Agriculture Committee on April 24th, 2023

[The Chair, Liberal, Kody Blois]

Colleagues, I call the meeting to order. We're going to get started now.

First of all, I apologize to Ms. Taylor Roy and to the other gentleman. Your name is kind of out of the screen, but I think it's Mr. Pernal. We are having technical issues with anyone who is outside of this committee room right now.

We're going to just hold and stand pat. I need to address my committee about how we want to proceed. We're pretty much batting 1,000% for anyone who is virtual. The sound is just not meeting the requisite requirements for our translation team here in the room.

Colleagues, with that said, I have Tom Rosser here from Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada. Our folks from PMRA and CFIA are all participating virtually. At this stage of the game, it looks as though they will not be able to participate, based on what I'm being told by my clerk and the technical team.

We do have two witnesses who are here in person for the second panel, and they've travelled a great distance, from Nova Scotia and Saskatchewan. I think it would be absolutely imperative that they be on the record, given that they are here in person. We have to make sure that happens today.

My inclination would be that we try to proceed with those who are able to be on the record here.

We have Mr. Guzman, who was going to be participating virtually. Based on what I know right now, that's not going to happen tonight, for whatever reason.

I think we would be better off to go with a panel of about 90 minutes, if I call up the two witnesses who are already here for the second panel. We can move ahead with Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada and reinvite the witnesses who are unable to make it from the government agency.

Colleagues, that's the best we can do tonight. I think we'll do three rounds of questions. We have about 90 minutes. We'll leave ample time for opening statements from our folks, and that's how we'll proceed.

I will look for guidance from my committee members.

Go ahead, Mr. Barlow.

[John Barlow, Conservative, Foothills, AB]

I think that's probably the most prudent approach to take, unfortunately. I would hope we would address whatever the problem is with this room for a future meeting, or whatever seems to be the issue.

I don't know whether we'll need the full 90 minutes, but I think that's the best path forward: deal with the ones in one panel who are here. Unfortunately, for those who are here on video, we'll have to reschedule.

[The Chair, Liberal, Kody Blois]

Okay, we're good.

Mr. Hamilton and Mr. Berg, I don't mean to put you on the spot, but we're going to expedite you by about an hour. If you wouldn't mind coming up to the front of the room, maybe we'll have the clerk address you.

Colleagues, we'll take a few more minutes and then we're going to proceed.

To our folks who are online, I know you have your technical headsets. Normally we don't have issues, but, for whatever reason, we do, and I have to take my direction from the folks in the translation booth about their health and safety. We will reschedule you and we will make sure that the room is better equipped, or we'll try to have you come in person and get this solved.

Madam Clerk, I'll ask you to reach out to Mr. Guzman and perhaps mention that we are having technical difficulties and will have to reschedule.

Mr. Hamilton and Mr. Berg, if you could kindly come up to the front of the room and join Mr. Rosser, we'll get started in just a few minutes.

Thanks, colleagues. We'll pause until that time.

Colleagues, now we are going to get started.

Welcome to meeting number 58 of the House of Commons Standing Committee on Agriculture and Agri-Food.

As I mentioned in my previous remarks, we're having technical difficulties for those witnesses seeking to participate virtually, so we're going to move forward with the hybrid panel and the folks in the room.

We have Tom Rosser, who serves with Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada. Thank you, Tom, for being here today. You are no stranger to this committee.

We also have Jake Berg, who serves as the chair of the Canadian Honey Council. I believe he resides in Saskatchewan. Welcome to the committee, and thank you for making the trip in.

From Oxford Frozen Foods Ltd., we have John Hamilton, who serves in Nova Scotia. It's great to have a fellow Bluenoser before the committee. Thanks for making the trip to be here.

Folks, normally it would be about five minutes in terms of opening statements. I'd ask you to keep it around that, but we obviously have a little bit of flexibility, given what has transpired.

Let me just read out one more thing before I get in trouble.

Pursuant to Standing Order 108(2) and the motions adopted by the committee on Wednesday, October 5, 2022, and Monday, April 17, 2023, the committee is resuming its study of the environmental contribution of agriculture, with this meeting being specific to the topic of bee mortality. I know we have great folks in front of us to talk about that very important subject.

Tom, I'm going to start with you, from Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada. You can lead off, and then we'll go down the line.

