well. One-quarter of the crops that we consume come from bees in terms of our dietary needs. A lot of crops that are grown do require bees, but it's not our actual calories that come from those crops. It's at a high value in Canada, approximately $1 billion in Canada. It's probably fifteenfold that in the U.S. in terms of the value of pollination to agriculture. It's a huge amount worldwide. It's estimated to be in the hundreds of trillions.

We've heard lots over the years and of late about struggles of pollinators and this is due to honeybees and wild bees. These are well documented. We hear a lot about honeybees, but not so much about the wild bees. These are large numbers of organisms. We have about 20,000 species of wild bees on the planet. We have close to 1,000 in Canada, and these are also very important for pollination of our crops. We've heard a lot in the media and through science about the different factors that are affecting honeybees. A lot of these same things affect wild bees as well.

Habitat destruction is a key culprit, I think, for problems that seem to be facing a lot of organisms on this planet. I think whether you're a polar bear in the Arctic or a frog in the Amazon, the destruction of habitat in terms of their nesting sites and the food that they eat is critically important. A lot of the urbanization and agriculture can create ecological deserts that can be very detrimental to pollinators.

Having said that, a lot of agriculture obviously is of benefit to bees and pollinators. I think that's something that is often forgotten. There are many parasites and diseases that plague managed and wild bees. We can talk more about them and there are others I can speak to as well, things like varroa mites and nosema.

The weather is a major factor up here in Canada for bees. It's a real problem for overwintering honeybees. Of course, pesticides are a concern as well in some cases. It's important to bear in mind that we're not simply talking about pesticides that the farmers use, but also the pesticides that beekeepers themselves use. As I mentioned, there are pests and parasites that do affect beekeeping and beekeepers have to try to control those diseases and pests.

I will say a couple of other things. It's great that we have these committees that are addressing these issues and looking into these issues, but these problems are not new. We've known about problems with honeybees for many decades in many different parts of the world. The problems do seem to be increasing of late, but these problems have been going on for many years.

We've also known about declines in wild bees for many years as well. The media has latched onto these ideas, but you can find literature going back decades talking about changes in the distribution and decline of certain wild bee populations. It's important for people not to make blanket statements that all bees are in decline and all bees are dying. The situation varies greatly. Even in Canada, with honeybees, it's inconsistent across the provinces and from year to year what's going on with the health of honeybees.

The other thing I'll say is that we have 20,000 species of wild bees on this planet. In terms of their population dynamics, the long-term community distributions, and the prevalence of different species, we know next to nothing about many of them. We do have a good handle on some species, such as bumblebees, which are big and fuzzy and tend to be well studied, but we lack a lot of baseline data for a lot of the bee species that are out there. This is another cautionary message about making blanket statements about all the bees being in decline. In my opinion, we lack a lot of data. A lot more data is needed on this.

I think there's a lot of good research going on right now. I have benefited a lot from initiatives like the Canadian pollination initiative that Dr. Kevan led. I think it was a great initiative, and I think we need more of that long-term, broad-stroke type of work being done across the country.

I also think that a lot more work needs to be done in the extension area. I think education is the issue that needs to be tackled among beekeepers. We have some excellent beekeepers, but we have a lot of new beekeepers coming online, and beekeeping is difficult. I keep bees myself. You can have hives in the exact same location, and half of them will live and half of them will die. I won't be able to understand why. In the Atlantic provinces, the three maritime provinces have initiated a tech transfer team for apiculture with two new positions in place, and with advisory stakeholders, provincial governments, beekeeping industry producers, and academic areas, as well. There's a strong sense among all of those groups, including myself as part of it, that beekeeper extension work is key in terms of improving the health of honeybees across the country.

Perhaps I'll leave it at that. If anybody else has any questions, I'll happily answer them, of course.

[The Chair, Liberal, Pat Finnigan]

Thank you, Dr. Cutler.

I'd like to say that's formerly known as Nova Scotia Agricultural College, my old alma mater, so it's fun to have a conversation with you.

