Agriculture Committee on April 24th, 2023

[The Chair, Liberal, Kody Blois]

Mr. Turnbull, you have about 45 seconds.

[Ryan Turnbull, Liberal, Whitby, ON]

Okay.

I guess the last question is really about climate change. I know this issue comes up a lot. One of the factors that have been identified, at least in our briefing packages, is the longer winters and the changes to the seasons.

Is this having an impact on the bees and the mortality rate of bees? Can you clarify if you've seen any changes to the weather patterns and whether there are best practices that can help prevent colony losses?

Mr. Berg, I'll start with you.

[Jake Berg]

It is a tough subject to really put a gauge on, because the weather patterns do change over time and there's an ebb and flow there.

Part of what we're doing with bees in keeping them alive in Canada is that we're pushing them to the absolute limit in trying to keep them alive over the winter. If the weather patterns change just a little bit, it makes it harder. We have to make sure that all the boxes have been checked off—that the varroa mite count is low, that the other bee diseases are under control and that the bees are healthy going into winter.

If any of those boxes haven't been checked off, along with an extra couple of days of cold, a little bit of extreme cold, or longer winters or longer springs than normal, that hive doesn't make it. That's part of the problem. We need to make sure the bees are extremely healthy going into winter.

[The Chair, Liberal, Kody Blois]

We're going to keep it at that, gentlemen. Thank you.

Mr. Savard-Tremblay, the floor is now yours for two and a half minutes.

[Simon-Pierre Savard-Tremblay, Bloc, Saint-Hyacinthe—Bagot, QC]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Mr. Rosser, can you confirm the information that numerous beekeepers have given us, that queen bees in Quebec and Canada are imported? Can you confirm or refute that information?

[Tom Rosser]

Mr. Chair, I confirm that we import queens.

[Simon-Pierre Savard-Tremblay, Bloc, Saint-Hyacinthe—Bagot, QC]

Why not raise our own queens here?

[Tom Rosser]

Mr. Chair, I think Mr. Berg talked about the queens being imported. However, there is another option to improve the health of our industry, and that is to increase production in Canada.

[Simon-Pierre Savard-Tremblay, Bloc, Saint-Hyacinthe—Bagot, QC]

In terms of importation, is there a challenge associated with genetics? Can the fact that the imported bees may not be adapted to our climate harm the genetics of the bees here?

[Tom Rosser]

Mr. Chair, I will reiterate that it is unfortunate that my colleagues from the Canada Food Inspection Agency could not participate in the meeting today.

Before permitting imports, each country does an assessment of the risks associated with importing bees.

[Simon-Pierre Savard-Tremblay, Bloc, Saint-Hyacinthe—Bagot, QC]

What are the challenges involved in raising bees in Canada?

What do you think Canada could be doing better?

[Tom Rosser]

I think Mr. Berg and Mr. Hamilton are in a better position to answer that question than I am.

However, I can say that the provinces and the industry have recommendations to make to the committee. Mr. Berg mentioned several ideas, including the possibility of doing more research and of emphasizing technology transfer. The federal ministers and the provincial and territorial governments will in fact be discussing these solutions in July.

[Simon-Pierre Savard-Tremblay, Bloc, Saint-Hyacinthe—Bagot, QC]

Gentlemen, do you want to add something about domestic production?

[The Chair, Liberal, Kody Blois]

You have 30 seconds left.

Do you have anything to add, gentlemen, on domestic production?

[Jake Berg]

Yes.

There is domestic production of queen bees in Canada, but there are also a large number of imported queen bees as well. One of the big problems in domestic production of queen bees is timing. Most beekeepers want queen bees earlier than we can produce them in the same year. Some more research into overwintering queens in queen banks or other innovative ways of overwintering queens that can be produced the summer prior is needed.

[The Chair, Liberal, Kody Blois]

We'll leave it at that.

Mr. MacGregor, you have two and a half minutes, and then I plan to go to the Conservatives, to the Liberals and then to any final burning questions. I might have a few as the chair, given that this has been a very interesting topic.

Go ahead, Mr. MacGregor.

[Alistair MacGregor, NDP, Cowichan—Malahat—Langford, BC]

Thank you, Chair. I started my clock this time, so we're good.

Mr. Hamilton and Mr. Berg, I'm going to ask two questions for both of you to take turns answering.

First of all, you both come from very different regions of Canada: Nova Scotia and the Prairies. How often do you observe the health of wild pollinators? Do you ever take lessons from how they're doing and take any lessons on how that may affect your domestic production? Have you noticed any jumping of varroa mites to wild populations? Do any of them show they are resistant to it?

Second, when it comes to increasing the amount of wild forage that is available, aside from the domestic crops that you are primarily responsible for, what methods work well? What kinds of partnerships have you established to try to increase that?

Mr. Hamilton, do you want to start?

[John C. Hamilton]

To start with, right off the top of my head, we're planting a mustard crop. It's in a rotation. We have a large carrot farm in the Annapolis Valley, and we plant mustard because, first of all, it's a great nectar source for our bees, and the roots are actually good at suppressing the nematodes that are in the soil. Then, finally, it's mowed down as a mulch after it has bloomed. We are very progressive in that.

Now, that's not during pollination; that's in the summertime when we're growing our hives. We're doing that within our own company and being very successful and very happy with it, actually.

[Alistair MacGregor, NDP, Cowichan—Malahat—Langford, BC]

I just want to give Mr. Berg a chance to answer as well.

[Jake Berg]

Typically, out in the Prairies, we haven't been seeding other crops to offset the flowering season. However, rather than having government agencies spraying the roadside ditches, we would like to encourage them to use a seed mix that has some type of flowering plants in it rather than just grass.

[Alistair MacGregor, NDP, Cowichan—Malahat—Langford, BC]

Great. I'll just leave it there.

[The Chair, Liberal, Kody Blois]

We'll go to Mr. Shields. Then we're going back to Mr. Lewis or Mr. Drouin, and then we'll go from there.

Mr. Lehoux, you have the floor.

[Richard Lehoux, Conservative, Beauce, QC]

Mr. Chair, will I have a bit of time at the end of the meeting to make my motion?

[The Chair, Liberal, Kody Blois]

Yes, you will.

[Richard Lehoux, Conservative, Beauce, QC]

Thank you.