Dear Minister Jonathan Wilkinson,
I am writing to you as you are BC’s senior federal cabinet member. In a matter of weeks your government will receive a DFO memo on what to do about salmon farms. Prime Minister Trudeau said they needed to get out of BC waters by 2025, clearly the industry doesn’t want to go, DFO staff are dangling the possibility they will be allowed to stay another 6 years, these Norwegian-based companies keep suing their host country and so Canadians are unsure who is in charge: the prime minister, DFO bureaucrats or the industry? On July 1 we will have our answer.
Prime Minister Trudeau made his decision on this matter in 2019 when he instructed his Minister of Fisheries in his mandate letter to transition salmon farms out of the ocean by 2025.
Since then, approximately half the salmon farms in BC have been closed, most by First Nations (see blow). The industry has shipped its large well boats, Viktoria Viking and Roy Kristian back to the Atlantic, as well as smaller aquaculture industry tenders. Where the farms have been removed remarkable wild salmon rebounds are being observed. This year will be the first farm-free Fraser River sockeye and 4-year chum salmon that were not exposed to salmon farm pathogens in the Discovery Islands when they went to sea as juveniles.
July 1, 2024, all federal BC salmon farm licences will expire. New licences must be issued before then to every farm still in existence. To align with the Prime Minister’s mandate, these new licences should provide instruction on decommissioning i.e. what level of sea floor cleanup is required, whether fish already in the farms are permitted to grow to harvest size, etc., similar to the instructions provided to Mowi and Cermaq by First Nations in the Broughton Archipelago before they removed 17 salmon farms.
Inexplicably, DFO Aquaculture staff are moving in the opposite direction as if the mandate letter to their minister is of no consequence - openly suggesting that salmon farm licences might be renewed for six years. Intended or not, these public musings dangerously mislead the aquaculture industry with serious consequence to your cabinet.
For example, over the past 4 years DFO Aquaculture staff have repeatedly invited salmon farming companies to pay for licences in the Discovery Islands before the minister repeatedly announced these licences would not be reissued. Predictably, industry lawyers used this in defeating the Minister of Fisheries in court. The industry paid for licences, they argued, thus creating the expectation they would receive them, and the judge seemed to agree. I have asked DFO staff to please refrain from doing this again, but in a sense they already have. By publicly signalling 6-year licences might be issued, as if the prime minister didn’t matter, the industry might sink costs into filling their hatcheries with eggs, rearing fry and vaccinating juveniles in anticipation of stocking marine farms six years into the future. As the lawyers told the court - when bureaucrats create false expectations, industry invests money and your government loses in court.
Before this power struggle between DFO Aquaculture staff and the Prime Minister lands on your desk I would like to offer two considerations:
- The stigma of your government’s reliance on science recently flagged as potentially fraudulent accompanies this decision. The entire premise of granting salmon farm licences is based on a standard of “minimal harm” to wild salmon. A year ago, senior Canadian scientists warned that DFO science that the minister was relying on to ensure minimal harm appears to have selectively omitted data and tampered with conclusions to suggest sea lice from salmon farms are not harming young wild salmon. Internal documents attached to their letter clearly show the edits that reversed the report's original conclusion, even providing the initials of the author of these edits. This conduct lands squarely within the definition of scientific fraud. The scientists who wrote this have published extensively on exactly this, they are tenured professors, senior editors of scientific journals, expert witnesses and work with many First Nations, but somehow the Minister of Fisheries has not seen fit to even answer them. Their request to reanalyze the data to confirm minimal harm to wild salmon has effectively been denied. Beyond violating the basic principle of science that any result must be reproducible, hiding evidence is not a good look for any government when the stakes are this high.
- British Columbians are watching this closely. Can we trust our prime minister or not? When Trudeau issues a mandate does this mean he will walk the talk? Will salmon farms be moved out of BC waters in 2025 or not? Was his mandate letter just a political chess move he had no intention of honouring? Or did he actually intend to follow through, but now is willing to sacrifice wild salmon because he is afraid of three Norwegian – based companies Mowi, Cermaq and Grieg? We will have our answer by July 1, 2024 when BC salmon farm licences are reissued. Will the new conditions of licence inform the industry on the steps required to decommission their farms? Or will the licence override Prime Minister Trudeau and provide this industry opportunity to reap profits at the expense of the public resource and beloved wild salmon?
Minister Wilkinson, you are a man of science and politics, a rare and important blend in the maelstrom of today’s world. Globally, we have become acutely aware that our very survival depends on governments bringing industrial activity into compliance with what our planet can bear. Your government made the decision to remove salmon farms. Fraser River and Coastal First Nations and the Union of BC Indian chiefs successfully petitioned the court and supported the Minister of Fisheries in keeping 17 salmon farms in the Discovery Islands on the Fraser River salmon migration route closed. When has that kind of support ever been offered to a federal government before?
Fraudulent or not, DFO science is no longer a factor because the Prime Minister of Canada made the decision to move salmon farms out of the Pacific Ocean, similar to the U.S. The previous Fisheries Minister was apparently working on this transition plan just before she was sacked. Now your government has allowed uncertainty to persist right up to the deadline causing chaos for those employed by the industry and playing into the hands of this litigious industry.
Very soon it will be your turn to decide whether to honour the Prime Minister’s mandate, or go back on his promise and cave to the salmon farming industry. Is this just a gamble? Which is the least damaging to the Liberal Government - upsetting the Norwegian salmon farming industry, or betraying the Prime Minister’s promise to Canadians?
Please confirm that you have read this and let me know if you require further information.
Thank you and all the best,
Thank you,
Alexandra Morton
- 17 farms closed by three First Nations in the Broughton Archipelago
- 8 farms closed by Shíshálh First Nation
- 3 farms closed by Gwawa’enuxw First Nation
- 1 farm closed by Kwiakah First Nation
- 1 farm closed by Homalco First Nation
- 17 farms closed by Minister of Fisheries (salmon farmers only sued in response to these closures)