By Liam Verster

Agriculture

New CAP program to benefit Alberta beekeepers

Jun 8, 2020 | 1:46 PM

The Provincial and Federal Governments are working together to provide a $1-million program through the Canadian Agricultural Partnership to offset the cost of honeybee colony replacements.

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, there were difficulties in bringing in foreign workers who specialize in beekeeping, as well as importing colony replacements from the usual sources, like Australia and New Zealand.

The new program, which still has yet to be finalized, is expected to offset the costs of replacing around 13,000 colonies for 168 commercial beekeepers province-wide.

Dan Pala, the owner of Pala Vitamin Honey Farm, says though the virus did cause some problems, it wasn’t the only issue beekeepers have had to face recently.

“Last year’s summer wasn’t the greatest, winter was long, which beekeepers have had issues with wintering bees. This year we had some issues too, but not as high as I’ve heard, there’s been up to 70 or 75 per cent winter loss in Alberta, and the Peace Country too.”

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Alberta is the biggest honey producer in Canada, producing over 41-million pounds of honey, and contributing $67-million to the economy.

Richard Krahn, the president of the Grande Prairie Beekeepers Club, says a lot of that product comes from the Peace Country.

“We have one of the best honey producing regions in the world, because we’ve got long long daylight hours, and we’ve got really intense nectar flow with all the canola fields that are grown up in the area here. It’s a huge part of the agriculture in the area that often goes under the radar.”

Krahn and Pala both say that bees are very helpful to the rest of the agriculture sector, as they also help pollinate the canola and alfalfa fields, resulting in better crops.

As the details of the program have yet to be finalized, it’s not yet known whether the funds will go towards fully or partially subsidizing the cost of replacing the colonies. It’s also not know if the program will only be aimed solely at honey producers, or if other farmers who use bees to pollinate or those who raise and sell hives will also be able to enroll in the program. The program is expected to roll out in the summer, and will be retroactive to purchases of colonies back to early spring.