>   I'm sure the neonics are not helping except by perhaps displacing something worse.

Of course, they are helping. Without pesticides, there probably wouldn't be a crop. At least, not a profitable one. Ditto, bees. Without bees, no seed. I don't see why people don't get it. Here is a successful working relationship, plain as the nose on your face. If canola was killing bees, or even weakening them, do you think nobody would have figure it out? Or is the Canadian Honey Council being hypnotized by Bayer?

> There are approximately 7,000 beekeepers in Canada operating a total of 600,000 colonies of honeybees.  Pollination of canola is a major activity for the Canadian honey bee industry. Each year around 300,000 colonies of honey bees (half the colonies in Canada) contribute to the annual crop of 12.6 million tonnes of open pollinated canola oil seed. As well, another 80,000 colonies (approximately 12% of the colonies in Canada) are dedicated to pollinating the highly specialized hybrid seed canola industry.

> Canada produces 75 million pounds of honey annually. Approximately one third of the crop is from AB, one third from SK and MB, one third from rest of country. Half of all honey produced is exported, 80-90% is exported to the USA.

> Winter mortality has been the highest on record. The cause of colony death is complex but has mainly been attributed to the failure of varroa mite treatments through mite resistance to chemicals, incomplete or incorrect formic acid treatment. 

http://www.honeycouncil.ca/honey_industry_overview.php

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