Mr. Nixon and Mr. Kevan were here the last time, and we want to thank you for appearing again because we did not get a chance to have you as witnesses. Next will be a conference call with Kevin Nixon, chair of the Canadian Honey Council, from Red Deer, Alberta.

Mr. Nixon, you can have up to 10 minutes to give an opening statement.

[Kevin Nixon, Chair, Canadian Honey Council]

Thank you, Mr. Chairman and committee members, for asking me to appear. I'm sorry I couldn't be there. As mentioned, I did get out there last time, but it's a busy time. I am the chair of the Canadian Honey Council, which is the national industry organization for the honeybee industry. I'm a commercial beekeeper, as well, so it's a busy time of year right now.

I did send a briefing paper. Was it shared with the committee?

[The Chair, Liberal, Pat Finnigan]

Yes, by all means.

[Kevin Nixon]

The paper copy was distributed to the committee as well?

[The Chair, Liberal, Pat Finnigan]

We couldn't get the translation done soon enough, so we couldn't distribute it.

[Kevin Nixon]

Okay. It's not a problem. I'll go through it and try to be halfway speedy.

I'll tell you a bit about myself. I've been a beekeeper for 20 years. Some people think I'm young. Maybe I look younger than I am, but I started when I was 16, and I'm currently 36 years old. I'm involved both in honey production and in supplying bees for pollination services to the hybrid canola seed industry.

Honeybee farms are large and intensive operations nowadays. Most people don't realize that. We have just as much capital invested in our operations as some large cattle and grain farms. There's a common question that I get asked. People often can't believe that I do this for a living and think that I must do something else on the side, but beekeeping can be done on a fairly large scale. People just don't seem to get that.

As we all know, honeybees and their health have been in the headlines numerous times over the past few years. Unfortunately, most of the media have not been willing to present all the factors affecting bee health but are aiming at only a single factor, that being pesticides. In my opinion, this is very short-sighted. There are many factors affecting bee health. I'd like to share a few of them with you and let you know that there's still much more work to be done. There is some ongoing work, which is very good as well.

Some of the main factors that affect bee health are pests and disease, habitat and nutrition, pesticides, of course, and weather and climate.

For pests and disease, across the country most beekeepers on the whole still say that the varroa mite is the biggest challenge we face. So far, we have effective controls, I guess, to control this mite. It's a parasitic mite that lives on the honeybee. If you make your hand into a fist and put it on your chest, that is representative of what a varroa mite is on a honeybee. It's quite a significant pest, and it sits there and feeds off the hemolymph, the bee's blood. These mites are very aggressive when they do get control, and they lead to viruses that are just as devastating as the mite, or more so, as it takes so much time to get the viruses under control. If not managed well, the mite and the viruses can decimate a beekeeping operation quite quickly.

At this point in time, the industry feels that we do not have enough effective control products in place to be sustainable. We seem to get a product and use it until we get signs of resistance, and then we're scrambling to find an alternative. We feel that we are near the end of the time period of our current control, and so far there is no equal replacement. There are less than a handful of products being screened; however, no silver bullet has been found. This is very frustrating for beekeepers, as individual operations have millions of dollars invested in their livestock, and the research community is not able to find solutions or wait till the last days to try to find one.

There are other pests and diseases that are also very important to manage, but I won't bog you down right now with descriptions of them all. We have work to do on others as well.

In terms of habitat and nutrition, this has become a very high need for our bees and has been recognized as a very significant factor over the past few years. Just like us, when bees eat a well-balanced diet, they are healthier and able to fight off potential threats as their immune systems may not be so suppressed. Supplemental feeding of our bees has become one of the larger expenses of operating our farms. All regions of Canada go through periods throughout the year when they need to feed their bees; however, it seems that we are feeding more than ever before.

There are three factors that we believe have led to this change. There are changes in agricultural practices and in crops being grown, and weather and climate may also play a role. Farming has become so efficient and clean. Years ago, fields used to have weeds, which are typically a great source of food for bees. Equipment has become very large and efficient. What used to take a farmer three or four days, such as cutting a field of alfalfa, can now be done in a half a day. We also see a lot of monoculture, which greatly reduces the diversity of soil sources. We now see many shelterbelts and hedgerows being removed in order to make the land more productive, and irrigation pivots have extensions on them to get deep into corners that before would have been left to native pasture in some cases.

