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?