Canadian beekeepers hoping to import queen bees from the continental United States in time for the 2004 production season could be disappointed.
The industry agreed this fall to accept the opening of the border to those imports, provided measures were in place to guard against unwanted disease and parasitic insects. It was a pivotal moment for an industry that has been wracked by debate over the issue.
However, those keen to see the border reopened are growing anxious about the amount of time it is taking to get a federal regulation changed to allow the queen bees into Canada. They fear the change may not be made soon enough to benefit them in 2004.
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“I’m getting lots of phone calls right now on the issue,” said Medhat Nasr, Alberta Agriculture apiculturist. “Everybody is quite nervous about it.”
For imports to happen, the federal regulation that prohibits the importation of honeybees from the continental U.S. has to be amended. The change would not mean the uncontrolled entry of honeybee queens into Canada since import permits would be required with conditions attached. Imports of packaged bees from the U.S. would still be banned.
Some are blaming government bureaucracy for the delay in getting the federal regulation changed. The change could still take months to complete, so orders for those queens might be too late for American suppliers to meet demand.
The Canadian Food Inspection Agency has consulted with the provinces and the beekeeping industry to determine what conditions should be attached to the import permits.
A CFIA official said it has struck a snag on the issue of tracking those queens after they arrive in Canada. Through the import permits, the federal government would know which producers imported the queens.
However, an information-sharing agreement is needed before the whereabouts of those bees could be shared with provincial officials. That agreement would have to strike a balance between protecting the privacy of producers while allowing provincial authorities to monitor the imports.
As of mid-December, the CFIA had not yet heard back from all of the provinces on whether Ottawa should proceed with the import regulation amendment before having the information-sharing agreement with the provinces in place.
“That, right now, is the thing that needs to be answered,” said Bill Anderson, acting director of the CFIA’s animal health and production division.
There is growing interest in Canada to expand honey production due to a couple of years of profitable honey prices. In Alberta, there is also interest in increasing hybrid canola seed production, an enterprise that relies heavily on bees for pollination of the crop.
Canadian beekeepers currently buy their queens from producers within Canada or from Hawaii, Australia or New Zealand. Imports of queen bees and packaged bees to Western Canada from the continental U.S. have been banned since 1987.
Alberta is among the provinces that fought longest and hardest to reopen the border. One of its arguments is that there is a shortage of queen bees available to Canadian producers.
“We see a shortfall of about 100,000 queen bees a year,” said Jean Paradis, a beekeeper at Girouxville, Alta., who chairs the importation committee for the Alberta Beekeepers Association.
Paradis said the delay is frustrating.
“This is something the government could do for us without spending any dollars,” Paradis said. “We’re not asking for a handout.
“They’re telling us that if they can’t get the provinces on side, it may not happen, which really upsets us.”
