A local beekeeper is raising concerns about live honey bees being imported to the province through the mail at Canada Post.
Paul Dinn of Adelaide’s Newfoundland Honey says it’s very common in the rest of Canada and around the world for people to ship bees in the mail. However, it is a serious biological hazard according to Dinn—and is illegal under provincial regulations.
Newfoundland and Labrador has strict regulations when it comes to the importation of bees.
Section 7.1, Animal Health Regulations states: “a person shall not bring honeybees or honeybee hives into the province unless accompanied by a certificate signed by an official veterinarian or licensed veterinarian in the place of origin of the honeybees or hives or by an accredited veterinarian or other person approved by the Chief Veterinary Officer.”—and must be free from a number of pests.
Dinn says the province’s bees are one of the last healthy colonies in the world, and a bee coming in from mainland Canada or elsewhere could be infected with one of the many diseases that honey bees have, or carrying some sort of damaging pest.
If someone made a mistake and didn’t realize the severity of importing bees through the mail, Dinn is asking them to contact the provincial Apiarist, Karen Kennedy, and get the bees brought back. He says they have starter hives with a queen bee, plenty of honey bees and they’ll give it away for free. Dinn stressed the seriousness of the situation and says if the bees are not put in quarantine and sent back, they could destroy the province’s healthy bee population.
Meanwhile, Adelaide’s’ Newfoundland Honey Beekeeper Paul Dinn says the illegal importation of bees is difficult to regulate and monitor, but he believes the penalties are not severe enough.
There is no mention of penalties under the provincial government’s Import Regulations For Honeybees.
However, it does state that where there is contravention of the importation rules, the Chief Veterinary Officer may order, at the expense of the importer, the owner of the honeybees, a person owning or having possession, custody or control of the hives, that the honeybees and hives be quarantined; or the honeybees and hives be seized and returned to their place of origin.
Dinn wants to see more. He says the ramifications might be a minimal charge at best. He wants to see more enforcement of the regulations and more bio-security measures.
Dinn believes the federal and provincial governments need to seriously monitor the importation of honeybees and he worries about how many other times people have done so illegally, avoiding the permitting system.
