ADAM OLSEN -- For the most part, politicians from all levels have been playing hot-potato with the issue... and public frustration is growing

Fish farms have been a flashpoint issue in British Columbia for much of the past decade.

There is a growing movement to get open-net operations off the west coast. It’s not just environmental activists and actors, the business community is also demanding action.

As I have written before, as extensively as any subject on this blog, there is a hugely complex jurisdictional quagmire with federal, provincial and Indigenous authorities to navigate.

For the most part, politicians from all levels have been playing hot-potato with the issue... and public frustration is growing.

This all culminated with a campaign commitment from the newly re-elected Liberals to transition the open net to closed containment in the next five years.

While this is how the issue has evolved on the west coast, we see the fish farm industry very much in turmoil on the east coast.

That’s why it’s interesting to read the satirical piece, The Salmon Diaries*, from Newfoundland and Labrador to enlighten the tale off two coasts.

Adam Olsen ... is a Green Party Member of the Legislative Assembly of British Columbia for Saanich North and the Islands. Born in Victoria, BC in 1976, Adam has lived, worked and played his entire life on the Saanich Peninsula. He is a member of Tsartlip First Nation (W̱JOȽEȽP), where he and his wife, Emily, are raising their two children, Silas and Ella.

*  The Salmon Diaries: Notes from a particular cabinet minister's journal ... in this satirical take, Edward Riche imagines what one politician might commit to his journal