[Tom Rosser, Assistant Deputy Minister, Market and Industry Services Branch, Department of Agriculture and Agri-Food]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

It's good to be back with you. Thanks for inviting me, in the context of your study on the environmental contribution of agriculture, to this discussion about pollinator mortality.

I thank the committee for dedicating time specifically to Canada's beekeeping sector.

Honeybee pollination is an important aspect of food security—from canola to berries to tree fruits, to vegetables.

The federal government, along with the provincial and territorial governments, continue to work closely together to help Canadian beekeepers meet contemporary challenges in order to contribute to maintaining a sustainable beekeeping population. As well, federal business risk management programs are there to help beekeepers facing financial losses. This includes including mortality coverage under AgriInsurance. Federal, provincial and territorial support for the sector will continue for the next five years under a new agreement, the sustainable Canadian agricultural partnership.

The department also supports leading-edge research in the bee sector, including our work at the Beaverlodge Research Farm in Alberta, on the detection and management of bee diseases and pests.

In fact, I had very much hoped today to be joined by a colleague, Dr. Stephen Pernal, who is from Beaverlodge, Alberta. Unfortunately, due to technical difficulties, he won't be able to participate here today, but I hope that at some point the committee will have an opportunity to benefit from his expertise and hear from him directly.

Among the projects he's involved in, he's among the AAFC scientists partnering with several Canadian universities on genomics research to help increase detection of the effects of pesticides on honeybees so producers can take quick action to make any management changes they need.

From 2014 to 2017, we collaborated on a national surveillance project to establish a bee health database in Canada to help track pests, pathogens and chemical residues in Canadian honeybee colonies.

To help beekeepers build resilience and sustain and grow their hives, last year we launched a joint industry-government honeybee sustainability working group. This working group has been looking at short- and long-term solutions to respond to overwinter losses and other challenges to produce and maintain a high quality of honeybees and colonies.

The working group developed an action plan to improve the long-term sustainability of Canadian beekeeping, honey and pollination sectors. The plan, along with its recommendations, will be shared with federal, provincial and territorial ministers at their annual conference in a couple of months' time.

The working group covered topics such as federal-provincial technology transfer teams and programs, AI and other techniques in the pipeline, the development of varroa control products and methods, maintaining and increasing domestic bee supplies, and addressing import bee supplies.

This effort was a broad-based undertaking, involving FPT governments and provincial beekeeping associations as well as the Canadian Association of Professional Apiculturists and the Canadian Honey Council, from whom you'll be hearing very shortly.

Right across Canada, our beekeepers continue to work diligently to grow their operations. For our part, we will continue to consult with all, including the Canadian Honey Council, the Fruit and Vegetable Growers of Canada and other key provincial and industry stakeholders.

To conclude, the federal government remains fully engaged and focused in supporting this important driver of our sector, our food security and our economy.

Thank you again. I look forward to our discussion.

[The Chair, Liberal, Kody Blois]

Thank you very much, Mr. Rosser.

We'll now turn to Mr. Berg.

You have around five minutes, but we have some leniency this afternoon.

It's over to you.

[Jake Berg, Chair, Canadian Honey Council]

Thank you, Chair and committee members, for the opportunity to discuss honeybee mortality in Canada.

As an industry, the honeybee sector packs a punch far greater than people realize. The multi-billion-dollar canola industry relies on 60,000 to 80,000 colonies each year to pollinate seed canola in southern Alberta, and the industry is now expanding into Saskatchewan. Well over 100,000 colonies pollinate blueberries and cranberries in eastern Canada. About 30,000 pollinate highbush blueberries in B.C.

Even with that, we know we are short of colonies that are dedicated to pollination, and there's an ongoing discussion as to how short we really are. Nevertheless, these things, combined with honey production and pollination of various other fruits and vegetables, make our sector an integral component of the agricultural sector in general and an absolutely key contributor to agricultural sustainability in Canada.

As a commercial beekeeper, every spring I am unsure as to what my stock losses will be until I get the chance to open the lid of the hive and inspect the colony. Some years are better than others. In 2022 there was a historically bad loss across most of Canada, with 45% of the honey bee colonies dying. That stock loss had devastating impacts on many beekeepers. While they are not exactly comparable, it is hard to imagine any other managed stock operations losing even half of that number. That 45% loss was 10% higher than the next-highest recorded loss in 2008. It is still too early to tell this year, but many beekeepers are banking on having significantly better overwintering results.

