Ontario beekeepers petition province for neonicotinoid ban

Thursday, December 5, 2013

by SUSAN MANN

The Ontario Beekeepers’ Association plans to deliver a massive petition to Premier Kathleen Wynne calling for a ban on neonicotinoid insecticides in time for spring planting.

President Dan Davidson says the petition currently has 65,000 signatures, including more than 50,000 obtained on line and 12,000 to 15,000 hand-written ones. The association plans to deliver it to Wynne before the Ontario Legislature ends its fall session Dec. 12.

Despite the province’s assertion that only the federal government can implement a ban because it’s the regulator of pesticides, Davidson says Ontario has the authority “to ban a specific class of insecticides. They’ve done that with the cosmetic pesticide ban and they’ve done it on a couple of other pesticides throughout history.”

Davidson says they haven’t worked out how the petition will be presented to the premier. Once the Legislature breaks, MPPs will head back to their constituencies for office work, attending local events and other work. The legislature resumes sitting on Feb. 24, 2014.

The beekeepers want the ban because they say the neonicotinoid field crop seed treatments are causing bee deaths. But another farm group, Grain Farmers of Ontario, opposes a ban and has asked their farmers to talk to MPPs and MPs to prevent one from happening.

Health Canada’s Pest Management Regulatory Agency issued a notice Sept. 13 saying current agricultural practices related to the use of neonicotinoid treated corn and soybean seeds are affecting the environment due to impacts on bees. PMRA has outlined a number of additional protective measures for corn and soybean production for 2014 and people have until Dec. 12 to comment on them.

The beekeepers’ association has submitted its comments to PMRA and is encouraging individual beekeepers and the general public to send in submissions too.

Honey production in Ontario was down 32.6 per cent this year compared to 2012 according to information on the association’s website. Nationally, by way of contrast, honey production dropped 17 per cent.

But “we can’t point our finger solely at neonicotinoids,” Davidson says, noting the province’s cool summer weather at the end of July and beginning of August impacted production too. “We can’t say it’s just one thing.”

Still, some beekeepers would have lost production because they lost bees early in the year due to neonicotinoids “and they would have missed an early crop,” he says.

Grain Farmers of Ontario is also encouraging its farmer members and industry stakeholders to comment to PMRA. Grain Farmers has prepared a letter, available on its website, farmers can use for online submissions that encourages a continued “balanced approach to the issue and the implementation of protective measures for the 2014 planting season.” BF