Dear Premier David Eby,
I am writing to inform you that your Minister of Environment and Climate Change, George Heyman and his ministry are under investigation for refusing to screen farm salmon blood for the virus PRV before it is being released by the Brown’s Bay Processing Company into the Fraser River salmon migration route in the Discovery Islands.
On June 18, 2024, the BC Ombudsperson office informed the provincial Minister of Environment George Heyman that his ministry is under investigation for refusing to test for and control the virus PRV flowing from a farm salmon processing plant.
Seven years ago I informed Minster Heyman that this blood water was infected with the foreign salmon virus PRV. First Nation leadership from the Fraser River and the public demand that the Browns Bay farm salmon processing stop releasing this virus into the ocean . Heyman promised to do so. However, an October 2023 Warning Letter to the plant by Heyman’s compliance staff reports:
“the Director did not require Brown’s Bay to test for pathogens in the effluent or take action to minimize discharge of pathogens” (Warning Letter, Oct 2023, page 9).
WHAT!!! So, it was all a lie that your government was taking care of this? The federal government removed ALL SALMON FARMS from the Discovery Islands and your government is allowing free flow of infected blood into the same area? For what possible reason are you being so careless?
In fact, records show the Ministry of Environment increased the bloodwater discharge rate in 2019. Then in 2023 DFO reported that young salmon placed exposed to this blood water become infected with the virus. And still nothing was done. In fact, Heyman tried to convince me and First Nations that the effluent looks cleaner, as if viruses are visible - while never requiring the plant to even test for the virus.
Independent scientists trace PRV genetic sequence to the North Atlantic (Science Daily) arriving at the same time as Atlantic salmon farms were established on this coast. On May 15, 2024, Namgis First Nation announced they intend to reopen their lawsuit to stop DFO from allowing PRV-infected farm salmon into fish farms. PRV infects most farm salmon in BC, and research shows it causes the red blood cells of Pacific salmon to rupture en masse leading to organ failure.
Unfortunately, the Ombudsperson can only make recommendations. You can still choose to do nothing. Clearly I have misjudged your capacity to understand the importance of wild salmon to this coast. Now there is an investigation. DFO science are also under investigation for disregarding the science on the impact of this virus on wild salmon. In my view taxpayer dollars are being wasted, as scientists from leading universities and the Pacific Salmon Foundation have shown that this virus is more dangerous to Pacific salmon than to Atlantic salmon, because it was imported. That should have been warning enough got Minister Heyman to instruct Browns Bay Packing Company to pump their waste into a tank and dispose of it properly.
In my view it is unconscionable to allow a foreign virus to flow into the Pacific.
Alexandra Morton