We also see changes in the vegetation in natural areas and lands under management by municipalities. Where we used to see naturally occurring soil varieties, we just don't see them in abundance anymore. Many municipalities and counties are also doing a lot of vegetation management to control unwanted growth; however, it usually takes out the flowering vegetation, which also may be good for bees.

We know pesticides are meant to control pests. Yes, some pesticides can be toxic to honeybees, but there are also many pesticides out there that are safe to use around bees. When products are used responsibly and the label is followed, most risks can be alleviated.

In Ontario, the provincial government has taken steps to reduce the use of neonics, as some beekeepers there were pointing to the use of neonics as the reason for their high winter losses.

In 2012, Ontario had the lowest overwintering losses in Canada. They then experienced three years of very high losses. Interestingly enough, from all reports to date, Ontario and Quebec had some of the lowest winter losses across the country this year, and these new regulations are only being put into practice as we speak right now. This just goes to show that there are many factors affecting bee health, not just one.

The value of honey also plays a role in bee health in Canada. In good times, beekeepers are able to invest more into their livestock. In a down market, it becomes more difficult. Over the past 15 months, we have seen honey prices drop over 50%, and there are beekeepers who are still sitting on last year's production. Meanwhile, we see honey being imported into Canada and the U.S., our biggest customer, from places such as India, Myanmar, Thailand, Spain, and Vietnam, which are all suspect countries for supplying transshipped or adulterated honey from China.

The need to monitor bee health is higher than it has ever been. Bees are transported across the country for pollination, and we import stock from other countries. Provincially, there have been many monitoring or surveillance programs. However, the information that is collected is not done in a standard procedure across all the provinces and cannot be recognized for things such as international trade and evaluating risk assessments.

The Manitoba Beekeepers' Association, along with the Alberta Beekeepers Commission, has initiated a project to create a national database on bee health. We are currently in year three, and by the end of year four there will have been samples analyzed right across the country. This work is being done by the relatively new National Bee Diagnostic Centre, which is in Beaverlodge, Alberta.

The National Bee Diagnostic Centre has also been a valuable tool to the industry. Beekeepers are able to submit samples for analysis in order to find out what the health status of their bees is within the samples. Personally, I have used this lab, and I am part of the research program that is being done.

Just as an aside, it is very interesting to get the live reports from the lab there, because they do PCR analysis and find these viruses for which we don't see physical symptoms in the hive. However, it is showing up on a PCR analysis, so we know it is hiding there in the background, and maybe we never get rid of that. We have to be really cautious and keep a close eye to see those physical symptoms being displayed. Hopefully we don't.

The Canadian Honey Council also rolled out a new manual to producers this winter, which incorporates the national bee biosecurity program, as well as an on-farm food safety program. We hope this will be a valuable tool for producers.

Some provinces have tech transfer teams in place, and some provinces are just introducing one, as we heard from our previous speaker.

In the Maritimes, the beekeeping industry is well positioned with the growth of the blueberry industry. It will be a challenge for the beekeeping industry to meet the needs, and there will be health challenges that go along with that, as anytime there is a large-scale pollination event, it is a melting pot for pest and disease exposure.

The bee health round table has been an extremely positive step for our industry, which has facilitated bringing stakeholders together to discuss challenges around bee health and to try to find some solutions.

[The Chair, Liberal, Pat Finnigan]

Thank you, Mr. Nixon.

We are out of time, so we are going to have to move on to the next witness, but you will certainly have a chance to answer the questions our members will ask later on.

[Kevin Nixon]

Thank you.

[The Chair, Liberal, Pat Finnigan]

Thank you.

Now we will move to Ms. Anne Fowlie, executive vice-president of the Canadian Horticultural Council.

Ms. Fowlie, the floor is yours for 10 minutes.

[Anne Fowlie, Executive Vice-President, Canadian Horticultural Council]

Mr. Chairman and committee members, thank you for the opportunity to appear before you to speak within the context of your study on bee health monitoring in Canada. The Canadian Horticultural Council is no stranger to this committee, and as always, appreciates the chance to come before you not only to raise matters of concern but also to highlight successes in this sector.

