In case anyone gets me wrong, to me, this issue should not a matter of personalities, nor should it be a fight between people on firmly fixed opposing sides.  This is a very serious matter that needs to be resolved by fair-minded people meeting and working out win/win solutions. 

One-size-fits-all is not an option, and claiming that the current status is democratic is demeaning to democracy.  A good democracy cares for its minorities.  A bad democracy is like "three wolves and a sheep voting what is for dinner".  Our current situation is even stranger in that one or two dissenting votes from small players, far away, can block the democratic decisions of the preeminent honey producing province in the country.  When one minority can block the aspirations of another minority, far away, we have a dysfunctional situation.

I know many of the people involved in the original decision to close the border, and many who have considered the question over the years.  All, almost without exception, try to be honest and fair-minded, and to work for the good of all.  However, over time, and due to misunderstandings, many have lost sight of the basic issues, and some have grown fearful of the unknown.  Some have been seduced by dreams of self-sufficiency, others frightened by hypothetical threats.

The time has come to examine this question fearlessly, and to arrive at a just solution that accommodates all the various regions and styles of management, as well as one that provides the best opportunity for industry growth.  It's time for a change.  Ideally CFIA should step right away from regulating the Canada/US border bee traffic, and let the provincial and local authorities provide solutions tailored for the local concerns where necessary.

Why do I press this issue?  Maybe I'm just trying to right a wrong.

I clearly remember that day in November, back in the mid-eighties when Jerry Awram called me into a back corridor meeting room at the Mayfield Inn in Edmonton as the ABA convention was winding down.  I was passing by in the corridor and a board meeting was in session.  He saw me and called me in, then asked me whether I thought Alberta should join the rest of Canada in pressing for border closure against the threat of mites.

I was a bit surprised to be asked, since I have not always been well-loved for speaking my mind and letting the chips fall where they may -- I think I had just been defeated in an election, in fact --  but I said that I was personally prepared for border closure.

I said that I had seen it coming, and had been perfecting my wintering, but that it was clear to me that many good beekeepers in the West were not prepared, might never be able to learn wintering, and that a border closure would cause very major disruptions in Canada, and possible destruction of family businesses for our loyal and reliable suppliers and friends in the USA.  Heads nodded in understanding.  Some present had been trained and mentored by Californians.

I continued, and said that, considering that from what we knew at that time, the mites could possibly destroy us and our suppliers as well, so we might be wise to make the sacrifice -- even if it cut off our essential supplies -- and put off the threat until more was known.

We agreed to join the rest of Canada in a temporary border closure to preserve ourselves, and whatever remained of our industry after losing our replacement bees.

Most of us managed to survive, and some even thrived, but the industry has contracted greatly since those days, and although there has been growth, it has been restrained by the much higher level of risk, and the much higher level of expertise required to survive without a good supply, on demand, of replacement bees.

Although we in Alberta agreed to co-operate with the closure of the western part of the border -- the east was already closed -- re-opening it has been more difficult.  The people we helped will not help us.  Moreover, many who were hardest hit by the embargo have left the industry, and the newcomers don't know how easy -- and profitable -- beekeeping can be when you can buy packages and queens from a wide variety of mainland suppliers.  Many beekeepers don't travel and rely on rumour for information.

Most Canadians have not bothered to go south, to the USA, to see how well things are going there now that prices of honey are improved.  I have.  As far as I can see the bees there are healthy and the mites are now a minor issue.  We've always had some bogeyman to scare and manipulate the ignorant.  At one time it was AFB, now it is mites, and if that won't do the job, AHB.

Let's face it.  Mites are now old hat.  AHB has proven a false alarm.  Even rAFB is being managed successfully. Good beekeepers in the USA -- and Canada -- can deal with any and all of these threats.  What we does give us continuing and needless problems, however is lack of a secure source of replacement bees on short order.  Our industry was built on that and suffers in its absence.

Excessive, unwarranted, regulation and restriction of trade is now doing far more damage to our industry than all of the abovementioned diseases and pests combined.