Agriculture Committee on April 24th, 2023

[The Chair, Liberal, Kody Blois]

We'll leave it at that, Mr. Shields.

It's certainly on the record that the leafcutter bees are important too.

I'm going to go back to my Liberal colleagues.

Mr. Louis, if you want to share with Mr. Drouin, that's up to you. You have five minutes.

[Tim Louis, Liberal, Kitchener—Conestoga, ON]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

I thank all of the witnesses for being here, especially in a lot of these different circumstances when we have had two different panels. We learned right away how important the sector is to driving our agriculture sector. I really appreciate your being here.

Maybe I'll start with Mr. Rosser.

We've talked about some of the main causes of colony collapse. We've talked about illnesses and pesticides. We've mentioned monocultures and changes in weather patterns. A lot of these are interconnected, and monocultures seem to be at the centre of a lot of it. Monocultures create the need for increased use of pesticides, which are detrimental to bee health. They provide bees with one nutrient source, which, we learned, has a place at certain times of the year.

How can we increase crop diversity in order to decrease bee colony deaths? Are there best practices out there that farmers are using to increase diversity?

[Tom Rosser]

Mr. Chair, I'd only say that if the intention of the committee is to call the witnesses who were unable to participate, my colleague Dr. Pernal is an expert in the field and probably much better able to respond to that question in depth than I possibly could.

[Tim Louis, Liberal, Kitchener—Conestoga, ON]

It's not a problem unless, like you said, we were trying....

Maybe I will ask Mr. Berg. Do you know of farmers using best practices? At the end of the day, farmers are looking to make money. If they can plant those extra rows, they're going to do that. However, is there a way to incentivize? Is there a way to help farmers plant that biodiversity?

[Jake Berg]

Yes, there probably are ways to do that, although I'm unaware of any government incentives that are available at this time that would cause that to happen.

[Tim Louis, Liberal, Kitchener—Conestoga, ON]

We also mentioned some changes in weather patterns and got some mixed answers. Maybe Mr. Hamilton will be the perfect person to ask.

What would droughts and flooding do to the crops, and what does that do to the pollinators?

[John C. Hamilton]

Droughts reduce the swelling of the berries, so a drought would make it a smaller blueberry crop. When you're in a drought, there's no nectar for your bees, so it would mean that we would have to feed them more. However, we are proactive with our bees and with our growth in trying to push them and expand them. So far, we've been reasonably successful.

[Tim Louis, Liberal, Kitchener—Conestoga, ON]

The flip side of that would be flooding and excess....

[John C. Hamilton]

I've had hives go down the creek.

[Tim Louis, Liberal, Kitchener—Conestoga, ON]

We talked about pesticides briefly. Mr. Rosser, I know that the honeybee sustainability group hasn't released its report, but its going to be producing an action plan for the long term and for the short term. Do you know if it's talking about the effects of pesticides?

[Tom Rosser]

I don't recall. There was certainly talk about varroa control products, but I assume no. I do not think the working group made specific recommendations on the usage of pesticides beyond those used to control varroa.

[Tim Louis, Liberal, Kitchener—Conestoga, ON]

Lastly, we just kind of touched on illness. You say that research is being done on varroa mites. Is it through the private sector, through universities or through partnerships? How is that working?

[Tom Rosser]

My understanding is that there is public financing available through the agricultural partnership, among other funding sources. My understanding of the research is that it is quite collaborative. Oftentimes, industry will also participate in funding.

We have, within the department, researchers who are experts in this field, and they will typically work in collaboration with university-based researchers and others.

[Tim Louis, Liberal, Kitchener—Conestoga, ON]

In my last minute....

We talked about up to 45% losses in 2022. What unfortunate lessons can we learn from that year? That was just a perfect storm of problems.

I leave that open to anyone.

[Jake Berg]

Yes, it probably was a perfect storm of problems. We are starting to see the end of Apivar as a useful product. In 2021, there was an early spring and a late fall, which gave a couple of extra growth cycles for the varroa mites to grow in.

Possibly Mr. Hamilton might have some other thoughts.

[John C. Hamilton]

We had our own correction a few years back, and you just can't let your guard down. You have to make sure that you have your mite treatments and that the mite treatments are working. You have to have the feed in the hives early. You have to be prepared for a wet fall, when they don't want to take the feed. It's 100% on. You would say that last year was a benchmark year. As I said, there's a grower in Niagara-on-the-Lake who's buying 6,000 packages right now.

[The Chair, Liberal, Kody Blois]

We're going to have to leave it at that, Mr. Louis.

[Tim Louis, Liberal, Kitchener—Conestoga, ON]

Thank you for your time and your perseverance.

[The Chair, Liberal, Kody Blois]

To my Bloc and NDP colleagues, I said I would give you one. I know, Alistair, that you want a short one, and I have a few questions, unfortunately, that I'm going to have to indulge, because it's an interesting conversation.

Monsieur Savard-Tremblay, do you have questions? No? You're good?

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

I have no other questions, Mr. Chair.

[The Chair, Liberal, Kody Blois]

Okay.

Keep it tight, please, Mr. MacGregor.

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

Thank you, Chair.

Mr. Hamilton, I'll direct one question to you because you are primarily using bees for fruit production and for berries.

I understand that honeybees are imported, but how often do producers like you pay attention to the wild and native pollinators? Are there any consistent efforts to look at how they are doing?

I know they help pollinate some of your bushes, but are there ever any serious interactions with the wild population to see how they're doing?

[John C. Hamilton]

To be honest, we're all about anything that wants to pollinate wild blueberries. I was in a blueberry field with the tech team from Nova Scotia, and it was a rainy day. It was pouring rain. I had them there and I wanted to show them what strong hives look like during pollination, but it was a terrible day.

As it was, there were bumblebees flying around. The problem with bumblebees.... Kenna MacKenzie was a researcher at the station in Kemptville. She said that yes, bumblebees are good, but one nest has only 30 or 40 adults. They're a far better pollinator than honeybees, but there are only 30 adults. She said my hive there had 20,000, 30,000 or 35,000 bees in it.

It's the sheer numbers, and remembering that we only have a short bloom period. It's just like that, and then it's gone.

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

Thank you.

[The Chair, Liberal, Kody Blois]

I'll ask a couple of questions.

One of the things I heard during the conversation was, “What is actually causing the mortality?” This question has become part of the consciousness a lot more parliamentarians and the public as well, because of the mortality we're seeing.

Am I correct in saying that we've been seeing higher mortality numbers over the last couple of years in particular? Briefly, is it as a result of the varroa mite, or do we really not know, because we have to do more research to try to figure out what the root cause of some of this mortality is?

Mr. Rosser, do you have anything on that? I'll then go quickly to Mr. Berg or Mr. Hamilton.