http://albertabuzzing.com/2015/07/accountability/
by LEE TOWNSEND

The new Ontario neonicotinoid regulations took effect on July 1, with both
the Ontario Beekeepers Association (OBA) and the provincial government
heralding the changes as being vital to ensuring the survival of honeybees
in that province.  Glen Murray, the Minister of Environment and Climate
Change (MOECC) has been boasting about how these new regulations will save
pollinators from certain doom as it will hold farmers and the seed
manufacturers accountable on how they impact the environment. What he fails
to acknowledge is the work that these groups have undertaken to protect the
environment in general, and pollinators specifically, in recent decades and
years.

With respect to pollinator protection specifically, farmers had
successfully taken steps to improve their practices and equipment over the
past 3 years (i.e., without the need of regulations) and ensured that
excess dust released during the seeding of corn and soy was controlled.  In
addition to this, the seed manufacturers improved the coatings used on corn
and soy seed to ensure that the chemical treatments being used adhered
better and introduced a new fluency agent to reduce the amount of dust
released during seeding.  Collectively, these efforts led to a drastic
reduction in the number of bee incidents being reported during planting in
Ontario since 2012.  Now farmers are being told that this is not good
enough, and they will effectively lose access to neonicotinoid products by
2017 unless they can prove it is needed.  The problem with this is that the
tools available to predict when the treatments are needed prior to seeding
have never been rigorously field tested and only cover a handful of the
pests that farmers need to protect their crops against.  As a result,
farmers in Ontario predict it will result in reduced yields and lost income.

What is forgotten in all of this is the fact that the same people claiming
to hold farmers and manufacturers accountable for their practices have
yet to do the same to the OBA board and its supporters.  Farmers have been
ordered to change their management practices or face steep fines if they do
not comply, yet not a single management change has been enforced on
beekeepers in Ontario.  The OBA board of directors consistently claim that
they know what they are doing and that there were no issues prior to the
introduction of neonic’s, even though the self-reported management
practices documented in the CAPA report prove otherwise.  The main problem
with this stance by the OBA is that neonics had been used in Ontario long
before 2012 (on crops that bees rarely if ever forage on).  In addition to
this, 80% of all Canadian hives are located on the prairies with the
primary floral source these bees forage on being canola.  For those that
don’t know, canola seed, much like corn and soy seed, is treated with
neonics.  If neonics were the primary cause of bee deaths, then the
Canadian prairies would’ve seen losses far in excess of what Ontario has
due to the fact the exposure level is drastically higher.

Then again evidence is not actually needed for a beekeeper to make a claim
that pesticides caused bee deaths.  According to the PMRA, all that is
required is the following:

Definition of a bee incident*: A bee incident is defined as atypical
effects observed in a honey bee colony reported by a beekeeper, and
suspected by the beekeeper to be related to pesticide exposure. These
incidents are characterized by mortality or sub-lethal effects on colonies
that are thought to be related to pesticide exposure. Generally, each bee
yard is considered a single incident, and each bee yard may vary in the
number of affected colonies.*

Even when using this inaccurate method of reporting, incidents in Ontario
dropped by 70% from 2014 to 2013 and 80% from 2015 to 2013.  When you dig
deeper into the PMRA findings, it turns out that the majority of incidents
in 2014 and 2015 were classified as being “very low to low severity”.  The
very low indicator describes colonies with fewer than 100 dead
bees, and the low indicator is applied to colonies with between 100-500
dead bees.  Considering that there can be between 30,000-50,000 bees per
colony in the spring, these numbers are minimal and well within a
completely normal range for a healthy hive.  When you add in that there is
no scientific evidence proving that these bees were killed by pesticides,
it really makes you start to question the integrity of both the reporting
system and the beekeepers doing the reporting.  But, when you have a $450
million dollar lawsuit seeking certification and a provincial compensation
program for dead colonies, it’s not hard to figure out why this continues
in Ontario.

To further weaken the OBA’s claims, the Canadian Association of
Professional Apiculturistsreleased their honeybee wintering loss report on
July 16th
<http://capabees.org/shared/2014/07/2015-CAPA-Statement-on-Colony-Losses-July-16-FinalRR.pdf>
.

This report verified that the Canadian honeybee industry is indeed
thriving, with reported national winter losses of just 15.9% in 2014/2015
(which is around the traditional average loss level).   One humorous
element of this report is that OMAFRA could not even get the number of
colonies in Ontario correct, as they reported a total of 96,000 hives
when Stats
Canada reported that there were 112,800 colonies going into last winter
<http://www5.statcan.gc.ca/cansim/a26>.  That little discrepancy lowers the
provincial loss average from 37.8% to 32%,.

On page 5 of the report it lists the possible causes of bee losses as
reported by the beekeeper.  In Ontario, the top 4 answers were
“starvation”, “weak colonies”, “poor queens”, and “don’t know”.  The first
2 answers are nothing more than beekeeper management errors, as anyone
trying to winter underfed or weak colonies was either cheap, lazy, or
inept.  Poor queens can be a management issue for those that raise their
own queens, but if beekeepers buy them from others it can be harder to
control the quality of queen they are purchasing.  And the final answer of
“don’t know” can’t be vilified too much, as every beekeeper has said the
same thing at times when hives die.  This only emphasizes the importance of
the “National Bee Health Roundtable”, as no other form of modern
agriculture would lose a large number of its livestock and accept “I don’t
know why” as an explanation.  What is mysteriously missing from the list of
reasons is “pesticide exposure”.  Considering that the new neonic
regulations were based on suspected pesticide exposure and the OBA has been
adamant that it’s the cause of all their problems, why didn’t any
beekeepers report it as the primary cause?

Then we come to what management practices beekeepers used to control the
numerous bee health issues in Canada.  Generally most beekeepers seemed to
be diligent in treating for varroa mites in both the spring and fall, which
was refreshing to see.  Of great concern to me, however, is the almost
non-existent number of beekeepers in Ontario treating their bees for
nosema, with less than 30% of beekeepers treating their bees for it in both
the spring and fall.  Nosema thrives on bees that endure long and hard
winters, which is exactly what Ontario has faced the past 2 years.  In
Alberta we’ve had similar issues with nosema and continue to struggle with
it at times. but we learned very quickly that active monitoring and
treatments for it was vital to the survival of our bees.  Once again, the
correlation between nosema treatments (or lack of), the hard winters, and
the number of hives dying in Ontario is completely ignored by the MOECC and
OBA.

You really can’t fault the MOECC for being ignorant to all of this as they
have absolutely no knowledge about bees and what is required to be a
successful beekeeper in Canada.  Glen Murray claims to meet with beekeepers
regularly in order to educate himself, but it’s curious how he only seems
to meet with beekeepers that support his agenda and not ones that dispute
his beliefs.  You can fault the OBA board of directors for misleading the
government and public on what’s happening with their bees though, and they
have yet to be held accountable for their actions.  Until beekeepers
voluntarily improve their understanding of bees and incorporate that
knowledge into enhancing their management, bees will keep on dying no
matter what restrictions are placed on growers.  The Ontario government
appears to have no interest in holding the OBA board accountable but, then
again, why would they since they are telling Mr. Murray exactly what he
wants to hear.  Maybe it’s time for OMAFRA to do its job and draft
regulations for proper beekeeper management, but I guess that would only
happen if Mr. Murray told them to do it.  Quite the double standard, and
farmers have every right to hold the MOECC and the OBA board liable for
this.  It’s unfortunate that the good beekeepers in Ontario will suffer for
it.

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