Skip to main content

“I am a Canadian, free to speak without fear, free to worship in my own way, free to stand for what I think right, free to oppose what I believe wrong, or free to choose those who shall govern my country. This heritage of freedom I pledge to uphold for myself and all mankind.” ~~ John G. Diefenbaker

Liberal Party’s salmon farming platform threatens jobs and ignores facts


The BC Salmon Farmers Association issued this statement from Executive Director John Paul Fraser in response to the Liberal Party of Canada’s new platform on salmon farming (BC Green Party MLA Adam Olsen also provided an op/ed posted on this earlier today):

The Liberal Party’s aquaculture platform commitment to ‘transition from open net pen salmon farming to closed containment systems by 2025’ is destructive, careless and flies in the face of making decisions about aquaculture based on science and facts.

At a time when leaders should be focusing on climate change and climate action, the Liberal Party is looking to shut down the seafood farming method
IMAGE: BC Salmon Farmers Association
with the lowest carbon footprint and suggesting it transition to a technology that depends on manufactured energy. This move would have significant environmental repercussions. It would also have economic repercussions for the families of 7,000 middle-class workers in BC, negatively impacting the health and wellness of coastal communities. 

BC salmon farmers work in deep and respectful relationships with coastal Indigenous communities, with more than 70 per cent of the farmed salmon harvested in BC done so in partnership and with impact benefits agreements with local First Nations.


The Liberal Party’s ill-advised platform commitment puts Indigenous economic opportunity at risk. 

This careless step by the Liberal Party also disrespects the very policy work and process that the federal Minister has directed. Today, our industry is actively engaged in a technical working group on technology, working with all levels of government, First Nations, and non-government organizations to continue fostering technological innovation in ocean farming.

And part of these discussions is a conversation about the growing trend of hybrid systems – which integrate land and sea-based systems – as a strong ‘made-in-BC’ step forward. In fact, a draft report commissioned by the Minister, that is being deliberated by the working group, concludes that ‘the new technologies discussed in this report, as well as conventional net pen systems, will all play a role in contributing to global production of salmon products.’

So, the question really is ... why is the Liberal Party short-circuiting and disrespecting its own collaborative and evidence-based policy-making process?

What’s more, while closed-containment salmon farming has been successful at a smaller scale – and research and trials continue – no-one in the world has successfully raised a large number of salmon in a commercial-scale land or sea based closed containment operation. The technology is currently developing, and we certainly anticipate closed containment systems will play a larger role in the future.

But to forcefully mandate a five-year ‘transition’ is unachievable, especially when there is no business case or transition plan behind it. This is a recipe for industry stagnation and significant unemployment.

Farmed salmon is BC’s top food export, recognized worldwide as a climate friendly sustainably raised alternative to eating wild salmon. We didn’t get here without a lot of hard work and many lessons learned along the way.

Our farmers, who put their hearts and souls into feeding families around the
world, deserve much better than what they are getting from this government.
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

FORSETH -- Focus on the nine things I mentioned. That’s what will allow the Conservative Party to win the next election

IMAGE CREDIT:   Darryl Dyck, the Canadian Press. I thought I had already made up my mind who I would be ranking on my ballot, in the Conservative Party of BC leadership race; now I am not so sure.  That means that, at least for me, and perhaps many others, it’s a good thing voting hasn’t already taken place. There were initially only one or two of the candidates that I thought might be a little too right of centre for my liking, now it seems that list is growing. I consider myself more closely aligned with what used to be called a Progressive Conservative, regardless, I feel more than comfortable within the Conservative Party of BC.  Some, however, in messages to me on my political Facebook page, have been rather, shall we say, a bit mean-spirited in comments they’ve made about my ‘purity’ as a conservative. To tell you the truth, I really don’t care! Some leadership candidates, in comments made online, have also been raising the issue of who is a pure enough conservati...
Post a Comment
Read more

WARD STAMER -- Those are REAL forestry numbers, not just made-up numbers

The following is a condensed version of remarks Kamloops – North Thompson MLA Ward Stamer’s made, regarding Forestry, in the BC Legislature, on Tuesday afternoon (02/24/2026)   Let’s talk a little bit, when we talk about Budget 2026, about the forest industry, which is near and dear to my heart. Forestry remains one of British Columbia’s foundational industries. It’s a pillar that built this province. Entire communities depend upon it. Interior towns, northern communities, Vancouver Island regions, the Kootenays, the Lower Mainland, with manufacturing facilities in Surrey and Maple Ridge, just to name a few — everywhere in BC is touched by forestry. One word that was not mentioned in Budget 2026 was forestry. That’s a shame, an incredible shame. It wasn’t an oversight – it was intentional. This government has driven forestry into the ground .... INTO THE GROUND! We can talk a little bit about some of the initiatives that this government has brought forth, to try to resurrect ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Your government has a gambling problem (Troy Media)

Provinces call it “revenue,” but it looks a lot like exploitation of the marginalized The odds of winning Lotto Max are about 1 in 33 million. You’re statistically more likely to be struck by lightning than to win it. But your government is betting that statistics won’t hold you back; they’re counting on it. Across Canada, provincial governments not only regulate gambling, they also maintain a monopoly on lottery and gaming by owning and operating the entire legal market. That means every scratch card is government-issued, gambling odds are government-set, casino ads are government-funded and lottery billboards are government-paid. And these are not incidental government activities. They generate significant revenues that governments have powerful incentives to expand, not constrain. It would be one thing for our governments to encourage us to engage in healthy activities. We can quibble about whether the government should be trying to convince us to be more active or eat more vegetabl...
Post a Comment
Read more

Labels

Show more