Canada names new fisheries minister as BC salmon farmers warn of crisis

New Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney has appointed Newfoundland and Labrador MP Joanne Thompson as Minister of Fisheries, Oceans and the Canadian Coast Guard.

Thompson, the MP for St John’s East, replaces Diane Lebouthillier, a Quebecois who was the last fisheries minister appointed by outgoing PM Justin Trudeau, who mandated three successive fisheries ministers to transition from open net salmon farming in British Columbia.

In December 2020, the first of those ministers, Bernadette Jordan, announced that 19 farms in the Discovery Islands in BC must close by mid-2022, and refused to allow new transfers to smolts to the sites.

When she lost her seat in Canada’s 2021 general election she was replaced as fisheries minister by Vancouver MP Joyce Murray, who had boasted about the Discovery Islands decision on social media. Despite a court ruling that Jordan’s closure decision should be reversed, Murray refused to reinstate the Discovery Islands licences and stalled on renewal of the remaining 70-plus farm licences in BC until a few days before they were due to expire in mid-2022. The renewed licences were for just two years.

Sacked in reshuffle

Trudeau sacked Murray as part of a reshuffle in July 2023 and replaced her with Lebouthillier. The new minister was seen as more sympathetic to salmon farming than her predecessors but was still mandated to push through transition. In June last year she announced that open net pen farms would receive just one more licence – for five years – from July 2024, and that farms would have to be out of the water by the end of June 2029.

Only floating closed containment pens and land-based fish farms are now eligible to be considered for new licences in BC.

Speaking about his new cabinet, Carney said the team was "built for immediate action and focused on protecting Canadian workers, supporting their families, and growing this great country". 

But fisheries minister Thompson’s tenure may have little time to protect BC fish farm workers, if she is more inclined to try than her predecessors, because Carney must hold a general election this year. The speculation is that Carney, a former governor of the Bank of England, will call a spring election.

Industry on its knees

Thompson’s appointment comes at a time when BC salmon farmers are warning that the combination of Trudeau’s transition plan and US president Donald Trump’s threatened tariffs on Canadian seafood imported into the States could destroy the sector in the province.

Speaking to Business In Vancouver (BIV) website, Cermaq Canada sales director Nick Dicarlo said 25% tariffs would be devastating if they were implemented for more than a couple of weeks.

“I don’t know if anybody would survive that,” he told BIV journalist Nelson Bennett.

“The industry is already basically on its knees,” Brian Kingzett, executive director of BC Salmon Farmers Association, told Bennett. “The (salmon farming) companies are very close to leaving Canada right now because of the federal transition. So, this is just one more nail in the coffin. And it’s happening very much at a time when we can’t afford to lose any more jobs.”

40,000 tonnes lost

As a result of the Discovery Islands decision, Cermaq lost 30% of its production in BC and Mowi lost 40%. Overall, production of farmed salmon in BC has shrunk 45%, as a result of the Discovery Islands phase-out, with production capacity falling from 90,000 to 50,000 tonnes annually between 2020 and 2023, Kingzett said.

Cermaq Canada sells about 60% of its fish into the US, with 30 to 35% sold in Canada, reported BIV.

Dicarlo said there has been a recent increase in orders in Canada, thanks to Canadian grocery stores taking a Buy Canadian stance in the face of Trump’s economic aggression.

But Canada is such a small market compared to the US that, even if Canadians were to start substituting wild Alaskan sockeye and pink salmon with Canadian farmed salmon, it would not be enough to save some BC salmon farmers from shutting down their BC operations.

The US consumes about 400,000 tonnes of farmed salmon a year, Dicarlo said. Canada produces about 140,000 tonnes but only consumes about 30,000 tonnes.

“So, you still have 100,000 tonnes that needs to go somewhere,” Dicarlo told BIV.

“I don’t think Canadians will suck up all that was destined for the US, but eating more salmon right now would sure help the salmon farmers,” Kingzett said.