In the past, we have presented to you on matters such as innovation and the importance of the agri-innovation program, which enables the success of science clusters; Bill C-18, the Agricultural Growth Act, and specifically the provisions of the Plant Breeders' Rights Act, which were so important to us, as well as a range of competitiveness matters.

I had the opportunity to come before you earlier this month to speak about the Perishable Agricultural Commodities Act and the critical need for appropriate financial risk mitigation tools for Canada's fresh fruit and vegetable farmers. We appreciate the work that you do and the thoughtful questions that you always have for us.

We represent growers, shippers, and packers from across Canada primarily involved in the production and packaging of over 100 different fruit and vegetable crops from apples to zucchini. I say that only because often people will say to me that I must know a lot about flowers. I don't. I always make sure to identify us as the fruit and vegetable guys.

Our active mission statement focuses on four key words: innovative, profitable, sustainable, and generations. We represent members on a number of key issues such as crop protection, access to a consistent supply of farm labour, food safety and traceability, fair access to markets, and research and innovation. Our mission is to ensure a more innovative, profitable, and sustainable horticultural industry for future generations.

I mentioned successes, and we certainly do have a demonstrable record of success in this regard, which includes the seasonal agricultural worker program, which was established 50 years ago this year due to the vision and leadership of the day. The Government of Canada and the CHC were signatories to the original bilateral agreements with the Caribbean countries, and today nearly 20,000 workers come to Canada to work on horticultural farms for the season.

We also developed and established the CanadaGAP on-farm food safety program for Canadian fruit and vegetables. It was the first Canadian food safety program benchmarked to the global food safety initiative. We are an active participant in a number of value chain round tables, including the bee health round table.

We are one of Canada's largest agrifood industries and our overall objective is to ensure further growth for the sector. Today farm-gate sales with additional processing, supply chain, and induced impacts create an economic footprint of over $11.4 billion in real GDP. We are a key contributor to Canada's overall economic well-being and the health and wellness of Canadians.

I will now shift to the topic at hand, bee health. It's no secret that the agricultural industry relies heavily on both crop protection products and pollinators such as bees. The horticulture sector is an exemplary model of successful coexistence between farmers, production, and a robust pollinator population. That coexistence is an absolute must: no bees, no food; and conversely, no crop protection management products, no food. Apples, blueberries, and cherries are particularly striking examples of this concept. The blueberry industry, for example, is very dependent on pollination. One of our members, Gary Brown, who is the blueberry technical support manager at Nova Scotia's Oxford Frozen Foods, notes that on average they have about 100 million blooms per acre, so bees are very, very important to getting their crop pollinated. When you stop and think that every berry and every apple is the direct result of pollinator activity, that's a lot of busy bees.

I'm not a scientist and therefore will not be presenting to you in that capacity. There are certainly others among the witnesses who can do that far better than I. The Canadian Horticultural Council firmly believes in a science-based approach to topics such as bee health. We rely on research, innovation, and a conducive regulatory environment to bring forward new technologies and chemistries.

Pollinators are an important part of agricultural success in Canada. Canada's horticultural sector is an admirable model of the coexistence that does exist and that can in fact thrive among producers, bees, and production practices. As we heard from one of the previous witnesses, fortunately hive numbers have increased significantly over the last number of years and are the highest they have ever been, according to Stats Canada. In 2014 there were over 8,000 beekeepers in Canada keeping over 600,000 hives. That is a significant increase over the number of hives kept in 2000.

Recent specific incidents of Canadian decline in honeybee and other pollinator populations have generated considerable scientific and public interest. Although a number of factors are seen as potential contributors to these declines, no single factor has been identified as the main cause. It is fair to say, though, that our northern climate and harsh winters may well be the most significant factors impacting bee survival.

Insecticide-treated seeds have been used for about a decade. Farmers choose to use them because they provide valuable protection to crops during the early stages of development. This results in healthier plants and increased yields. But another result is also a lesser need to spray an entire field with an insecticide to fend off pests. Insecticide-treated seeds limit the quantity of pesticide used, provide targeted protection of crops against insects, and reduce the potential of exposure of non-target organisms.

