It is a sad day in BC. In Parliament, the Liberal government stood against wild Pacific salmon by voting against Bill C-228 which would have required fish farms to be taken out of the ocean, Fin Donnelly's bill.
See: https://openparliament.ca/votes/42-1/175/. Look at all the MPs across the country who voted against wild Pacific salmon.
The only good news here is that 11 of 17 BC Liberals broke rank and voted for Bill C-228 (1 did not vote - Joyce Murray) so almost 70% of BC liberals voted yes to Pacific Salmon. They know that if they stand against wild Pacific salmon no one in BC will vote for them again (The same can be said of the Kinder Morgan approval - the Liberals are in for a big fight. The mid-90s Clayoquot Sound anti-logging protest to save old-growth forest that put more people in jail than any other protest in Canadian history will look like child's play compared with the fight that is coming on KM).
KM protest? BC says: "Just watch us." BC Liberals are toast.
Now, what we already know is: Salmon in BC are as important to BC as French is to Quebec (1).
And what we now know: The 113,000 British Columbians who signed a petition to stand with wild Pacific salmon (2) and get fish farms out of the ocean, will want to know the BC liberals that voted against Pacific Salmon: Stephen Fuhr, Joe Peschisolido, Carla Qualtrough, Harjit Sajjan and Jody Wilson-Raybould. You'll want to remember these people for the next election.
And, just so you know, you can tell an MP that jobs and revenue are low in fish farms, and they just come back saying they support in-ocean fish farms for, wait for it... jobs and revenue. They just don't get it. Perhaps the worst person to vote against Bill C-228 is Mel Arnold, the former Conservative fisheries critic, who came back with the familiar refrain, even though it is not true.
Here are the real jobs and revenue numbers: Fish farms/Liberals/DFO claim there are 6,000 jobs in BC and high revenue. However, the best stats, from BC Stats Report, that DFO's name is on the cover, says 1,700 multiplier jobs and $469 million revenue from all of aquaculture. That's only 28.3% of the claim. And I went out and determined that actual fish farm employment is only 820 jobs - only 13.7% - or only 1 in 10 of what fish farms claim. (3)
Even Marine Harvest admits there are few jobs in fish farming. Their 2016 Handbook, says it is low because the industry is so highly automated (4).
That's all. The rest of the fish sector is 12,200 multiplier jobs or 88.8% of the total jobs, leaving only 12.2% for the entire aquaculture industry, not simply fish farms. That is how bad the disparity is, but tell the Liberals and Mel Arnold this, and they just keep saying they support jobs. Sorry, that's not true. They are against jobs.
Here are the real revenue numbers from the fish sector: revenue is only $469 million for the entire aquaculture industry, not simply fish farms, only 21%. Sport commercial, and processing are almost 80% of total revenue of $2,177.8 Million.
So there are few jobs and little revenue in aquaculture, far, far below the other fish sectors. So jobs and revenue from fish farms are low. Those are the facts. Don't let anyone else tell you different.
I and others have pointed this out time and again to the Liberals/DFO/CFIA and they just don't get it. I'd say that British Columbians get it. Hasta la Vista Justin Trudeau/Dominic LeBlanc et al.
Links:
1. See the survey: http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/british-columbia/bc-residents-consider-salmon-a-cultural-touchstone-survey-finds/article1998476/.
2. See the petition of 113,000 British Columbians against in-ocean fish farms: https://www.change.org/p/restore-wild-salmon-ban-salmon-feedlots-in-bc.
3. The BC Stats Report is here: http://www.bcstats.gov.bc.ca/StatisticsBySubject/BusinessIndustry/FisheriesAquacultureHuntingTrapping.aspx. The summary table is on fishfarmnews at: http://fishfarmnews.blogspot.ca/2013/02/sport-fishing-how-we-tack-up-feb-6-2013.html.
4. Worldwide job numbers, MH Handbook: http://fishfarmnews.blogspot.ca/2016/09/worker-job-numbers-worldwide-marine_27.html
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