In a press conference held in Metro Vancouver on May 31, the message was clear: the aquaculture industry isn’t backing down, is committed to the future of the industry, and will rise to the challenge in the wake of more proposed closures as part of the federal government’s transition plan.
At the event hosted by the Surrey Board of Trade, the roughly 35 minute presser featured several prominent leaders of the industry, as they appealed to Fisheries and Oceans minister Joyce Murray regarding the transition plan.
READ MORE: Fisheries Department confirms closure of 15 Discovery Islands salmon farms
Emcee of the event, Board of Trade President and CEO Anita Huberman, said that what could happen on in other parts of the province may effect all residents province wide.
“You may not think anything that happens on Vancouver Island, or northern British Columbia, matters to an urban sector such as Surrey,” Huberman said. Huberman also expressed the board was “disappointed” with Murray’s decision, stating that the transitional plan had “no rational approach.”
Joining Huberman were BC Salmon Salmon Farmers Association (BCSFA) Executive Director Brian Kingzett, Director of Taplow Foods Brian Hicks, Operations Manager of Aquatrans Distribution Kyran Clarke, and CEO of Aqua-Pak and Airfoam group Josh Plamadon.
Kingzett spoke of the chain reaction that the closure of the salmon farming industry will have upon communities provincewide and touted the $200 million dollar impact the industry has upon the city of Surrey itself.
“As a sector, in 2020, we’ve gone from nearly $1.6 billion dollars of economic impact within British Columbia to losses in the Discovery Islands,” said Kingzett. “Now what we’re worried about is closing the sector all together.”
Kingzett says that in shutting down the farms along the coast, which at one time employed 6500 people in BC, is based on little more than politicial reasons.
“We’re the province’s largest agricultural export,” said Kingzett, claiming that the closures meant some 20 million lost meal portions year to year. “The minister went against the scientific recommendations of the Coen Commission, and ten Canadian science advisory secretariat science reports. Those reports said that the BC salmon farming industry presented little to no risk to wild salmon.”
Kingzett says his sector remains committed to a transition plan.
“We are prepared very much to rise to the challenge of that,” said Kingzett. “We are committed to creating more trust and transparency around science. But during that time, we are looking for the business certainty to be able to continue our operations to be able to make those significant investments in innovation with our First Nation partners.”
Hicks, involved in the aquaculture industry since the late 1980s and has a background in veterinary medicine, was one of the people responsible for the farms within the Discovery Islands, and also contributed to the first land based re-circulation aquaculture system on Vancouver Island in the 1990s. His company, Taplow Foods, has facilities in Surrey as well as Chilliwack.
he said closing the farms on the coast is based on “the assumption that removing salmon farms will increase the number of wild salmon.” He also referred to Murray as Lady MacBeth, from the play by William Shakespeare.
“The human suffering from the shutting down of these farms will be devastating,” Hicks said. “The minister is more interested in appealing to soothsayers than actual scientists.”
Operations Manager for Delta based Aquatrans, Clarke seemed to double down on the assertion that the federal government, despite its positions, is not committed to the future of small business, in particular those associated with aquaculture.
“Navigating the challenges of staffing, market acquisition, regulatory requirements, vendor management, this lists goes on when dealing with small business,” said Clarke. “It comes with continuous and significant sacrifice. All these pressures were intensified during the pandemic. Both aquaculture and transportation was deemed an essential business. What response did we receive from the government? Well your service may have been essential yesterday, but we’re looking at closing 40 per cent of your industry today.”
Finally, Plamadon spoke about the tough decisions he’s had to made since the closure of the farms was announced in February, stating that for the first time since his employment at Aquapak, their Campbell River facility experienced significant layoffs as a result of the closures.
“B.C. Aquaculture made up 22 per cent of our total sales and 50 per cent of our seafood sector,” Said Plamadon, who has worked at the Surrey based packager for 17 years. “In 2022, it made up for 54 per cent share of that segment. But we’re seeing the impacts of the salmon closures this year.”
Plamadon concluded that “the demand for seafood hasn’t changed, but the source of it locally has already shifted,” and that “more closures will only see this trend continue.”
Edward Hitchins
edward.hitchins@campbellrivermirror.com
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