Certainly there's been much attention to neonicotinoids, but they have become an important pest management tool in horticulture, including their use in integrated pest management programs, as they represent an effective means to control targeted insects and pests during the crop production season.

Experts agree that over the last number of years there have been concerns raised both in Canada and in other countries about long-term pollinator health. Canadian and other bee researchers overwhelmingly agree that the main stressors to bees are pests, parasites, diseases, inadequate diet, and weather. The international research community has been working to determine and characterize the impact of all of these factors.

Both bees and pesticides play a critical role in agriculture. Bees pollinate many important crops while pesticides protect the crops from pest, disease, and damage. The plant science industry is committed to ensuring that both bees and agriculture coexist and thrive. This coexistence is possible and aided through increased communication. We've heard of some of the initiatives that are currently under way. They are positive and exciting.

Health concerns in managed bee populations are not unique to a specific province or provinces. Some provinces' problems have been facing beekeepers in other areas of the world, including the United States and Europe. Canada's pest management regulatory agency is also working with a range of organizations, including the U.S. EPA and counterparts in Europe and other areas, to look at the effects and understand and assess the impacts of pesticides on pollinators.

The pest management regulatory agency is also working with Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada—as we've heard—provincial governments, grain growers, beekeepers, and the pesticide industry to determine what other options exist that would protect honeybees, including other pollinators and the environment, while allowing for the continued use of seed treatments for corn and soybean. In fact, a recent PMRA report on seed treatment found that the class of products in question did not pose a risk to bee health.

Certainly, pollinator health is a complex issue that is impacted by multiple factors. By focusing exclusively on pesticides, the potential to understand the impact of other contributing factors is being overlooked. Farmers understand that pollinators are essential to having healthy crops. More than half the bee colonies in Canada contribute to the pollination of canola each year. Pollinators are also needed for the production of other key crops, and certainly many of those are horticulture crops. Many organizations have collaborated to develop best management practices that are realistic solutions for growers to follow to help protect pollinators during spring planting season.

In August 2013, aTime Magazine cover article put the critical importance of honeybees and other pollinators into a meaningful, everyday context. You can thank the western honeybee for one in every three mouthfuls you'll eat today. Canadian horticultural producers know that there is a need for both crop protection products and pollinators. The loss of either can have devastating consequences for the industry and also for consumers.

Some of our members are the biggest clients of commercial beekeepers in the country. In fact, one of the big issues, particularly for the horticulture sector, is the lack of available bees for pollination. One thing is very clear, and that is beekeepers, horticultural producers, and other stakeholders are working together to find a fair and reasonable solution that meets the needs and protects the interests of all parties affected. Our sector is fully committed to doing so.

In closing, growth opportunities lay ahead for both producers and beekeepers. Colony numbers continue to grow and demand from our industry is also growing, so a healthy industry is essential. It looks like we are collectively on target to achieve this.

I have no doubt that the commitment from each, as well as from the other relevant stakeholders, will ensure the opportunities are realized as we collectively and collaboratively focus on real strategies to grow the industries.

[The Chair, Liberal, Pat Finnigan]

Thank you, Ms. Fowlie, for your presentation.

We will now move on to the next witness.

I have had a great conversation with our final presenter, who dropped in at my office the other day. I don't think you can find a more passionate person regarding bees, and he is certainly a great scientist.

Mr. Peter Kevan, you have the floor for 10 minutes.

[Dr. Peter Kevan, Professor Emeritus, School of Environmental Sciences, Ontario Agricultural College, University of Guelph, As an Individual]

Thank you very much, Mr. Chair, and for your hospitality the last time I visited. It was a great pleasure to be able to talk to you, and it is an honour to be able to address this committee formally.

I will just give you a little bit about my background. Very often people think of pointy-headed professors as not being very practical. I was one of the founding members of the Pikes Peak Beekeepers Association in Colorado, and I still am a member of that association and I taught beekeeping to many people there.

