Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Good afternoon. My name is Frédéric Bissonnette. I'm the acting executive director at Health Canada's pest management regulatory agency, PMRA.
I'd like to start by acknowledging that we're meeting today in Ottawa, Ontario, which is the traditional, unceded territory of the Anishinabe and Algonquin people.
Thank you for the opportunity to speak to the committee about PMRA's role in protecting bee health. I'm joined today by Dr. Connie Hart, a senior science adviser in the environmental assessment directorate who has over 20 years of experience in environmental risk assessment, including expertise in assessing the risks of pesticide to bees.
PMRA is a federal authority responsible for the regulation of pesticides in Canada. Our mandate under the Pest Control Products Act is to prevent unacceptable risk to individuals and the environment from the use of pest control products. Pesticide manufacturers apply to Health Canada to register new pesticides or add new uses. Our role is to conduct thorough, science-based risk and value assessments of these pesticides before they can be registered for use in Canada.
PMRA also monitors and reassesses pesticides after they've been registered. We conduct periodic re-evaluations of pesticides using the most current science and risk assessment protocols, and we conduct special reviews of pesticides when there are reasonable grounds to believe the value or risk of their use is unacceptable.
We recognize the importance of bee health for agriculture in our society. The health of pollinators is complex and can be affected by many factors, including parasites and pathogens, habitat loss, food supply issues, queen bee quality, exposure to pesticides, general hive management and weather.
PMRA works with key stakeholders and our provincial counterparts on issues related to bee health. We collaborate with other pesticide regulators domestically and internationally to improve our risk assessments and management.
PMRA's incident reporting program allows anyone to report suspected pesticide‑related effects on people or the environment, including effects on bees. Pesticide registrants are required to report incidents involving their products to PMRA. This allows us to monitor for unforeseen risks once pesticides are in use.
In 2012, PMRA began receiving large numbers of incident reports about bee deaths, colony losses and abnormal behaviour. An investigation into the causes of these incidents revealed that dust from the planting of neonicotinoid-treated seed was likely adversely impacting nearby bee colonies. Health Canada, in collaboration with many stakeholders, implemented risk reduction measures to minimize pesticide exposure to bees. With these risk mitigations in place, Health Canada saw a significant decrease in the number of incidents reported.
In 2014, PMRA published a pesticide risk assessment framework for bees, developed in cooperation with the United States Environmental Protection Agency. This framework is now used in all assessments conducted in Canada and United States where bees may be exposed to pesticides. It was applied in the re‑evaluations of three neonicotinoid pesticides, completed in 2019. These assessments were based on a review of hundreds of open literature and pesticide company-submitted studies, that assessed risks to bee colonies, including overwinter mortality.
The re‑evaluations of neonicotinoids resulted in decisions by PMRA to further mitigate potential risks to bees. As a result of these assessments, PMRA put in place major changes to product registrations. This included cancellation of a number of pesticide uses.
During the spring of 2022, high honeybee overwintering losses were reported in Alberta, Quebec, Ontario, Manitoba and other provinces. The Canadian Association of Professional Apiculturists reported that the most-cited cause of colony loss was ineffective control of varroa mites on bees, which could lead to the loss of colonies.
In addition to mitigating the risk to bees from pesticide use, PMRA is also responsible for decisions regarding registration of pest control products to protect honeybees, including products used to control varroa mites. PMRA continues to carefully monitor and consider the impact of pesticides on bee health. Our intent is to be proactive in our protection of bees and to take timely action where warranted.
Again, I thank you, Mr. Chair, for inviting PMRA to participate in this important discussion today.