Fish farms seek to grow after Liberals’ phase-out promise

In the 2019 election campaign, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau let voters know that open net-pen salmon farming would come to an end in B.C. in 2025. In fact, this promise was included in the Liberal platform.

In a mandate letter to then–federal fisheries and oceans minister Bernadette Jordan in 2019, Trudeau followed up on this pledge by advising her to work with the province and Indigenous communities “to create a responsible transition from open net-pen salmon farming in coastal British Columbia waters by 2025”.

But four environmental groups issued a news release on November 30 objecting to “12 site expansions including one entirely new 4,400-metric tonne open-net salmon farm” in B.C.

The new site is slated to be developed between the Discovery Islands and the

Broughton Archipelago, where open-net salmon farming is being phased out.

“All proposed factory farm expansions should be denied by the government given their harm to wild salmon, the extremely poor returns of wild salmon and the federal government’s commitment to remove them by 2025,” Watershed Watch Salmon Society’s Stan Proboszcz said in the news release.

Others groups that attached their names to the release were the David Suzuki Foundation, the Living Oceans Society, and Clayoquot Action.

The federal government oversees changes to licences, according to Living Oceans Society executive director Karen Wristen. The provincial government plays a role when there are applications to create or expand farm sites, and the feds usually respond within one year.

Photo by U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. There could be more Atlantic salmon like the one above growing in open net pens if West Coast fish farms gain approval for their expansion plans.