I am presently the president of the International Commission for Plant-Pollinator Relationships, which has a special working group on bee health that will have its next meetings in Seville, Spain, in 2017. It answers to the European and Mediterranean Plant Protection Organization and provides advice to them on bee protection and bee monitoring and pollinator monitoring, particularly in Europe.

I was also the scientific director of the Canadian pollination initiative, an NSERC strategic network that brought in $5 million over five years. That lasted from 2009 until about 2016. More recently I've been on the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services. Its major report will be forthcoming very soon from the program on pollination and pollinators.

I have a very broad spectrum of interests in pollination and also in beekeeping. I taught the introductory apiculture course at the University of Guelph for about 25 years.

There are various aspects of beekeeping that need monitoring, and I have restricted my remarks and the material that I sent to the clerk to what is needed in monitoring. As we have heard from the other witnesses, we need to keep healthy bees.

We have heard that in Canada we do not seem to have the international problems that are really creating a stir in a lot of the press. We hear this from international agencies, as well, that North American beekeeping is in decline. We have heard—and this is correct—that beekeeping in Canada is quite healthy and overwintering losses in the last year.... Before I came today I spoke to Rod Scarlett, from the Canadian Honey Council, about losses across the country. He indicates that in fact they are well down in Quebec and in Ontario, although they were very high in Ontario, particularly last year. They are a little higher in Alberta than would be desirable, but nonetheless they are manageable. This is important.

Certainly the issues with monitoring honeybee diseases and pests are important, and the Canadian Association of Professional Apiculturists and the provincial apiarists across the country do a bang-up job of that. That is very well handled. As we have heard there is probably the need for greater harmonization across the provinces so that we can make better comparisons to understand in more depth the differences that may be regionally affecting our nation.

The problem of pesticides to beekeeping has been poorly monitored and documented. The issues with neonicotinoids certainly have caused major disagreements and the ground table has been one of the places where those disagreements have resulted in the situation being clouded by emotionally expressed opinions, backed up with some facts, some factoids, and some fallacies. We are not getting a very good picture of the actual problem, unfortunately, because of the way things are unfolding. Everybody has a stake in it and we understand what those stakes are and that everybody's stake is legitimate, but there has to be some sort of balance, which seems to be somewhat lacking. Maybe we're approaching some balance there. I haven't served with that round table for some time.

Certainly the issues of intensive agriculture that we've heard about are important and they include agrochemical uses, not just insecticides but also herbicide use and also the issues with genetically modified crops.

In terms of the problem associated with the herbicide-tolerant crops, such as Roundup Ready, that's fine, but it cleans the fields out because the weeds don't come in, and we heard about the importance of weeds to bees and beekeeping. Very clean fields are not a very healthy place for bees, except during the period in which the crop is in bloom. When there is no bloom, there's nothing for bees, wild bees or honeybees, so this is a bit of a problem.

One of the things we do hear about, and this came up in the statistics from the Canadian Honey Council and from the Canadian Association of Professional Apiculturists as to the three reasons for overwintering losses. A major one was starvation. Starvation is a management problem. Again, it was brought up that, yes, we probably need to look into some of the management issues. That was brought up particularly with the remarks about increased need for extension. We're seeing that happen in the Maritimes now with their tech transfer team being established. We can expect that to happen and some greater harmonization, particularly through the Canadian Association of Professional Apiculturists.

We really do need a systematic way of monitoring management practices, again, so we can make comparisons between the regions in Canada to try to understand what can be done better here or there. I have said this to people like David Hackenberg in the United States and to American colleagues, “Why don't you people look north where we're not having the problems?” They might say, “Well, I don't know the answer to that.” It's as if I'm from a different planet when I say that.

The Mexicans are not having problems with their beekeeping either, but they're dealing with Africanized bees, the so-called killer bees. That's a different quintal of fish, to use a Newfoundland expression.

Certainly, part of the starvation issue is diet. As was pointed out by one of the other witnesses, we're having to feed our bees more and more with either a pollen substitute, pollen supplements, and a lot of sugar as syrup, in order to keep our bees through the winter and to give them the strength, particularly in the latter part of the winter when the bees are building up their populations at a time when there's still snow on the ground and there's nothing for them to eat. They have to be fed at that time of year, or the feed has to go on in the fall in preparation for a long winter.

