Agriculture Committee on April 26th, 2023

[Maggie Lamothe Boudreau]

It's the same problem everywhere in Canada. We can get them from Australia, Ukraine, Chili and New Zealand, actually.

However, the bees all have their own problems that are harmful to the genetics we are trying to establish, one way or another, in Canada.

[Martin Shields, Conservative, Bow River, AB]

You mentioned research. Recently, I met with a lot of deans of the agricultural community in Canada. The dean from McGill said Canada has 1,200 researchers, and there are far less.... They said, “We do a lot of research on all of these topics and are willing to do more.”

Have you approached the agricultural colleges and the deans, with their research capacity, to help you?

[Maggie Lamothe Boudreau]

I'm not sure I understood your question.

[Martin Shields, Conservative, Bow River, AB]

I met with the deans of the agricultural institutions in Canada. The dean from McGill said that we have 1,200 researchers available across Canada to help research anything to do with agriculture, and many of them have experience in all the areas you might talk about.

Have you approached, for example, McGill University's ag department about helping you with your research?

[The Acting Chair, NDP, Alistair MacGregor]

Please make it a very quick answer.

[Maggie Lamothe Boudreau]

We have not been in touch with McGill University, but I know there are researchers there who are already doing research in the field of beekeeping. I would like to have their contact information and get in touch with them right away.

[Martin Shields, Conservative, Bow River, AB]

They ask you to do it.

[The Acting Chair, NDP, Alistair MacGregor]

Thank you, Mr. Shields.

We'll turn it back over to the Liberals.

Monsieur Drouin, you have five minutes. Please go ahead.

[Francis Drouin, Liberal, Glengarry—Prescott—Russell, ON]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

I want to thank the witnesses who are with us today.

Mr. Doyon, you talked about the risk presented by Africanized bees. You may have been here when a witness made comments that were the complete opposite of yours. am not an expert in this subject myself.

He said the risk was not high at all because those bees were going to die as a result of genetics and they would not be able to survive the Canadian winter. I would just like to know who is telling the truth. I don't want to put you on the spot, but I want to know why you are saying opposite things.

I would note that I consider both of you to be experts.

[Jean-François Doyon]

I understand you very well.

I said at the outset that we did not oppose importing, but we had to be cautious about Africanized genes. Assume that genes like this invade Canada or Quebec and drones from those hives arrive in the summer. I agree that they won't make it through the winter. However, if one of our queens mates with an Africanized drone during the summer that came from a hive brought in from the United States, the gene will be transmitted to the queen during fertilization.

Ms. Lamothe Boudreau is going to sell us queens with the Africanized gene, which will perpetuate itself over time. It is the transmission of the gene that is the issue. I agree that the Africanized bees won't make it through the winter. However, Ms. Lamothe Boudreau's bees that have the gene will. That is kind of how transmission can occur.

[Francis Drouin, Liberal, Glengarry—Prescott—Russell, ON]

Okay.

Ms. Lamothe Boudreau, I am going to come back to you in a moment to talk to you about the 40 queens.

Mr. Doyon, there was talk about getting packages of bees from the United States. As we know, this is illegal at present. Ms. Lamothe Boudreau seems to be saying that with 40 bees in a hive, there might be enough queens in Canada or Quebec.

Do you support this approach, or do you think that it also involves risks? Before you say, would you like the Pest Management Regulatory Agency, the PMRA, to do more research?

[Jean-François Doyon]

I am neither for nor against this approach. However, I think the PMRA has to do research. I gave you the example of queens coming from California. This year, we won't be able to get any because the Africanized gene is present at one of the companies, Pope Canyon Queens, in California.

So we can't expand our hives very early in the spring. It will get done later in the season. As a result, we risk not being able to get to the level we need to reach. If the Africanized gene is imported to Canada, we will definitely have serious problems. There is also resistance to varroa, which is hard to control. The recommendation we make, to prevent resistance, is to approve several products rather than one or two. Before bringing packages of bees that are resistant to varroa, or Africanized bees, into the country, we really have to be sure of what we are doing.

[Francis Drouin, Liberal, Glengarry—Prescott—Russell, ON]

Okay.

I have more questions I could ask, but I am going to focus on a solution that is possible in Quebec and Canada.

Ms. Lamothe Boudreau, how many years has the program involving 40 queens been in existence? Is this the first year it has been approved?

[Maggie Lamothe Boudreau]

No, it started in 2019 at the Centre de recherche en sciences animales de Deschambault, the CRSAD, with the publication of Andrée Rousseau's article. My research project is the third in Quebec. If I am not mistaken, it is also underway in Alberta. Our results are extremely promising. We are now fine-tuning the technique. Mireille Lévesque has achieved a survival rate of more or less 75 per cent. In Andrée Rousseau's case, there is a survival rate of 86 per cent for the queens in her hive. It really is interesting.

The technique has to be fine-tuned. At the end of the season, we use the queens that are no longer attractive to the industry and we keep them until the next spring, so they are available at important points, that is, when we can form the nucleus colonies or divide our bee population and end the season with a sufficient number of hives. That is what is interesting.

[Francis Drouin, Liberal, Glengarry—Prescott—Russell, ON]

That's terrific.

Unfortunately, I am running out of time, so I will not ask any other questions.

[Jean-François Doyon]

What Ms. Lamothe Boudreau is proposing is really important.

The spring is precisely when we need a lot of queens, but we have trouble getting them.

[Maggie Lamothe Boudreau]

The August queens are the best.

[Francis Drouin, Liberal, Glengarry—Prescott—Russell, ON]

I didn't know that. It's very interesting.

[The Acting Chair, NDP, Alistair MacGregor]

Thank you very much.

Mr. Trudel, you may now go ahead for two and half minutes, please.

[Denis Trudel, Bloc, Longueuil—Saint-Hubert, QC]

Thank you.

Ms. Lamothe Boudreau, we spoke earlier about varroa and climate change. You seemed to want to say something about that. I would like to hear it.

[Maggie Lamothe Boudreau]

Are you talking about the effects that climate change can have on varroa?

[Denis Trudel, Bloc, Longueuil—Saint-Hubert, QC]

Yes, that's it.

[Maggie Lamothe Boudreau]

Yes, there are consequences. It is probably one of the many factors that have caused the losses we have suffered, which amount to 50 per cent, a record number. The previous fall had been incredible. You must remember: It was 25 degrees Celsius in December.

[Denis Trudel, Bloc, Longueuil—Saint-Hubert, QC]

Are you talking about last fall?

[Maggie Lamothe Boudreau]

No, I'm talking about the fall of 2020.