Canada’s beekeepers are pleading for emergency aid because the new 50 per cent U,S. tariff has eliminated 60 per cent of their market.
They are also facing rising costs and many were on the financial brink before the tariff, according to Connie Phillips, executive director of the Canadian Beekeepers Federation.
She said the need is immediate so beekeepers can prepare colonies for the winter.
She said it is not only beekeepers who are at risk, but also blueberry and canola growers who need bees to pollinate their crops.
In a letter to Eleanor Olszewski, Minister of Emergency Management and Community Resilience and Prairies Economic Development, the Beekeepers Federation appealed for an immediate interim payment to each bee colony to help keep them viable. It said it expected “sales to the United States to go to zero and stay there until the tariff comes off.”