I have found in my experience—and I'm sure I will be unpopular for saying this—that the beekeeping industry is rather conservative and is rather dismissive. Beekeeping equipment by and large has not changed, at least in the field, for about 150 years. We're still using equipment that was designed by Lorenzo Langstroth about 150 years ago and has been adapted a little bit. I think there are some new approaches that could be taken, that need to be taken.

The other issue I have found, because of my international involvement in pollination and bees, is that over the last decade-plus Canada has been disconnected from the international community to a large extent, except through the academics and to a lesser extent through the provincial apiarists and the Canadian Association of Professional Apiculturists. I really think it's important for Canadian beekeeping to become more cognizant of the big program called COLOSS in Europe, based in Switzerland. Perhaps the Liberal campaign platform and the Senate reports from 2013 and 2015 will be able to take us in that direction.

Thank you very much, Mr. Chair.

[The Chair, Liberal, Pat Finnigan]

Thank you, Dr. Kevan.

We'll proceed with questions for our panel. I might add that Dr. Cutler might not be with us until the end, although we'll see how the time goes.

We'll start with Mr. Maguire for six minutes.

Also, please identify who you want the question directed to because we have some witnesses on teleconference.

[Larry Maguire, Conservative, Brandon—Souris, MB]

Thank you very much, Mr. Chair.

It's my pleasure to be on this committee today to take part in this debate. I come from Manitoba and there are a lot of bees there. In my own area I have relatives who are in the bee business and certainly have done a lot of research in overwintering way back into the 1970s. Mr. Howard Turnbull was one of them at the Brandon research station, and some of the others have worked over this period of time and kept that family business going up to today in his grandson's hands. This is certainly a concern, bee transportation, bee movement, and of course the diseases that are becoming a great concern.

I want to go back to Mr. Cutler and look at how you see research having a bigger impact on this. Because it's pretty broad, I would maybe open up that question to all our participants.

[Prof. Chris Cutler]

I'm sorry, what was the question again?

[Larry Maguire, Conservative, Brandon—Souris, MB]

It was about the research. There's a whole host of areas that we've been looking at, but what do you think are the most important areas of research that need to continue to be done in this whole area?

[Prof. Chris Cutler]

If we're talking about honeybees, I think it's interesting that some of the things we've already alluded to.... We know some of the key culprits of weather, starvation that relates to weak colonies going into the fall and poor queens, and those types of things. Those factors have been identified, but it seems to me in terms of the research the attention tends to go in other directions.

We've heard about the neonicotinoids, and I've done a lot of work in that area. I don't want to say there needs to be less restriction in that area, but I think there needs to be more in the other areas. I think the media has exacerbated that issue, and there's a lot of Facebook science going on out there. I think it's important for people to be skeptical about some of the things you hear in terms of the research that's produced. You only tend to hear the bad news stories, but there's a lot of good stuff going on.

Overwintering does continue to be a major problem. I was talking to a beekeeper on Prince Edward Island last week as part of that tech transfer team I referred to. They're struggling with that, and I think that perhaps we need some work in basic IPM, or integrated pest management. We need, as Dr Kevan alluded to, some research on basic practices and what's going on. We sometimes don't know what beekeepers are doing. I think that's critical in order to identify exactly what the potential problems are.

When I think about things like integrated pest management in the field, monitoring for pests is a key part of that. If you look at the most recent overwinter report from CAPA, the Canadian Association of Professional Apiculturists, and if you look at something like varroa mite, which Mr. Nixon referred to as a key problem in Ontario, for instance, less than 60% of beekeepers were monitoring for varroa mite, yet almost 100% were treating for it. There's a bit of a disconnect. We're having these prophylactic applications against problems that may not even be there.

I think a lot of that extension of research could be useful in looking at what management practices are under way for pest control, how nutrition affects the health of bees going into the fall, and how it affects their coming out in the spring. Others may have comments on that, as well.

[Larry Maguire, Conservative, Brandon—Souris, MB]

Thanks. They'll have an opportunity to participate on that as well.

