Canadian election fails to lift threat to BC salmon jobs
Thousands of salmon industry workers in British Columbia were today waking up to the news that their livelihoods remain under threat after yesterday’s Canadian federal election.
Justin Trudeau’s Liberal Party – which made an election pledge to “transition” net-pen salmon farming into closed containment by 2025 – lost some seats but won enough to form a minority government.
The BC Salmon Farmers’ Association has condemned the manifesto commitment as one that is “destructive, careless and flies in the face of making decisions about aquaculture based on science and facts”.
7,000 jobs at risk
It has warned that up to 7,000 middle-class jobs will be put at risk if the Liberals follow up on their promise.
“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,” said the BCSFA after the Liberal manifesto was published at the beginning of this month.
“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.”
Although the Liberals don’t have an overall majority, a number of politicians from other parties have already supported a call by campaign group Wild First to transition salmon farming in BC to “sustainable, land-based, closed containment” by 2025.
Wild First pledge
Of the 38 MPs whose election had been confirmed at time of writing, 21 have signed Wild First’s pledge and 17 have either rejected or not responded to it.
All but one – Brad Vis (Mission-Matsqui-Fraser Canyon) - of the 17 Conservative MPs elected in BC have not signed up to Wild First’s campaign, along with Liberal Jonathan Wilkinson, who was fisheries and oceans minister in the previous administration.
The BC MPs who back Wild First are a mix of New Democrats, Liberals, Greens and an Independent.
It remains to be seen what priority Trudeau’s minority government will give to the BC salmon farming issue when faced with the practical difficulties of moving tens of thousands of tonnes of production on land.
However, Alf-Helge Aarskog, chief executive of Mowi, told Intrafish he was confident Trudeau’s victory would not affect the company’s operations in BC, where it produces around 45,000 tonnes a year.
‘We work with any government there is and I’m sure when [Trudeau] puts his mind to it, this will not be an issue,’ said Aarskog.
