The First Nation Wild Salmon Alliance (FNWSA) traveled to Ottawa seeking answers from Prime Minister Mark Carney’s government concerning the commitment to implement the ban of open-net pen fish farms by 2029.
The FNWSA feels the government’s commitment to implement the June 2024 policy announcement “remains a mystery,” while First Nation support of this decision continues to grow.
First Nation Chiefs and leaders from across B.C. want to ensure there is clear understanding of the growing and unwavering support for the removal of open-net pen fish farms as a measure to protect wild Pacific salmon.
Bob Chamberlain, FNSWA Chair, opened the April 29 press conference stating that the First Nation Leadership Council (FNLC), a coalition of First Nations from across B.C., is calling on the federal government to honour its commitment to ban open net pen fish farming by 2029, warning that continued silence or delay undermines reconciliation and will be met with significant push back.
Backed by resolutions from the Union of B.C. Indian Chiefs, the First Nations Summit and the B.C. Assembly of First Nations, the coalition says the science, the law and the courts, including the Discovery Islands decision, all support moving forward without delay. The FNLC have rejected so-called semi-open or semi-closed systems as inadequate and are instead calling for a transparent, First Nations-led transition to land-based closed containment, which they argue would protect wild salmon while creating new economic opportunities.
At stake, Chamberlain said, is far more than a fishery. Wild salmon is bound up in Indigenous culture, food security, ceremony and identity. By protecting it, he said, is a nation-building project that benefits all British Columbians.
Chief Darren Blaney of Homalco Nation near Campbell River spoke on the detriment open-pen farms have had on the marine environment near Bute Inlet. “When the fish farms were operating we had clam gardens approximately 4,000 years old, some older, now underwater. The impacts from the fish farms were affecting not only the salmon fry coming through the inlet, but also the cod stocks and the clams in those gardens.”
Several speakers noted that there was a need to develop a transition plan to land-based systems. In doing so, they said, they could find common ground with those who have supported the farms.
“Open pen fish farming is one of those impacts potentially devastating to salmon runs,” said Willie Sellars, Chief of Williams Lake First Nation. “The responsibility is not just on a single Nation – it is on every community that lives on the Fraser, the Chilcotin and all these river systems. If we are only listening to 11 or 12 communities out of 200-plus in British Columbia, that is not fair, and it is not best for all. There are alternatives to open pen fish farms. Moving them onto land, and the investment that would require, creates economic opportunity and jobs.”
The resolution called out several items, including the release of the Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada What We Heard Report from the last phase of the open-net pen transition planning process as well as consultations with First Nations concerning the DFO’s commitment of revising open-net pen fish farm regulations, conditions of license and definition of what constitutes closed containment fish farms.