The most frequently cited causes of colony losses are ineffective varroa control, poor queens and weak colonies in the fall.

To address bee mortality, in April of 2022 the federal government launched the industry-government honeybee sustainability working group, comprising federal and provincial representatives, industry partners, researchers and beekeeper representatives. A smaller subgroup worked on putting together a report that was finalized earlier this year. They prioritized recommendations that would go a long way in addressing honey bee mortality issues.

The first priority was for support for provincial and regional tech transfer teams. Tech transfer teams help beekeepers identify bee health risk issues in their stock and do applied research. They are a key resource with respect to treatment options. Currently nearly every tech transfer team's future is in doubt, as funding is difficult to secure and the industry cannot handle the financial burden alone.

In support of this priority, the Canadian Honey Council has put together a proposal for the federal government to single-source fund each tech transfer team with $150,000 per year to allow for the hiring of one person and to cover expenses to conduct projects that are national in scope on things such as using the same testing parameters to gauge the efficacy of Apivar across Canada, our main varroa control product.

This leads nicely into the second priority item, which is actions to accelerate the development of new varroa control products. Beekeepers know that it's only a matter of time before Apivar loses its efficacy, and currently there is no replacement available. We know that research is being conducted on some active ingredients that may prove effective and that new and innovative treatments are in the works, but the reality of the situation is that nothing is certain and the future is in doubt.

Supporting increased domestic stock production and addressing the challenges of importing stock round out the top four priorities. The COVID crisis highlighted the precariousness of the sector as it relates to both stock and labour, as flights were cancelled, impacting imported queens and packaged supplies and the manpower needed to efficiently handle apiary activities. While imported stock supplies remain a hot topic, the absolute need to increase domestic stock supplies should and does remain a key issue in maintaining a healthy supply of bees.

I look forward to questions and discussions concerning bee mortality.

[The Chair, Liberal, Kody Blois]

Thank you very much, Mr. Berg.

Last but not least, we have Mr. Hamilton. It's over to you.

[John C. Hamilton, Apiary Manager, Nova Scotia Apiaries Divisions, Oxford Frozen Foods Ltd.]

Good evening, ladies and gentlemen. I want to thank you very much for having me come here tonight.

First of all, I want to acknowledge today that I hail from the Annapolis Valley of Nova Scotia, located in the traditional land and the unceded territory of the Mi'kmaq people, who have stewarded this land for centuries.

I'm here to speak in favour of allowing packaged honeybees to be imported into Canada from northern California.

I am a generational beekeeper from Saskatchewan. I was born and raised there. My parents were life members of the Saskatchewan Beekeepers Association. My grandfather helped start the Saskatchewan Beekeepers Association. I was a director before I moved to Nova Scotia.

Prior to moving to Nova Scotia in 1992, I had my own commercial bee operation in Saskatchewan. When the provincial meetings were held to discuss the closing of the border, I voted back then, in 1986, to close the border to prevent the invasion of various foreign pests into our hives. I believe it is time to re-evaluate the risk assessment, since the results of the 2014 assessment on border closure are no longer accurate.

In the spring of 1992, we moved to Nova Scotia to work for the Bragg Food Group, which is the largest producer in the world of wild blueberries. The company has become one of the largest beekeepers in Canada, with commercial operations in Nova Scotia, New Brunswick and Ontario. All of this has been driven by the closure of the Canada-U.S. border and the lack of a reliable source of hives for pollination.

I was allowed to speak before the Senate on this very same topic back in 2015, I believe. While we were unsuccessful then, I believe that by my presence here today I am proof of our beliefs and our resolve.

We spoke to the Senate about the development of an additional 13,000 acres of wild blueberry land that our company had started to develop in northern New Brunswick and about the future needs of pollination of this land. The development is almost complete now, and the need for bees has increased. We expect to need four hives to the acre to pollinate that land. Where are all the honeybees going to come from?

During the past eight years, our company has been growing our hive numbers, along with investing in infrastructure. This year, our company has purchased 3,000 packages of honeybees from Australia to pollinate our wild blueberries and those of our customers. This is on top of our existing operations of close to 20,000 hives.

At this point, I would like to comment on the report by the industry-government honeybee sustainability working group. I believe it deserves to be mentioned that as the largest beekeeper/blueberry grower in Canada. and 100% Canadian-owned, we can't understand why we weren't invited to at least make a presentation to this group. There was no communication whatsoever.

