Agriculture Committee on April 26th, 2023

[Ron Greidanus]

That's a very good question, and it deserves a lot longer answer than what I can give.

I will give a short answer here, but if you would like, I could follow that up with an e-mail after we've had the meeting here.

There are four risks that are identified in the 2013 risk assessment. Those risks are varroa resistance to amitraz, resistant American foulbrood, small hive beetles and Africanized honeybees.

The amitraz-resistant varroa is something that we have in both countries right now. It is in the United States. The tech teams have been doing some initial research to find out whether we have it here in Canada, and it appears that we do have resistance here in Canada, as well.

One thing we need to be very careful of is whether it is resistance or efficacy. The likely answer to that question is that it's a little bit of both. It's already here. We've already been using amitraz for a number of years. There is already resistance in Canada. I think it's a moot point.

We have had resistant American foulbrood in Canada since the early 1990s. I remember bringing in palettes of bees from Australia and shaking them into our hives, and then the hives crashed. We lost hundreds of thousands of dollars because there was resistance to American foulbrood in our own operations here in Canada.

The other pest risk that's been identified there is the small hive beetle. This is an economic threat, especially in the southern states. However, it is endemic in parts of Canada here already. If you talk to Paul Kozak, the provincial apiculturist for the Province of Ontario, he will testify that it is endemic in southern parts of Ontario, around the Niagara, Niagara-on-the-Lake, Hamilton and London area. It's also found in New Brunswick. It's found in Quebec. We have also had findings of small hive beetle in Alberta and in Manitoba, and just recently, this fall, in British Columbia, which Paul van Westendorp can testify to.

The reality of small hive beetle is that it fails to establish or thrive in Canada, and the economic losses that are associated with it just have not materialized. They have not materialized here in Canada, and they have not materialized in the northern United States either—the northern states that border Canada.

One of the things that needs to be done is a reassessment of what it really entails. It might be a reportable pest, but is it a pest that actually causes any economic harm in Canada? My assertion is no, it's not going to cause economic harm here in Canada.

That leaves the last pest, which is Africanized honeybees. There has been a mountain of research that has started to come forward and evidence from the last 30 years in the United States suggesting that it is not able to survive north of a climatic wall that we have in North America. I talked about how bees survive winter. With Africanized genetics, what we're worried about is the aggressive, protective behaviour and the propensity to swarm. That also comes with a failure to be able to cluster at cold temperatures. Those hives die in the first season they're here.

We don't have enough time here for me to get into all the details of that, but protocols can easily be developed to address some of these risks. For Africanized honeybees, ship the bees on a pheromone strip, and get a queen from some other part of the world that doesn't have Africanized genetics. It's not an issue; it dies right there in your yard.

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

If we were to start importing packaged bees from the U.S., are there certain regions you wouldn't touch, or would you implement stricter protocols to ensure that the risk factors you've mentioned wouldn't be present?

[Ron Greidanus]

At present, the Alberta Beekeepers Commission is advocating for importing packaged bees from northern California. Simply, we've historically imported queens from northern California since 2005 into Canada without any incident of any failure of any sort. We would like to start there. I don't know how regionalization would all work; I can't speak to that. What we're advocating for is starting with northern California.

[The Chair, Liberal, Kody Blois]

Thank you, both.

I will now turn the floor over to Mr. Savard-Tremblay for six minutes.

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

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

I also want to thank all the witnesses for their testimony and for being here today.

My first question is for Mr. Guzman.

On Monday, the committee heard from a number of beekeepers, who confirmed that we import a lot of queen bees in Quebec and Canada.

You can to confirm or deny that information. If it is true, of course, can importing foreign queens and drones alter the genetics of the bees we have locally, which are adapted to our climate?

[Dr. Ernesto Guzman]

I understood only part of what you asked because I don't speak French—

[The Chair, Liberal, Kody Blois]

Dr. Guzman—I will stop the clock quickly—there is on your Zoom call an ability to toggle between interpretations. We have interpretation here in the room, so maybe what I would ask is that we let Mr. Savard-Tremblay ask his question again. You can make sure that you toggle over to English, and then you'll be able to hear the translation clearly, and we don't have to worry about your maybe not understanding the whole premise of the question. How does that sound?

[Dr. Ernesto Guzman]

It sounds good, but I need help from a technician to set up the system.

