Salmon hatchery must re-do assessment, court rules
Community and environmental groups from Newfoundland and Labrador are celebrating a victory, following a decision by the province’s Court of Appeal Tuesday.
The appeals court judges upheld a 2020 ruling by Supreme Court Justice Daniel M. Boone that the province’s minister of environment violated the Environmental Protection Act by exempting a proposed salmon hatchery in Stephenville from further environmental assessment.
Sara Macdonald, lawyer for the group Ecojustice, said it means the Environmental Assessment process for the project will have to start again.
Northern Harvest Smolt Ltd., a division of Mowi Canada, applied to expand its Indian Head hatchery in 2018.
The province’s then environment minister gave the project the green light the same year.
However, the ministerial decision was appealed by public interest groups like the Salmonid Association of Eastern Newfoundland, represented by Ecojustice.
They argued the minister’s decision focused only on the land-based facility, when it should have considered the sea cage component as well because the hatchery expansion would mean more salmon going into those sea cages.
The company has been operating a salmon hatchery in Stephenville for several years that can produce 4.5 million smolt. They proposed to add capacity for another two million juvenile fish to be produced.
The young fish are used to stock the open-net pens on the province’s south coast, operating under the name of Northern Harvest Sea Farms, which is also a Mowi subsidiary.
Those pens were granted environmental approval years ago and, according to the company, have not reached capacity.
The crux of the original court decision in 2020 was whether province’s environment minister made an error in considering only the assessment for the land-based hatchery.
The public interest groups said the sea cages should also have been included in the full assessment. Judge Boone agreed.
Northern Harvest Smolt Ltd. appealed that ruling and the case came before the Court of Appeal in January.
Macdonald said the Appeals Court decision this week “shrinks a pretty major loophole that the province of Newfoundland and Labrador was using to allow the aquaculture industry to avoid environmental assessments.”
She said under current regulations in Newfoundland and Labrador new open-net pen operations don’t have to go through any environmental assessment unless they are connected to new land-based operations.
“The province had also said, prior to this court case … that if there was a new land-based operation providing fish to existing pens, those marine operations would not have to be assessed.”
Macdonald said the hope of the interest groups she represents is that this week’s court ruling will force the province to review its environmental assessment process around aquaculture.
“What we would certainly like to see in Newfoundland and Labrador is the province saying that new open-net pen operations always have to go through environmental assessment, especially since the industry is expanding so rapidly.”
Northern Smolt Ltd. (Mowi Canada) offered a prepared statement, delivered by Jason Card, director of compliance and stakeholder relations with Mowi Canada East.
“Naturally, we are disappointed with the outcome of the appeal decision, however this decision does not affect our ability to reach stated production targets.
“We are confident in our long-term plan for the business unit and look forward to the continued development of an Atlantic Canadian operation that benefits the communities where we operate and provides strategic advantage by being on the doorstep of key markets throughout eastern North America.”
Card said the company is reviewing the decision of the appeal court before determining whether it would go to the Supreme Court of Canada.
Card added the Appeals Court decision puts the ball back in the court of the environment minister, who will have to review the company’s application again.
The province’s minister of environment and climate change could not be reached for comment.