Kevin Nixon, you talked about the biosecurity program that was produced last winter by the Honey Council, and we have Dr. Kevan here as well. I wonder if you could expand on the work you see that's important that has been done and what more needs to be done.

[Kevin Nixon]

This biosecurity program is a fairly thick document. It's voluntary for beekeepers at this time, but it touches on a lot of issues, and there is some overlap with some food safety. We've tried to condense it into a user-friendly single manual.

There has been a reasonably good uptake so far for beekeepers, but we still would like to see a lot more uptake. The Canadian Honey Council is going to each provincial industry organization to try to roll this out and get beekeepers to know about it, to know it exists, to try to adapt it and to adopt it, and to use it in their operation. It's a valuable tool with suggestions for how to monitor and to try to take an IPM approach to controlling pests and disease.

[The Chair, Liberal, Pat Finnigan]

Thank you, Mr. Nixon.

Thank you, Mr. Maguire.

We'll now move on to Mr. Longfield for six minutes.

[Lloyd Longfield, Liberal, Guelph, ON]

Thanks, Mr. Chair.

Thanks to all the witnesses and returning witnesses as well, especially Dr. Kevan. It's always great to have any time with you at all. I always feel there's a lot more to be said in every conversation I have with you, and it's great to have you and Guelph, and your team in Guelph working around the world.

You had mentioned right at the end of your comments about the role that Canadian scientists could or should be playing in the world that they're not currently playing. Could you expand on that? You also mentioned something about the Liberal platform, which caught my attention. How could the government assist in filling some kind of void that you started to talk about?

[Dr. Peter Kevan]

It's a pleasure to answer your question, Lloyd.

I think there are a number of opportunities there, and I have noticed over the years, particularly with respect to pollination issues in agriculture and pollination issues in general, that Canada has not really been present except through the Canadian pollination initiative. We were very fortunate and I suspect this was a typographical error. We were encouraged or it was recommended that we get industry funding to match the NSERC funding. It wasn't required. I think somebody typed that wrong, but of course NSERC was obliged at that point to say, “recommended”.

We were able to bring in a lot of outside funding but not from the major industries. Certainly one of the issues with Canadian involvement in pollination in beekeeping and with the horticultural industry as well has been really a lack of buy-in into pollination and into beekeeping, because beekeeping is not a wealthy enterprise. It doesn't have a lot of money to kick in. In the horticultural industry, on an average, I would suggest that the growers are making seven times as much money as are the beekeepers from the point of view of what the bees are contributing to the growers' crops.

I think there's an issue in there with respect to some economic evaluations that haven't been done, and I think that might be something that could be encouraged. Then I certainly think it's getting involved in international development. I don't mean in the old IDRC-CIDA type of thing, but in the international milieu with that. The new comprehensive trade agreements are going to come up, and they're going to affect the beekeeping industry and our grower industry as well because of regulatory issues that are going to come along that are associated with that. I think we need to engage internationally to find out what's going on in other countries.

At the intergovernmental panel, I was the only Canadian who was there. I was not able to get any funding federally or provincially to attend. I had to find my own funding. The University of Guelph was generous enough to fund a half of one of three trips. The rest of the money I had to find on my own, and of course, I dipped into my own pocket as well. So that's important.

Certainly, we should be more engaged with the international commission and the working group on bee health, and make sure that we have people other than just from the pest management regulatory agency who attend those meetings. They are more a type of spectator, listening to what the wind is.

Is that a general impression?

[Lloyd Longfield, Liberal, Guelph, ON]

That's great for three minutes and 24 seconds, and valuable information. We have so little time to expand on that, but you mentioned a Senate report in 2013, and maybe that's something we also need to include in our study. We'll ask the clerks to help us pull that forward as well, because what we're wanting to do is add value to this conversation. I love the comment from the witness on the phone about “Facebook science”.

Chris Cutler, I think that was you who used that term. I wonder whether you think the Ontario government has maybe followed some Facebook science and whether you have an opinion on whether the focus on reducing the neonic pesticides by 80% by 2017 is going to be an investment worth making.