The B.C. government will not cancel provincial tenures for 20 coastal open-pen fish farms, instead giving the industry and its thousands of jobs a four-year reprieve while the province waits for Ottawa to take the lead on the issue.
Agriculture Minister Lana Popham is expected to announce that the B.C. government will allow 20 provincial tenures for fish farms in the Broughton Archipelago to expire today, and then automatically renew them month-to-month until 2022.
That’s when federal licences that control the location of those farms come up for renewal. The idea is that the two governments will act then together in the renewal process.
Popham will announce that, after 2022, the province will only approve renewals or new fish farm licences that meet two strict conditions: a stipulation from the federal Fisheries Department that the farm won’t endanger B.C. wild salmon and consent from local First Nations.
Rob Shaw – Vancouver Sun – June 19, 2018.