Stephen Harper Conservatives Against Wild Pacific Salmon - Vote No to Stephen Harper

I sent the following letter to all BC MPs, asking whether they stand for wild BC Salmon and will remove fish farms from our pristine BC ocean. I have not received one response from Stephen Harper's Conservative MPs in BC. In other words, don't vote Conservative.

Below my note, read the good response I got from Elizabeth May, Green Party leader. She stands for wild BC salmon.

My letter to BC MPs:

Subject: Fw: Will You Remove Fish Farms from BC's Pristine Ocean?

Hi BC MP

Do you support wild BC salmon and, if elected in 2015, will you take fish farms out of the ocean and put them on land where they belong?

More than 100,000 British Columbians have signed a petition telling government to eliminate in-ocean fish farms: https://www.change.org/p/restore-wild-salmon-ban-salmon-feedlots-in-bc. We want them on land or they can go back to Norway. We don’t want them using our pristine ocean as a free, open sewer any more.

Despite the stats DFO and fish farms dream up, the most reliable figures show that fish farm operations are so small a contribution to the BC economy in terms of jobs and revenue, and their environmental toll is so high, they are actually a negative contribution. See: file:///C:/Users/Norman/Downloads/British%20Columbias%20Fisheries%20and%20Aquaculture%20Sector%202012%20Edition%20(12).pdf.

There are only 795 actual jobs in the fish farm industry, only $61.9 Million contribution to GPP, and the in-ocean operations put out sewage that exceeds the output of the entire 4.6 million human population in BC, an estimated $10.4 Billion shouldered by the taxpayers of BC. We don’t want to pay. And we don’t want government using our money to make payments for their diseased, dead fish – up to $30 each. We don’t want the chemicals, diseases, lice and sea lion deaths in our oceans anymore.

Look at www.fishfarmnews.blogspot.com, and use the index to find references for the quoted figures: http://fishfarmnews.blogspot.ca/2014/10/index-to-wwwfishfarmnewsblogspotcom.html.

Your Yes or No – repeated lack of response is a No – will be published alongside all current BC MPs. During the election campaign, this note will be sent to all candidates, and the lists of yes and no also published to help voters across the province vote in candidates who will take fish farms out of the water.

DC Reid

Elizabeth May, Green Party response:

Dear DC Reid,

Thank you for writing about salmon farms. I apologize for the delay in responding.

I strongly support the health of wild BC salmon, and am committed to the improvement of fish farming practices. The Green Party of Canada seeks a moratorium on new open-ocean net-pen salmon farms and a phase-out of existing farms within ten years. Conservation of wild fisheries must take precedence over aquaculture.

There are so many problems with open net cage fish farming in BC’s marine environment. These problems range from the transfer of diseases and parasites to wild salmon, the use of wild fish as feed for farmed fish, the dispersal of tons of solid waste and nutrients into the surrounding waters, and the problematic use of antibiotics in farmed fish. The mass farming of salmon threatens wild salmon with extinction.

Justice Bruce Cohen’s landmark report looked into the decline of the sockeye salmon in British Columbia’s Fraser River. The report presented 75 policy recommendations for addressing the multiple threats to the survival of BC’s wild salmon. The Cohen Commission emphasized the need for far more stringent monitoring of local salmon farming operations, and recommended that fish farms be removed from Sockeye migratory areas.

Rather than act on Cohen’s recommendations, the Department of Fisheries and Oceans has opted to totally ignore the report. The department commissioned a study at enormous expense to taxpayers and then disregards it, as if their only duty was to investigate, not to act. This is disgraceful.

The treatment of the Cohen Report is only one example of the Harper Conservatives’ insistent indifference to the threats to wild salmon, whether from tankers or aquaculture. Rather than scale back toxic fish factories, the Harper Conservatives have been pushing for expansion, as if there was no issue. If this pattern continues, the changes could well be irreversible.

Thank you again for writing. I am glad to know that you are so engaged on this issue.

Sincerely,

Elizabeth May O.C., M.P.
Member of Parliament for Saanich-Gulf Islands
Leader of the Green Party of Canada

DC Reid