Agriculture Committee on April 24th, 2023

[Arnold Viersen, Conservative, Peace River—Westlock, AB]

In that next generation, is that a spring bee, then?

[John C. Hamilton]

That's right, yes.

[Arnold Viersen, Conservative, Peace River—Westlock, AB]

Okay.

How long is the average life of a bee?

[John C. Hamilton]

In the summer, it's six to eight weeks. In the winter, it's probably five months.

[Arnold Viersen, Conservative, Peace River—Westlock, AB]

Then being able to import bees from the United States would allow you to fill those hives up quickly with current bees that know what they're doing already. You don't have to wait.

[John C. Hamilton]

Yes, and at a reasonable price.

[Arnold Viersen, Conservative, Peace River—Westlock, AB]

We also don't have to wait a generation for them to get to work.

[John C. Hamilton]

That's right, yes.

[Arnold Viersen, Conservative, Peace River—Westlock, AB]

Can you talk a little bit about the difference between the value of pollination and the value of honey? There's the wax, as well.

Lots of people think of bees and think honey, but there's a huge value to.... I know we're the honey capital of Canada because of canola, and there's a 1% to 2% production increase to have honeybees. Just explain to people that honey is not the only thing that these bees are all about.

[John C. Hamilton]

Actually, Jake asked me earlier today. We don't produce....

We wintered 12,000 hives this year. We hope to send 10,000 to pollination. We did that last year, and that's what we hope we can do again this year. We produce enough honey to give us our yard rent, but it's not really our focus. Our focus is on making more wild blueberries.

[Arnold Viersen, Conservative, Peace River—Westlock, AB]

If you don't harvest the honey, what happens to it?

[John C. Hamilton]

It stays in the hive for feed.

[Arnold Viersen, Conservative, Peace River—Westlock, AB]

The bees eat it again.

[John C. Hamilton]

Yes. In our growth program, we're feeding a lot of sugar anyway, because we're constantly growing our hives. We're always trying to grow more hives. With all three bee operations, other than sending strong bees to pollination, the second thing they want us to do is to grow our numbers.

[Arnold Viersen, Conservative, Peace River—Westlock, AB]

I have a minute left. Can you just reinforce the idea that if we didn't bring them here, then bees wouldn't be here?

[John C. Hamilton]

They're not native to North America. Back in the day, the natives called them the white man's flies. They brought them over with the early settlements because they couldn't figure out why their fruit trees and whatnot weren't getting pollinated.

[The Chair, Liberal, Kody Blois]

Gentlemen, we'll have to leave it at that.

Mr. Viersen, we were at time, but I wanted to make sure that was on the record.

Thank you, Mr. Hamilton.

We'll go to Mr. Turnbull for five minutes now.

[Ryan Turnbull, Liberal, Whitby, ON]

Thanks, Chair.

Thanks to our witnesses for being here today.

I'm not an expert on this topic, so bear with me. I have a few questions.

From our briefing package, I see that the honeybee colonies have actually risen. The number of beekeepers has risen over time.

I think the issue is the mortality rate. Would you say that's true? Is that the big issue that we're discussing, that the mortality rate is climbing quite high? In the graphs that we can see, it was up towards 46% in 2021. That's obviously a problem.

There are numerous factors identified in our briefing package. I just wonder how you diagnose it. When there are many different factors potentially involved in a complex environment that the bees are in, how do we diagnose what is causing them to die? Is it just one thing? We've heard about only a couple of the factors. In our briefing package, there are some others that are also included, like pesticide use and the changes to weather patterns. Are those also factors here?

Mr. Rosser, maybe I'll start with you.

[Tom Rosser]

In my understanding, there's no question that 2022—and I think Mr. Berg spoke to this in his opening testimony—was an exceptional year. As far back as we have data, there was never a year like it in terms of overwinter mortality, and it wasn't regionally focused. It was national.

I think there were probably multiple factors at play in different regions that account for 2022 being an exceptionally poor year.

[Ryan Turnbull, Liberal, Whitby, ON]

Mr. Berg, I know you are specifically focused on honeybees. I read recently about the fact that monocropping—the killing of native plants and weed control—can have an impact on the nutrition of honeybees because there's less for them to forage on.

Can you speak to that a little bit? Is that a factor that you're concerned about as well?

[Jake Berg]

Yes, monoculture is a factor that we're concerned about, although in my operation we thrive on the monoculture that happens in the Prairies with the canola crop. That's what I make my living on. I make honey from canola. Ninety-five per cent of my honey crop is from canola.

However, we also need other types of flowers—wildflowers in the ditches and in other types of wild land—to help grow and sustain those bees for the other 11 months of the year. Canola crops are great, but they only flower for a month. From the first of July to the end of July, there's a huge sea of yellow flowers across the Prairies, but we need those other wild areas and wildflowers, starting in early April and right through until the canola crop comes on. We also need those flowers after the canola crop is done to sustain those bees and keep them growing.

[Ryan Turnbull, Liberal, Whitby, ON]

Okay. Thank you. I really appreciate that.

Neonicotinoid pesticides have come up a lot, at least in the briefing package that I've read through. I've talked to the National Farmers Union and several other farm organizations that are concerned about not having pollinators and about the widespread use of those pesticides.

Mr. Hamilton, what's your view on what we should be doing about that? Is the government doing enough on that front?

[John C. Hamilton]

I keep bees on potato land and I kept bees on P.E.I. for a few years through the summer. I'm hesitant to comment. I don't see a... I think it.... I don't want to comment.

[Ryan Turnbull, Liberal, Whitby, ON]

It's a sensitive subject, I think.

Mr. Rosser, what's your perspective on this? I know that the government has done work through the Pest Management Regulatory Agency. Are we doing enough to limit the widespread use of neonicotinoid pesticides?

[Tom Rosser]

Mr. Chair, again, I regret that my PMRA colleagues weren't able to join in. I know that they were ready to speak to that issue. I don't feel that I can do justice in trying to address it.