Hi Fin Donnelly
I have to point out to you, again, that fish farms are not
about jobs and revenue, and they are not a big part of the BC economy.
Here is your quote from your site, re the Cooke fish escape
and Swanson Island occupation: “They said the industry had it under control,
which clearly it doesn’t,” said Donnelly. He said the fish-farm industry is an important player in the economy, but
that it shouldn’t be at the expense of wild salmon or the environment.”
The stats on this as said by fish farms and DFO are: 6,000
jobs, $900 million revenue. Here is one data source: http://www.pac.dfo-mpo.gc.ca/aquaculture/management-gestion/2016/mer-mar/docs/mar-mer-ifmp-pgip-2016-eng.pdf. See page 10 for figures, for instance.
The stats on this by BC Stats – the best guys out there –
are: 1,700 multiplier jobs and $469 M revenue. This is 28% of the jobs claim. Half the revenue.
Actual jobs are even less. I found out (and it takes about
an hour digging to find the figures – you
can do it yourself). There are only
820 actual jobs in fish farms, or about 10% of what fish farms and DFO
claim.
Jobs are low in fish farms. And revenue goes out of the country. Fish farms are foreign,
multi-national, multi-billion dollar corporations and all revenue goes to
foreign countries, in this case, Oslo, Norway as part of the income of Marine
Harvest, Cermaq and Grieg Seafood.
Fish farms are not
an important player in the economy. They are small.
See the BC Stats report here: http://www2.gov.bc.ca/gov/content/data/statistics/business-industry-trade/industry/fisheries-aquaculture.
And the table I have made of the summary figures: https://fishfarmnews.blogspot.ca/2013/02/sport-fishing-how-we-tack-up-feb-6-2013.html.
Go and look at how small fish farming is compared with the rest of the other
sectors in fishing in BC. Note that the BC Stats report is saltwater. Also note
that it was prepared for DFO, but DFO has never used the figures because they
aren’t large enough to support their conflict of interest with fish farms.
And this article of mine points out that the entire take
from fish, salt- and freshwater is, get this: $2.52 Billion. Fish farm revenue that goes out of Canada is only 18.6% of this figure. It
makes no sense to allow them to use our ocean as a free, open sewer.
Norway stopped authorizing in ocean licences almost three years ago because they were appalled at the environmental damage. New fish farms can only be set up on land, or if there is a new, closed option that truly separates the sewage, disease and lice of farmed salmon. Why is BC dumb enough to keep on doing what Norway said no to almost three years ago?
Norway stopped authorizing in ocean licences almost three years ago because they were appalled at the environmental damage. New fish farms can only be set up on land, or if there is a new, closed option that truly separates the sewage, disease and lice of farmed salmon. Why is BC dumb enough to keep on doing what Norway said no to almost three years ago?
See the article, it shows you how to calculate the overall figure:
http://fishfarmnews.blogspot.ca/2015/05/salmonfishing-revenue-towers-over.html.
One final thing: fish farms don’t create jobs, they replace
jobs. The BC Stats report shows this clearly. While the multiplier figure for
fish farms is 1,700 jobs, the commercial sector has lost 1,700 jobs since fish
farms set up shop. (And by comparison, sport fishing jobs are 8,400 or almost 500% greater than fish farm multiplier employment).
Please note that last year, when I won the national
Roderick Haig-Brown Award in 2016 for this work, I told you that I would provide the NDP with
accurate information about the fish farm industry. The offer is still open. Go
read my post: http://fishfarmnews.blogspot.ca/2016/07/roderick-haig-brown-award-2016-dc-reid.html.
PS: John Horgan, Andrew Weaver. You both campaigned on
getting fish farms out of the water. Now is the time to do it. Cancel their
leases, offer them on land licences for free, like Norway, and if they don’t
want them, they can go back to Norway where their only option is to, wait for
it, set up on land.
DC Reid
Here is the table of BC Stats figures. Take a moment to see the real figures - dollar value in millions. Fish Farms are small (Note that the figures are for all of aquaculture, not simply fish farms).
Note that the economic effect to the economy, GDP, is a measly $61.9 million from all of aquaculture. DFO, in the above report says $452 mil to GDP, but the real GDP figure is only 13.7% of DFO's claim
Revenue goes out of the country and little of the revenue is spent in BC, thus such a small GDP contribution. And note how low wages are, hence contribution to GDP is small:
(Note that employment is low in Washington State too. Cooke claims only 80 jobs in its four sites, which are huge, and indirect of 100: https://www.fishfarmingexpert.com/news/us-state-governor-backs-bid-to-outlaw-salmon-farms/).
Here is the table of BC Stats figures. Take a moment to see the real figures - dollar value in millions. Fish Farms are small (Note that the figures are for all of aquaculture, not simply fish farms).
Note that the economic effect to the economy, GDP, is a measly $61.9 million from all of aquaculture. DFO, in the above report says $452 mil to GDP, but the real GDP figure is only 13.7% of DFO's claim
Revenue goes out of the country and little of the revenue is spent in BC, thus such a small GDP contribution. And note how low wages are, hence contribution to GDP is small:
(Note that employment is low in Washington State too. Cooke claims only 80 jobs in its four sites, which are huge, and indirect of 100: https://www.fishfarmingexpert.com/news/us-state-governor-backs-bid-to-outlaw-salmon-farms/).