Personally, I read the report and felt that they did not address the lack of pollinators for wild blueberry pollination or the high winter loss of hives.

I would also like to comment on the report by Dr. Albert Robertson, who has extensive experience working in northern California with honeybee queen producers. He feels that we now already have any issues that they have. I feel that the monsters of the past have been put to bed—

[The Chair, Liberal, Kody Blois]

Mr. Hamilton, I'm just going to stop you for a second. Your papers are rubbing up against the mike a bit.

I know that you're reading off your paper, but could you just make sure that it's not touching your microphone? We're getting just a bit of feedback, which isn't good for our interpretation team.

[John C. Hamilton]

That's fine.

I believe the monsters of the past have been put to bed and that we should move forward with science-based decisions and not more scare tactics.

There are people who believe that beekeepers should build a new industry to supply our own replacement stock. We've had over 30 years to accomplish this. The border closed in 1987, and that hasn't come about. I believe it is time to quit subsidizing this endeavour. This is a non-tariff trade barrier.

How is the commercial beekeeper suffering 80% winter loss ever going to rebuild? The financial costs are staggering. We have a contractor involved with us who this spring has lost 80% of his hives. He is buying 6,000 packages at about $300 apiece. He had to sell property to be able to get the $1.8 million to replace those hives. That's his equity. That's his retirement fund. He doesn't have a pension. He owns a bee business. Why is the growth of the wild blueberry industry in eastern Canada being held back by an unsustainable dream?

I formally request that this committee properly fund a science-based review of importing honeybee packages from northern California into Canada to fill the need for reasonably priced replacement colonies and to provide enough pollinator units to cover our growing pollination needs in eastern Canada.

Thank you very much. I am open for questions.

I apologize for the paper.

[The Chair, Liberal, Kody Blois]

It's all good. Thank you, Mr. Hamilton.

We'll do just that. We'll turn it over to questions. I'm going to start, I believe, with Mr. Barlow.

[John Barlow, Conservative, Foothills, AB]

Thank you very much, Mr. Chair.

Thanks to our witnesses for being a little bit flexible with the timing. Certainly the technical issues are out of everyone's control, so it's great that you're able to do this.

Mr. Hamilton, I'll start with you. I had the pleasure of touring Oxford's head office in Nova Scotia last summer. It's a great operation. It's good to see the commitment of that business to the region.

You mentioned opening the border. We wrote a letter to the Minister of Agriculture, actually exactly a year ago today, asking for many of these things that you are requesting and to reassess the risks of importing hives from some of those regions in the United States. As a matter of fact, we've never had a response from the Minister of Agriculture to those requests to reopen the evaluation process. If the agriculture committee also doesn't get a response from the Minister of Agriculture on a request of that nature, I can understand how frustrated you must certainly be, given how important this is to your industry.

Just to continue on our letter and maybe some of the comments you made, what has changed between the time of that border closing, which you said you voted in favour of, in the late 1980s and now? Why do you feel a risk assessment is warranted now? Are the same concerns that were there when the border was closed no longer there? What has changed specifically that should no longer be a concern?

[John C. Hamilton]

We've had time. We've figured it out. In the United States, there are lots of commercial bee groups that post regularly. They had a fabulous, although wet, almond pollination this year. All the bees seem to be coming back in really good hive strengths. They have figured out pretty much all of the problems.

We actually exterminated hives that had tracheal mites. Then varroa came along, but we adapted. Now small hive beetles have come in. Hive beetles in southern Ontario are in our operation in Wellandport. Quite frankly, wax moth is a way worse pest than hive beetle is

These are all the monsters that have been brought out. Africanized honeybee is another monster that just keeps getting brought up, and it hasn't moved north. I was in Florida last winter talking to a beekeeper. They sell queens, and they were in a panic because they have to send their progeny away to have DNA testing to make sure they don't have Africanized bees in their stock. They aren't shipping to Canada. They're just shipping in Florida. That's what they're doing in Florida.

Right across the southern United States, they're figuring out how to deal with Africanized bees and how to deal with varroa. Back in 1986 and 1987, we didn't know how we were going to do it. There are new chemicals coming out. The whole idea, to my mind, was that we had time to defer things. Now it's time.

