B.C.’s NDP government extended its push for First Nation control over foreshore development this week, while challenging Ottawa to meet its legal obligation to regulate aquaculture and also protect the province’s wild salmon stocks.
Wednesday’s two-prong announcement by Agriculture Minister Lana Popham gave salmon farm operators four years to supposedly get their acts together. By June 2022, according to the government, land tenures will be granted “only to fish farm operators who have satisfied Fisheries and Oceans Canada (DFO) that their operations will not adversely impact wild salmon stocks, and who have negotiated agreements with the First Nation(s) in whose territory they propose to operate.”
The new policy, however, “does not pre-determine the outcome” of discussions between the province and First Nations in the Broughton Archipelago over concerns related to salmon farms in that region, where First Nation opposition to the industry is strong.
Critics from both sides of the political spectrum swarmed the new policy, with the B.C. Liberals calling it another serious blow to the province’s resource economy and the Greens condemning it as a failure of leadership.
John Gleeson – Coast Reporter – June 21, 2018.
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