VICTORIA, B.C. – Adam Olsen, B.C. Green Party spokesperson for wild salmon, released the following statement regarding the report released today by The Minister of Agriculture's Advisory Council on Finfish Aquaculture.
“This report highlights the challenges with addressing the role of aquaculture in our efforts to protect B.C.’s wild salmon stocks,” said Olsen.
“We expect the government to adopt and implement the recommendations that the Council was able to come to agreement on without delay. I do not want to this report to be shelved along with all the other fisheries reports we’ve seen over the years.
“In particular, recommendation 2.1 to establish policy requiring agreements with First Nations must be implemented if we are to meet our commitments to UNDRIP and reconciliation. The open-pen fish farms in the ‘Nagmis territories do not have adequate First Nations support. The tenures are up for renewals this Spring, and the fact that the Council was able to come to consensus on this recommendation demonstrates that the government should not renew them.
“It’s also important to note that although this Council reports to the Ministry of Agriculture, nearly every recommendations will fall under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Forests, Lands, Natural Resource Operations, and Rural Development, the Ministry of Environment and Climate Change Strategy, or the Federal Department of Fisheries and Oceans Canada. This multi-ministry mess over who is doing what to protect our wild salmon is part of the problem and why we need to create a wild salmon secretariat here in B.C.”
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