More commercial salmon farming closures in B.C. will prove to be “dire” to Surrey’s economy and “compromise” its economic development.
That was the message from Surrey Board of Trade’s CEO Anita Huberman at a press conference Wednesday, held in conjunction with the BC Salmon Farmers Association, that took aim at Minister of Fisheries Joyce Murray. Salmon farmers fear the federal government will strike a fatal blow to the industry if more closures go ahead.
“Last year Mowi Canada West permanently closed their fish processing plant, which resulted in the loss of 80 direct jobs locally, and this isn’t the only example,” Huberman lamented. “There still has been no government action to support these workers.”
Huberman listed 10 companies in Surrey that are connected to the salmon farming industry and said “all these companies have had profound economic impacts to their businesses as a result of the Canadian government’s decision to close or move to closing salmon farming on the Discovery Islands.
“The Surrey Board of Trade is so disappointed with the Canadian government,” she said.
Ken Hardie, Liberal MP for Fleetwood-Port Kells, noted that his party campaigned on a policy of phasing out open-net fish farms.
“The big issue here is that we have been talking to that industry since I got here in 2015 and they have argued and resisted and delayed and fought every step of the way instead of looking at their options for things like closed containment, which can be in the water but doesn’t have to be on land,” Hardie said. “They’ve basically have been given eight years, almost eight years, to look at their alternatives but I haven’t seen much in the way of that kind of activity.”
Before the federal government decided to shut down salmon farming in the Discovery Islands, Huberman said, the “direct economic benefit” derived from these companies in Surrey amounted to $220 million in annual revenue, $46 million in GDP, 344 full-time jobs here in Surrey, and $24 million in annual salaries.
“This cannot be ignored.”
READ ALSO: Surrey businesses with stake in B.C.’s farmed salmon concerned about further job loss
READ ALSO: Salmon farmers warn Surrey jobs on line as feds end Discovery Islands operations
The federal government, Hardie noted, maintains that the fish farms are very damaging to wild fish stocks, particularly salmon, “and particularly where some of them have been located for years on the major salmon migration routes. So something’s got to change.”
Brad Hicks, director of Taplow Feeds – which operates a feed mill in Chilliwack and a cannery in Port Kells that employs 300 workers in Surrey – pulled no punches.
“The human suffering brought on by the shutting down of these farms will be devastating,” he said. “Currently the minister is acting like Attila the Hun. She is using the precautionary approach as a blunt political instrument to bludgeon coastal communities in British Columbia. There is no scientific rationale supporting the removal of salmon farms to increase wild salmon.
“The precautionary approach needs to be used much more cautiously. Message to the minister: This thing you are doing is evil. It is unfounded, it is callous, it is uncaring and it will not end well.”
Josh Plamondon, CEO of Aqua-Pak Industries Ltd. in Newton, said his company’s packaging products help make it possible to feed millions of Canadians with fresh salmon coast to coast.
“Interestingly, our processor customers in the Lower Mainland who would often buy and process local B.C. salmon for retail applications are still consuming packaging at the same rate as prior years,” he noted, “but they’re simply buying fish from other parts of the world rather that selecting locally farmed salmon which is no longer available.
“The demand for seafood hasn’t changed,” Plamondon said, “but the source of it locally has already shifted. Further closures of the industry is only going to continue this trend. You’ll still see farmed salmon at the local grocery store. It’ll be raised halfway around the world and it will cost twice as much. At a time of high inflation, especially in our food supply chain, this will only hurt Canadians further.”
Meantime, Hardie said credit is due to the Surrey Board of Trade’s effort “always for sticking up for business.
“For sure, nobody wants to see an industry shut down or the loss of jobs. We don’t want that. But we also don’t want to see the extermination of wild fish stocks when it’s preventable,” he said. “All we’re asking is for that industry to make some changes. We know that some of the major owners of aquaculture operations have already gone to alternative production modes, and if it’s good enough for Norway, it’s good enough for us.”
As for the federal government’s next move, he told the Now-Leader, “I don’t think there’s going to be anything really rolled out until the next fall. We’ll find out then, but very, very clearly, the interest will be in protecting and preserving the jobs and the industry and all the other operations that cluster around this industry. We have no interest in driving everything out of business, none at all, but again, the damage that these operations have done, we can’t ignore it anymore.”
tom.zytaruk@surreynowleader.com
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