Neonicotinoid debate | While western industry officials oppose a ban, some in Ontario and Quebec favour a moratorium
The divide over whether neonicotinoid insecticides should be banned as a danger to bees is drawn at the Ontario-Manitoba border.
Western beekeepers, who represent the large majority of the Canadian industry, see no problem and oppose the ban.
The products are widely used on canola crops, and bee populations have been increasing.
However, beekeeper associations have called for a ban or moratorium in Ontario and Quebec, where significant bee mortality last year was blamed on neonic application to corn seed.
A recent decision by the European Union to impose a two-year ban on three popular neonic insecticide products has become part of the focus of the Canadian debate.
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The regional split was on the table last week at two meetings on the issue by the House of Commons agriculture committee.
Rod Scarlett, Edmonton-based executive director of the Canadian Honey Council, said the council sides with prairie producers, who have more than 75 percent of Canadian bee colonies. They want any insecticide ban to be based on the science of damage, which is not evident on the Prairies.
“To date, the Canadian Honey Council has been supportive of (Canadian and U.S. regulatory agencies) in the re-evaluation of the neonicotinoids and strongly believe that the decisions need to be based on science and not public opinion or perception,” he told MPs.
“Of course, one of the difficulties we’re experiencing is that there are different interpretations of science and that certainly muddies the waters for the Canadian Honey Council.”
Grant Hicks, president of the Alberta Beekeepers Commission, said a ban on insecticide is not needed.
“From our experience, that’s not the way we need to go,” he told MPs. “We’re seeing no ill effects.”
Ontario beekeeper Davis Bryans had a different view, arguing that 1,000 of his 3,000 hives were contaminated by the chemical from local corn fields last year.
“We’re asking Ontario to get this product banned,” he said.
There was evidence that neonics spread in Ontario because of dust from corn planters, while prairie canola seeders do not spread dust carrying the pesticide from the seed.
There also was evidence that Ontario’s dramatic bee kill last year resulted from a combination of factors, including an unusually warm spring. A Pest Management Regulatory Agency analysis of the disaster pinpointed the pesticide as part of the problem.
Pierre Petelle, vice-chair of chemistry for CropLife Canada, argued that the European ban is misguided public policy that should not be followed in Canada.
He said last year’s experience in Ontario was unusual because of early warm weather and unusually high winds that blew corn dust around during planting.
“The reality is that neonic-treated corn has been planted in Ontario and elsewhere for the past 10 years without similar incidents,” he told MPs.
Petelle also argued that the European decision was wrong-headed and went against evidence from around the world that bees and the pesticide can coexist.
“They have chosen to adopt an approach that represents a misapplication of the precautionary principle,” he said.
“This decision sends a very negative signal to innovative research and development companies that rely on predictable science-based regulatory decisions.”
He said it was “yet another example of politics trumping science in Europe.”
MPs from all parties said during the hearings that they had an open mind on the issue. They noted that neonics are used on the Prairies without significant impact on bee populations, but they also noted the evidence that pesticides were present in most of the bees that died last year in Ontario.
NDP deputy agriculture critic Ruth Ellen Brosseau from Quebec said demanding decisions based on “sound science” assumes one right answer, but the Europeans used their own science to decide something else.
“We hear all the time, sound science,” she told Scarlett.
“It seems that science is kind of like the unicorn, this mythical creature. Is it debatable?”
