Question Period Note: SUPPORT FOR BEEKEEPERS

Q1 – What financial support is available for beekeepers?

R.1 - Beekeepers have access to a comprehensive suite of business risk management programs, to help manage risks that threaten their operations and beyond their capacity to manage.
As of mid-May 2024, the AgriInsurance program has paid honey producers $7.6 million for indemnities for the 2023-24 crop season for bee and honey losses, and $15.6 million in indemnities for the 2022-23 crop season.
The provinces of Ontario, Manitoba, Saskatchewan and Alberta received support under the AgriRecovery framework for extraordinary costs incurred as a result of the significant losses experienced.

Support for Beekeepers
• The Canadian beekeeping industry is an important part of agriculture, and plays an important role in the production of certain crops that benefit from the application of managed pollinators, notably hybrid canola seed production, blueberries, orchard fruits and other fruits and vegetables.

• Beekeeping is primarily regulated at the provincial level. Provinces are responsible for registration of hives and beekeepers, inspection of hives, extension education, and most regulatory aspects of beekeeping.

• While Canadian beekeepers produce most of the honeybees that make up the total population, industry relies on supplies of imported bees, particularly early in the season. Losses vary from year to year. Losses are related to weather, pest pressures such as varroa mites, and a number of other factors.

• CFIA regulates imports of honeybees including evaluating the risks posed by bee imports from source countries and regions. Queen bees are allowed to be imported to Canada from eight source countries, and almost all come from California and Hawaii. Package bees (two or three pounds of bees with a mated queen) are currently permitted from five source countries: Australia, New Zealand, Italy, Ukraine and Chile.

• These bee health challenges have brought provincial and federal governments and industry together to seek to help improve the resilience of the beekeeping industry, and to explore potential actions in the short and longer term which could help improve the industry’s ability to safely sustain and grow honeybee populations, and maintain and improve honeybee hive health.

• AAFC’s Science and Technology Branch is currently engaged in several bee-health related projects. These include using gene expression for real-time diagnostics of colony health, testing new compounds for controlling varroa mites, examining factors governing the transmission of honeybee viruses and American foulbrood disease, and evaluating new genetic queen stocks for beekeepers.

• AAFC convened a Working Group on Canadian Honeybee Sustainability, which included representatives from the CFIA, industry stakeholders, and provincial governments and apiculturists.

International sources of honeybees
• Bee health is complex and it is important that honeybee imports be controlled in such a way that they pose no unacceptable risk to Canada’s beekeeping industry.

• Import restrictions on honeybee packages are in place to protect Canada’s honeybee stock given their importance to all Canadians.

• Permit requirements:
o Honeybees (including queens, package bees) must be imported under permit from CFIA - approved countries of origin, and with a CFIA - recognized health certificate from the originating country.

o CFIA-approved countries for importation of honeybee queens: Based on scientific evidence and risk assessments, Canada currently allows the import of handpicked, healthy honeybee queens from the U.S., Chile, Australia, New Zealand, Denmark, Ukraine, Italy and Malta.

o CFIA-approved countries for importation of packaged honeybees: Honeybee packages present a higher disease and pest risk than hand-picked queens and can, therefore, only be imported from Chile, Australia, Italy, Ukraine and New Zealand at this time.

• The CFIA continues to work alongside the Canadian Honey Council, the United States Department of Agriculture, provincial apiculturists, the Canadian Association of Professional Apiculturists, as well as a wide range of other stakeholders and members of industry. From July to October 2022, the CFIA solicited a call for submission of any new, science-based evidence regarding honeybee health in Canada and the U.S. The CFIA has decided to conduct another risk assessment with an estimated completion date in the first quarter of 2024.

Government Support:

AAFC has provided funding to the bee industry as noted below:

BRM programming:
Beekeepers have access to a comprehensive suite of business risk management programs to help manage risks that threaten their operations and are beyond their capacity to manage.

AgriInsurance provides timely, affordable and predictable assistance to producers enrolled in the program. Bee mortality insurance is available in Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, Ontario, Quebec and Prince Edward Island.

Both federal and provincial governments contribute to the cost of insurance premiums but each province delivers its own AgriInsurance program. Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, Ontario, Quebec and Prince Edward Island have implemented bee mortality insurance plans.

In 2022-23, the province of Quebec introduced catastrophic loss coverage to their program. In addition, Ontario will introduce similar coverage for producers in the 2024 season. This added coverage means governments will cover a larger portion of the premiums costs associated with low-occurrence, high-severity events. The objective is to increase producer participation by reducing their share of the premiums.
AgriStability can also provide support for significant income losses caused by production loss, adverse market conditions, or increased expenses.

AgriStability also provides support to producers if they experience significant income losses, which can be caused by production loss, adverse market conditions, or increased expenses. Producers, including beekeepers, that enrol in the program are eligible for payments if they experience a margin decline greater than 30% compared to their reference margin. Payments are calculated at the rate of 80% for every dollar lost past that point. Under CAP the compensation rate was 70%.

AgriRecovery is federal-provincial-territorial (FPT) disaster relief framework intended to work together with the core BRM programs to help agricultural producers recover from natural disasters. The focus of AgriRecovery is the costs producers must take on to mitigate the impacts of a disaster and/or resume farming operations as quickly as possible following a disaster. AgriRecovery cannot provide support for loss income and duplicate or replace the assistance provided by private insurance or other governments programs.

Due to 2021-2022 winter losses, the provinces of Ontario, Manitoba, Saskatchewan and Alberta received support under the AgriRecovery framework for extraordinary costs incurred as a result of the significant losses experienced.

Other Support: Through the Sustainable Canadian Agricultural Partnership, some provinces and territories have cost-shared programs designed to support best practices in a specific sector, such as bee sector:
• In Manitoba, the Food Safety and Plant Health program supports activities to advance specific issues in the sector related to food safety, productivity, biosecurity, animal and plant health, traceability, animal welfare, farm safety, and environmental assurance practices such as antibiotic and pesticide use in the bee sector.

• Ontario’s cost-shared programming includes the HoneyBee Health Management initiative which is a targeted application intake to support beekeepers and help operational improvements for the purpose of reducing biosecurity risks, overwinter loss and to manage or prevent the introduction and spread of honeybee pests and disease.

The AgriScience program has funded two projects on bee health since April 2018; a research project on the effect of probiotics on honeybee health and a project aimed to help improve adult and immature leafcutter bee health.

Regional Collaborative Partnerships Program helps to foster regional honeybee research to meet the pollination demands of wild blueberries in Atlantic Canada. The objective is to help improve honey bee colony health, monitor and manage pests and diseases, improve overwintering success and promote biosecurity techniques for the sector.

In the 2021-22 period, federal contributions to bees and honey production premiums were $1.2 million, up 21.8% from 2020-21 ($1 million). This increase in premium contributions is generally indicative of increased participation in the program by the sector.

• Honeybee health is important to the sustained success of many agricultural sectors, such as horticulture and oilseeds.

• A working group, initiated by Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, with representation from federal/provincial (FPT) governments and industry, has worked towards developing strategies to help improve the long-term sustainability of the sector.

• Import restrictions on honeybee queens and packages are in place to protect Canada’s honeybee populations given their importance to all Canadians.

• The Canadian Food Inspection Agency has and continues to put significant effort into assessing, potential new international sources of honeybees and has recently approved imports from Italy, Malta and Ukraine.