For four straight days in Question Period me and my BC Green colleagues have been asking government about their wild fish policy. We have noted that up to six different provincial ministries and one federal department all have responsibility for this file. Essentially, the policy is fractured, leaving wild salmon and steelhead vulnerable.
I asked Premier Horgan if his government would be willing to bring the responsibility under one roof by creating a Wild Salmon Secretariat or Commissioner.
[Transcript]
A. Olsen:
Every question we asked this week was about steelhead and wild salmon. We haven’t received straight answers to our questions, but we’ve learned a lot. We learned that six distinct ministries, in addition to a federal department, are all co-managing the Interior Fraser steelhead to extinction. There appears to be jurisdictional confusion about who is doing what for salmon.
I don’t doubt this government’s commitment to wild salmon, but I wonder about their ability to make concrete changes when it appears it is being managed off the side of everyone’s desk.
Salmon are resilient. In the Saanich culture, they are our relatives. The health and wellness requires a different relationship, one that we clearly do not yet comprehend.
Given the fact that everybody seems to be in charge, I’d like to direct my question to the Premier. Will your government consider creating a wild salmon commissioner or secretariat to unite and streamline the work being done by government to protect our wild salmon and steelhead relatives?
Hon. J. Horgan:
I thank the member for Saanich North and the Islands for the question. He has, I think, characterized fairly effectively the challenge that all of us have in British Columbia with co-management of our iconic salmon species, whether they be steelhead, whether they be chum, whether they be chinook, sockeye and the like. But that challenge didn’t just arrive, as you know, and that challenge will take some time to figure out.
We are working tirelessly on this side of the House, and have been saying to questions — able questions from the Green Party and from those on the other side — everyone in British Columbia understands the importance of salmon not just our people but to our land. We are going to do our level best to get through the red tape, to understand what Ottawa’s plans are for our salmon species. And we’re going to do our level best to make sure that at the end of the day, the people of British Columbia can have confidence that all levels of government are working in a coordinated way to realize the objective that the member just recognized.
Mr. Speaker:
Saanich North and the Islands on a supplemental.
A. Olsen:
Thank you, Mr. Premier, for the answer.
We’ve heard a lot of words spoken this week. What we’re proposing, with the line of questioning and with the suggestion that I made in my initial question, is action. I think it’s a reasonable request that we make of government. When we needed action on climate, we created a secretariat. When we needed to address issues of conflicts of interest, we created a commissioner. These are examples of where we have multiple ministries working on their files, their distinct files, and we need action across government.
That’s why today we’re asking the government and suggesting to the government to consider creating a wild salmon secretariat or a commissioner that could do very similar work to bring together, to streamline, all the work that is being done. That would require adequate funding, of course.
So I ask my question again to the Premier: would your government consider such a secretariat to coordinate the effort — as he so ably described in his answer to the first question?
Hon. J. Horgan:
Again, I appreciate the passion of the member. I know it’s genuine.
In the 1990s, the government of the day created what was called fishery renewal B.C. to do just what the member has suggested. We need to address habitat restoration upstream. We need to have spawning beds in place so that our salmon have a place to come back to.
There is no shortage of work being done by the minister responsible for Forests, Lands, Natural Resource Operations. The Minister of Agriculture has a role to play as well. I, too, in the intergovernmental relations side, have a role to play with our federal government. I have done the best I can to break through with the federal government so that they can understand that this is not just about scientists in Ottawa. It’s about people in coastal communities. It’s about people who live up the Fraser, people who live up the Nechako, people who live up the Skeena and everywhere in between.
Salmon are British Columbia. The member’s passion is absolutely well placed, and we are going do our level best, working with all sides of this House, to ensure that when we finish our time in this place, salmon are better off than they were when we arrived.
That you for raising this matter and I urge you to keep doing so. After reading this transcript, I sent the below e-mail to the office of the premier.
Dear Premier Horgan,
I have been glad to see that MLAs have been raising the matter of open-water fish farms in the legislature recently. In your answer to MLA Adam Olsen on March 1st, you answered his question by referring to the Fraser River, the Skeena, and other interior fishing communities and salmon spawning sites. However, wild salmon, unlike governmental jurisdictions, do not listen to the borders that we humans have mapped onto them. As the Final Report of the Cohen Commission shows, the migration routes of wild salmon take them to interior BC, up the Queen Charlotte Strait, up to Alaska, all around Vancouver Island, and through large swaths of the Pacific Ocean (2012; http://publications.gc.ca/collections/collection_2012/bcp-pco/CP32-93-2012-1-eng.pdf).
I was disappointed to hear you acknowledge the interior BC spawning sites but ignore the immediate concerns of the First Nations within the Broughton Archipelago. As we speak, Marine Harvest appears about to restock the Swanson Island fish farm with Atlantic salmon that will not reach adulthood before the corporation’s license and tenure expires.
Today, Washington State banned open-water fish farms (see: https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/politics/bill-to-phase-out-atlantic-salmon-farming-in-washington-state-nears-deadline/). I realize that this measure was passed in the US and not Canada, but as the map above shows, all of the waterways that wild salmon frequent are integral to the species’ survival. Washington State’s action should serve as an inspiration.
Motivated by my concerns about the wild salmon and lack of respect for First Nations’ political authority, I am writing as a concerned BC citizen residing within Victoria, BC. Not only do First Natons opposed to the farms in their territorial waters deserve a real nation-to-nation relationship (i.e. BC on behalf of Canada to the ‘Namgis Nation), but wild salmon deserve stewardship, our support, and protection – no matter where they are within this province’s web of jurisdictions.
As Premier and an elected representative, I call upon you to take a public stance on the matter of open-water fish farms; to provide open and transparent answers about open-water fish farms to MLAs, First Nations, and the Canadian public; and to uphold the principles of reconciliation and the protection of wild salmon by establishing a secretariat or body that can take immediate action. While Marine Harvest may have deep pockets that seem to benefit the BC economy, in the long run this issue concerns much more than monetary gain. Neither we as BC people, First Nations, or the wild salmon can afford to ignore the concerns of those communities who have localized knowledge of wild salmon and depend upon them for their subsistence, culture, and identity.
In good faith and hope for action and change.
Hello Stacie,
Thank you for your comment and advocacy to the provincial government. I will definitely continue to advocate for wild salmon and to remove the open net pen Atlantic salmon farms. More to come on this soon.
Adam