[The Chair, Liberal, Kody Blois]

At the bottom of your screen, I believe, Madam Clerk, unless I'm wrong, there is an ability to click on interpretation and hit English.

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

Mr. Guzman, let's do a test. Can you hear in English what I'm saying to you through the interpreters?

[Dr. Ernesto Guzman]

I don't have that option here.

I'm working with a Mac, so that's probably the issue. I don't have that option of translation.

[The Chair, Liberal, Kody Blois]

Okay, we'll suspend for a second.

[The Chair, Liberal, Kody Blois]

We're back.

Mr. Savard-Tremblay, I'm going to let you ask questions of people other than Dr. Guzman, and I'll keep an eye on the time.

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

I have several questions for Mr. Guzman, but I also have one for Mr. van Westendorp.

According to some beekeepers, at present, a number of them lack basic training and tools that are acquired through teaching for fully performing their work. We were told on Monday—I was also replacing someone on this committee—that new beekeepers did not have access to any special training.

Do you think that could have an impact on losses during winter management, for example?

[Paul van Westendorp]

I cannot speak for other provinces, but here in British Columbia, to address this issue of so many people being interested in bees and beekeeping, the ministry offers a free beekeeping course every year, which has an enrolment of 700, 800 or 900 people. We are trying to do our best to convey the best management practices to as many beekeepers as possible.

The losses I was referring to earlier are universal. They are not merely among new beekeepers, and I'm not suggesting that all commercial beekeepers do not necessarily always apply the best management practices. There is always room for improvement, but many of them are certainly adhering to practices that fall into the category of being good beekeepers. It's not merely ignorance or lack of training that has contributed to high losses.

[The Chair, Liberal, Kody Blois]

Mr. Savard-Tremblay, you have approximately four minutes and 15 seconds left.

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

So that is what is left of my six minutes of speaking time.

[The Chair, Liberal, Kody Blois]

Yes.

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

I don't know where we are in working with Mr. Guzman, but...

[The Chair, Liberal, Kody Blois]

We're still working on that. I can go to Mr. MacGregor if you'd like, and we can reserve your time. You have about four minutes left.

Mr. MacGregor, why don't you go ahead now?

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

Thank you, Chair.

If Mr. Guzman is in fact listening, I can start with him.

Mr. Guzman, are you hearing me right now?

[The Chair, Liberal, Kody Blois]

It doesn't sound like that's the case, Mr. MacGregor. Why don't you proceed with your questions without Mr. Guzman and we can come back to you?

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

Maybe I will turn instead to the B.C. government.

Mr. van Westendorp, I was noticing on the Government of B.C. website that you have a food for bees program in place. I know that it focuses mainly on wild pollinators. We have many different species.

I'm not going to discount the hugely important role that commercial bees play in sustaining our commercial crops. You mentioned our $400-million blueberry industry in British Columbia.

I'm just wondering, in tackling native pollinators, what have the efforts been like? Has there been any corresponding value in those programs, like seeing an increase in their population that could maybe help to alleviate a small fraction of the issues we're seeing with commercial operations?

[Paul van Westendorp]

Wow. Look, in order to substantiate claims about the decline or the upsurge of native pollinator populations, you would require a fair bit of field trials and studies. It is well known that the world of native pollinators is poorly researched. There is generally not enough money available.

Ironically, honeybees are the most researched insect in the world, I would think, because so much of our agriculture economies are dependent on them.

You referred to our web page on food for bees. That was largely designed to assist greater diversification, shall we say, and sustainability of local environments. I'm not talking about gardeners so much, but farm practices, reclamation projects and mines. Things of that kind are really all benefiting from a greater flow of diversity that provides food sources for native pollinators.

As well, in my outline that I provided in my speaking notes, I think it's important to recognize that one of the contributing causes to the decline of honeybees but also of many of the other pollinators is that if we really examine the landscape of North America, this has transformed drastically in the last 50 years.

From a great diversity of floral sources and undisturbed habitat, we have gone wild on producing all kinds of monoculture crops and on the removal of undisturbed habitat. We have failed to recognize as a society the intrinsic value of many of these habitats that contribute to sustaining wild pollinators, as well as other small creatures in this world—

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

I'm sorry to interrupt. I appreciate your outlining the problem.

What would you like to see in our committee's report in terms of a recommendation that would maybe help provincial government efforts in trying to reverse that particular problem?