Bill 6

General Discussion of Diary Posts and Questions on Beekeeping Matters
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cgybees
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Joined: May 26th, 2015, 4:19 pm

Bill 6

Unread post by cgybees »

How many are aware of how this bill affects Alberta Beekeepers?

The ABC's letter is here: https://farmandranchworkers.files.wordp ... tley-1.pdf

Various people who have attended information sessions are reporting that they have been verbally told that the bill DOES apply to bee-keepers, and that a threshold of approx. $10,000 income would be a determining factor, not location, and that it would apply to urban bee-keepers also.

More information welcome.
Allen Dick
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Re: Bill 6

Unread post by Allen Dick »

It may affect commercial beekeepers a bit, but not much since most hire Mexican help and therefore exceed the standards in most regards. Until we see the final act, it is hard to say what the implications are.

Personally, when I was a commercial beekeeper, I made sure I was covered by Workmans Compensation and had a health plan, including dental, for my employees. I also paid holiday and overtime rates.

In my opinion, the farmers who are whining now have only themselves to blame for not being proactive and proposing working standards that would be more acceptable long ago. They know the issues and could have made reasonable suggestions and been ahead of the wave and in control. At this point, they have lost the initiative and will have to take whatever is dropped on them.

Also, we all know that any act, no matter how reasonable would have been fought tooth and claw by a certain contingent. My guess is that although naivety and lack of coordination contributed to including excessively invasive clauses, some measures were proposed for the express purpose of drawing fire so they could be removed or altered, allowing the opponents to claim a victory while the original intent was achieved.

Additionally, when we look at the laws and regulations of the books it is obvious that most are not enforced to the maximum extent possible and some not at all. There is a danger in having draconian laws on the books since some overeager noob may try to enforce them.

Abusive enforcement is a real concern. Consider the cop who gave out a ticket for texting to a customer sitting in the Tim Hortons drive thru line. That is a clear case of abusive enforcement and what we all fear.

Usually, the rule understood by all is 'no harm, no foul', but sometimes the enforcers don't understand that.
Allen Dick, RR#1 Swalwell, Alberta, Canada T0M 1Y0
51° 33'39.64"N 113°18'52.45"W
http://www.honeybeeworld.com/Allen%27s%20Beehives.kmz
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Colino
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Re: Bill 6

Unread post by Colino »

Allen Dick wrote:In my opinion, the farmers who are whining now have only themselves to blame for not being proactive and proposing working standards that would be more acceptable long ago. They know the issues and could have made reasonable suggestions and been ahead of the wave and in control. At this point, they have lost the initiative and will have to take whatever is dropped on them.
Another thing to consider is the loss of small family farms in Alberta. At one time farmers were a strong political force in the province as most everyone was a farmer or related/friends with farmers. Looking at the demographics of the last election things have changed. The political power is now in the cities and most of the population now have no connection to agriculture. I know the farmers will say, "But who do they think feeds them?" To me that is the same argument as we wouldn't be able to take a dump if there were no plumbers.
Narcissism is easy because it's me or I, Empathy is hard because it's they or them.-Colino
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