For those of you who have been following this saga there has been an update.
http://thechronicleherald.ca/novascotia/1466526-beekeepers-win-battle-against-ontario-importsI want to urge caution before celebrating what "seems" like a victory until you check out the following:Import SHB protocol for bees leaving Ontario headed to New Brunswick (where bees will now come from to Nova Scotia) are comprised of:
50% of colonies receive a top bar inspection - a 5 second quick scan immediately after the cover has been removed, looking for adult SHB.
If a colony on a pallet is found to have SHB, it is removed and the rest of the colonies on the pallet are allowed to go.
Essentially this means that colonies from a yard
known to contain SHB will be
allowed to go to New Brunswick.
100% of colonies from New Brunswick heading to Nova Scotia will still receive a top bar inspection, but this is far from securing Nova Scotia's future as a SHB free province.
I believe the public pressure caused the government to make a move, but in my opinion it is little more than a shell game designed to obfuscate and appear as if they have decided to keep Nova Scotia safe! Given that these hives are no longer needed due to a surplus of local hives available the
proper response from the government would have been to
stop the importation altogether!