[John Barlow, Conservative, Foothills, AB]

I guess it would be two things. You have very specific mitigation protocols to deal with those pest mites or Africanized bees. That would be one thing: There are some very specific mitigation strategies in place. It also sounds like the other thing is maybe addressing some of the misinformation that was out there about some of these “monsters”, as you called them. Both of those things have come into play over the last 30 years or 35 years to address that, so we should be reassessing our risk management around importing these bees from the United States.

Mr. Berg, you mentioned about how important the domestic supply would be to the future of this industry. What has been holding back the development of a domestic supply? Are there some things that need to happen to ensure that we can reverse that downward trend when it comes to replenishing our hives with a domestic supply?

[Jake Berg]

There isn't any one particular thing that has been holding the domestic supply back. It's the development of that supply system and getting some of the larger pollinators to accept the fact that there could be a domestic supply.

It's being done, particularly in the province of Saskatchewan. Saskatchewan is probably the province closest to self-sufficiency when it comes to a large number of colonies.

That being said, the domestic supply could be part of the answer. It will never be the whole answer, but it could be developed into a larger piece of the pie.

[John Barlow, Conservative, Foothills, AB]

You both mentioned that a North American bee strategy of importing from the States and also having a domestic supply would maybe be helpful for all of these problems.

Is that something that's being worked on, and are we an active participant in that?

[Jake Berg]

I don't believe there is a North American strategy, mainly because the U.S.-Canada border has been closed since 1987. Going forward, that could be part of a new risk assessment and how that could possibly operate.

[John Barlow, Conservative, Foothills, AB]

Mr. Hamilton, do you have any comments?

[John C. Hamilton]

I believe that in the last year there has been quite an expanded interest by the Americans. Up until recently, they have just stayed out of the whole affair. However, I think it's economics. They see it as another income stream.

I'm not saying that the domestic bee supply thing is going to be done with if we start bringing them in. To be honest, in northern California, I don't think there are enough bees to fill the void. I think there's a lot, but not what we need in total.

I honestly think that once we get the Canadian border, then we're going to have some provinces saying that their borders are closed, but maybe the next one accepts them. It's not going to be a done deal to be able to buy packages into, say New Brunswick. It's going to have to be decided provincially first.

[The Chair, Liberal, Kody Blois]

We're going to leave it at that.

Thank you, Mr. Hamilton. Thank you, Mr. Barlow.

We will go to Ms. Valdez now, for up to six minutes.

[Rechie Valdez, Liberal, Mississauga—Streetsville, ON]

Thank you, Mr. Chair, and thank you to the witnesses who have joined this committee.

Through you, Mr. Chair, I will direct my questions to Mr. Rosser first.

Can you provide an update on what the department is doing to help improve the health of honeybees in Canada, in addition to the working group that you mentioned in your opening remarks?

[Tom Rosser]

Mr. Chair, I thank the member for the question.

As I alluded to in my opening remarks, we have an established research program whereby we collaborate with universities in the development of new control products and the like. Beekeepers, as do other agricultural producers, have access to our business risk management programs. Our AgriInsurance program, for example, has provided support to producers who have suffered significant, elevated levels of overwinter losses.

A number of the provincial initiatives that the other witnesses mentioned are oftentimes cost-shared. It's a provincial program, provincially administered, but many of those programs are cost-shared on a sixty-forty basis between the federal government and provincial governments.

As I believe I alluded to in my opening remarks, we hope shortly to present a series of recommendations to federal, provincial and territorial ministers on other additional measures that they might consider to help improve the sustainability of bee populations in Canada. I believe that this work is timely, in the sense that we're just a few weeks into the Canadian agricultural partnership. With many of the science and other programs that are funded through that framework, there is an opportunity, I think, to assess where this sector best fits within that suite.

[Rechie Valdez, Liberal, Mississauga—Streetsville, ON]

Thank you.

Are you able to provide an update on our current diagnostic capacity for testing and measuring bee health?

[Tom Rosser]

Mr. Chair, I regret very much that some of my colleagues who have deeper technical expertise than I have weren't able to join, and who I'm sure could provide a more comprehensive answer than I'm able to, other than it is an area where I know that we are actively engaged in research.

[Rechie Valdez, Liberal, Mississauga—Streetsville, ON]

Hopefully, we'll see if you can answer this one as well.

In 2016, the department initiated a project that would document the prevalence of newly introduced parasites. If you're aware of any of those, do you have any updates on that project?