David Schuit received a call from his son last week just before appearing in front of the House of Commons’ agriculture committee with other beekeepers.
Schuit, who owns a bee operation in Ontario’s Huron County, was there to complain about a popular grain and oilseed treatment chemical that he says is killing thousands of bees.
“My boy just called me before I came into this meeting and he just about cried because he’s in the yard and they’re all dead, they’re dying,” he told MPs.
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“I just don’t know what to do. We love our business, this boy is 17 and he loves it. He just doesn’t know what to do.”
The Ontario beekeepers told MPs that the problem is the insecticide product group neonicotinoids, which nearby corn and soybean producers use to inoculate their seeds.
The beekeepers argued that the chemical should be banned, at least temporarily, until independent scientific tests conclude whether it is responsible for high bee mortality rates on their farms.
They also said government scientists should do the testing rather than chemical company scientists.
“We want to see this chemical banned,” Schuit told New Democrat MP Ruth Ellen Brosseau.
He said it is banned for use in Europe, and the chemical companies that manufacture and sell it do not want that debate to happen in Canada.
“They know what it’s doing, they don’t want us here today, they don’t want you to know.”
The young rookie MP from Quebec, who is her party’s deputy agriculture critic, said beekeepers’ stories of thousands of bees dying from chemical poisoning was difficult to hear.
“I can’t imagine what you’re going through,” she said. “Heartbreaking. I was almost in tears listening to your story.”
NDP agriculture critic Malcolm Allen raised the issue in the House June 5, demanding that the federal government provide help for the affected beekeepers while research into the cause is underway.
Agriculture minister Gerry Ritz said the allegation about the impact of neonicotinoids on bee colonies was new to him, but the government would investigate.
“There are reports from the United States and other areas that this type of action has happened,” he said. “There are studies that are ongoing. Certainly we will look at those. We will begin our own studies and get to the bottom of this as quickly as we can.”
Brosseau said there should be a one-year moratorium on use of the chemical until its effects are understood.
