e-4980 (Fisheries)

Petition to the Minister of Fisheries, Oceans and the Canadian Coast Guard

• The Minister of Fisheries, Oceans and the Canadian Coast Guard has the mandated obligation and authority to protect Canada’s oceans, freshwater and aquatic ecosystems and species from the negative impact of humans and invasive species;
• Wild Pacific salmon are a keystone species, crucial to British Columbia’s First Nations, economy, and ecosystems;
• Open net-pen aquaculture farms of Atlantic salmon are directly linked to higher mortality rates and irreparable harm to interacting migratory stocks of wild Pacific salmon;
• BC is the only region on the Pacific Coast of North America still allowing open net-pen salmon aquaculture;
• The Crown has constitutional obligations to all First Nations who rely on wild Pacific salmon;
• The Prime Minister has twice mandated that all open net-pen salmon farms in BC must be transitioned to land based closed containment farms by 2025;
• DFO is consulting on two-to-six year aquaculture licences for open net-pen salmon farms in advance of current licences expiring on June 30, 2024, which would permit operation well beyond the mandated 2025 deadline to remove open net-pens from BC’s coast; and
• DFO intends to issue long-term aquaculture licences to open net-pen salmon farms in BC before Cabinet can issue a decision on the Transition Plan, in breach of the Crown’s duty to consult First Nations and other stakeholders and fetter the outcomes available to the Cabinet on the Transition Plan.