Border closure has been a disaster for Prairie beekeeping in Canada.  While a percentage of beekeepers have been able to adapt, survive, and increase hive numbers, the closure disrupted the growth in the industry which was paralleling improvement in roads and technology to that point.  Many were driven out of busines or suffered heavy financial losses.  The business became unattractive to new entrants.   A few beekeepers and a lot of government employees have benefited, but all beekeepers have suffered from greatly increased expense and complexity, and unpredictable risk.  

Whereas, until closure, cheap replacement bees could be obtained from the south on short order, the cost doubled when new sources were tapped and we had to accept different stock that we traditionally had used.  Our investment in the Alberta Bee, which cost us about $1 million and was developed on the assumption that we could send the stock south for reproduction and bring the offspring north annually was scuttled.  Beekeepers in the northernmost regions with a much shorter season, suffered most as they tend to have random and high winter losses with no certainty of being able to find affordable or suitable replacement stock on short notice.

The closure was to be precautionary and temporary due to the discovery of tracheal mites in the US.  As it turned out, the tracheal mite was already in Canada, but undetected at that date. 

The closure was accomplished in two stages.  Alberta went along with the temporary closure on the assumption that the closure would be for a few months, but were double-crossed by the other provinces when the time came to reopen it.  The claim was made that the border could not be opened province by province, even though it was closed in stages.  

A lot of deliberate and disingenuous fear-mongering created deadlock and the protectionists have had their way right up to the present.  Alberta did, through considerable expense and effort, manage to open a number of sources over time, even to where we can get queens from California, but with a huge extra cost to cover paperwork and administrative burden -- and restricted selection.  

The irony is that after the supplies were made available thought Alberta effort and expense, and against strong opposition from other provinces, beekeepers in the provinces which fought Alberta tooth and nail, by fair means and foul, immediately rushed to exploit those supplies, causing -- in some cases -- shortages.

There was never a legitimate reason not to open the border province by province, according to provincial needs.  Each province has different liquor and other restrictions at the US border, and Alberta bees and equipment are embargoed by Saskatchewan, indicating that inter-provincial and international trade are separate matters, but the closure has been a great full-employment scheme for bureaucrats and lobbyists so it is impossible to change.  Looking back, we (I was in the room) should never have advocated the temporary closure, but we were naive and trusting.  

Alberta beekeeping was originally established and supplied by California beekeepers along with some from beekeeping families in Southern Ontario.  Honey bees are not natural in Alberta  and would likely die out entirely within decades or a century at most if human management were not maintaining them.  

The global warming which began several thousand years ago and continues to present has been a blessing, lengthening the growing season during the recent advance, and making bee wintering less risky, however, even after a decade and half of "protection" from US package imports, most provinces have not recovered to their pre-border numbers or profitability.  

Strangely, Alberta is the lone exception and we credit the strong co-operative spirit and the anti-regulatory bias for our success.  That, and moving bees south to where a person can spit across the the US border for wintering.

As for our bee stock, in the event of unexpected loss, bees are obtained from anywhere they are available.  Queens come from Hawaii, Australia, new Zealand and California, so nothing has changed except the hassle and expense of the added bureaucratic load, plus we cannot get US packages.

There are breeding programmes, though, and the Saskatraz project has gained some respect.  They may winter better or resist mites and disease better, but there is no real way of knowing. 

Our success in maintaining numbers is, like everywhere, a matter of luck.  Randomly, everyone has an unexpected big loss sooner or later.  Beekeepers in the US south can take a 80% loss and recover within a year if they don't go broke, but up here we cannot reproduce bees like in the south.  We are lucky to maintain our numbers and make a crop most years, and typically commercial beekeepers need to buy an average of 10% of their total hive count in packages each year.  

A few beekeepers seem to be able to make surplus bees and sell nucs quite consitently, but some years the nucs advertised suddenly removed from the market as the owner needs them him/herself to make up unexpected losses.  I bought hives last sring and they came a month late and half the expected strength due to weather.  

Queens can be raised in summer here, but not reliably or well when they are most needed -- in early spring, thus tens or hundreds of thousands are imported annually.

As for all the scourges that this bureaucratic layer of expense and inconvenience is supposed to keep out, every one of them has already been here.  You name it: AHB, rAFB, varroa, tracheal Mites, SHB, viruses...  I can't think of anything that is known to be in the US that has not been seen here in Canada.  Our climate seems to limit the worst of them.

In seven out of our ten provinces bees fly freely back and forth across the border, and bees are moved freely to and from those areas, so I think I'll leave it to the reader to judge whether border closure has any basis in reason. 

I have written other articles on the subject and they can be accessed at 
http://www.honeybeeworld.com/diary/topics.htm

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