The New Democrats faced questions in and out of the legislature Wednesday over Agriculture Minister Lana Popham’s implied threat to cancel the operating tenures for one of the major fish farming companies on the B.C. coast.
Popham’s letter to Marine Harvest Canada, which surfaced Monday, was chilling on the face of it.
She advised that in keeping with the NDP government’s recent embrace of the United Nations’ Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP), Marine Harvest was obliged to develop a healthier relationship with First Nations in the vicinity of its fish farms.
Failing that?
Well the letter then said this: “Whatever operational decisions you should choose to make, the province retains all of its rights under the current tenure agreements, including potentially the requirement that you return possession of tenured sites at the end of the current terms.”
Vaughn Palmer – Vancouver Sun – October 18, 2017.
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