Today in the House, Michael’s fellow NDP MLA Lana Popham introduced the following Private Member’s Motion: “Be it resolved that the House debate and discuss a plan to ensure a sustainable wild salmon stock and aquaculture sector.”
Michael rose to support his colleague’s motion and the draft transcript of his speech is copied below.
As always the official version will be posted when available.
2010 Legislative Session: Second Session, 39th Parliament
HOUSE BLUES
This is a DRAFT TRANSCRIPT ONLY of debate in one sitting of the Legislative Assembly of British Columbia. This transcript is subject to corrections, and will be replaced by the final, official Hansard report. Use of this transcript, other than in the legislative precinct, is not protected by parliamentary privilege, and public attribution of any of the debate as transcribed here could entail legal liability.
DEBATES OF THE LEGISLATIVE ASSEMBLY
(HANSARD)
HOUSE BLUES
MONDAY, MAY 31, 2010
Morning Sitting
MONDAY, MAY 31, 2010
Private Members’ Motions
MOTION 14 — SUSTAINABLE WILD
SALMON STOCK AND AQUACULTURE
M. Sather: Well, the member for Cariboo-Chilcotin that just spoke might want to also note that a group of eminent scientists recently, some 22 in all, from a forum at SFU, concluded that the downward trend in salmon is not due to overfishing. In fact, the percent of the run harvested has been declining for decades.
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In any event, it is an issue that’s difficult to ascertain. No one has all the answers. But certainly, we have questions about fish farms on this side of the House, even if the member opposite doesn’t, and we will continue to pursue those.
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We know that this government has a long relationship with the fish farm industry. We know that they get considerable donations from that industry.
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[1130]
When this government was first elected, what did they do? There were outstanding charges against a number of fish farms. The first thing they did was say: “Huh. To heck with those. Those are null and void. Those are gone.”
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How can you do that? How can you just take charges and wipe them off the chart, with the stroke of a pen, for no good reason? That’s what this government has done, and they continue at all costs to pursue a single-minded, pro–fish farm…. This is the issue that I have with the government’s approach. It’s single-minded support at all costs for fish farms without allowing, it seems, any kind of dissent.
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I had the good fortune, I guess I could say, of speaking to a couple of the Ministry of Agriculture and Lands fish scientists recently. I certainly acknowledge their credentials. It was interesting to hear them talk about sea lice and fish diseases. To hear them speak, these are naturally occurring. Yes, that’s true. Both are naturally occurring.
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The inference was that the sea lice problem, if there was any — the disease problem, if there is any — came from the wild salmon. That’s not what a whole lot of folks are concerned about, obviously. It overlooks the fact that when you put a whole bunch of fish in a small area or a whole bunch of human beings or any kind of animal in a small area, they’re likely to spread any disease that’s out there quite considerably.
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Where the sea lice actually came from, where the disease actually came from is not exactly the issue. The issue is: is it being proliferated, and is it spreading to the wild salmon and causing a great concern?
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Now, those scientists talked about temperature of the water and the salinity of the water being a more likely cause. I don’t know. I’ve been asking around. I haven’t seen first studies that back this up.
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Certainly, as I say, there is a diversity of opinion, and so there should be on any biological issue. Parameters are difficult to measure, and it’s almost impossible to control the various factors. That’s to be expected.
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But there are issues that do give me concern around fish health and fish farms and those diseases. It’s astounding to know that the fish farms do report diseases at their farms, but they’re not required to. But what is worse than that is the fact that the ministry itself doesn’t have to let the public know. How can that be? An industry that is in waters that belong to all Canadians….
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They haven’t been able to privatize. I know the government is very fond of privatization, and maybe some would like to be able to privatize some of those waters. They haven’t been able to do that so far. Those are public waters. Why doesn’t the public get to know what kind of disease outbreaks there are on fish farms? But they don’t.
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With that kind of mismanagement — and that is mismanagement — it’s difficult for me as a former biologist myself to actually have a lot of faith in what the government scientists are saying, not because they don’t have the credentials or the knowledge, but they’re under this kind of political constraint. They’re under this constraint that doesn’t allow them to be free and open with what’s happening on fish farms. That’s worrying indeed.
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The fact that they don’t have to report this to the public. Imagine you’re a cattle farmer and you have an outbreak of BSE on your farm. You betcha; that has to be reported to the public. Of course, that’s a disease that can directly affect human beings. But the collapse of our sockeye fishery, our salmon fishery, in many respects is having an effect if not directly on the lives of families that are dependent on wild salmon then certainly indirectly on our well-being, so they should be reported.
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[1135]
We saw the same thing in the Fraser Valley, where I come from, not that many years ago when we had an outbreak of avian flu in chickens. Wow. The government — in this case it was the federal government — acted quickly and decisively to go in and eradicate those chickens. They took it seriously.
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The idea that the salmon farms should be required to take some drastic actions, perhaps to shut down those farms for a period of time, is certainly not out of order, but there doesn’t seem to be any will at all.
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Another astounding thing. When there’s an outbreak on a fish farm, you know what the ministry staff does? They stay away. They stay away as public policy. That’s their policy — to stay away from a fish farm when there’s an outbreak of disease. They say it might spread the disease if they go there. Well, I don’t get that.
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I thought that our folks were out there and our government was directing them out there to be where there’s a problem to ensure that the problem was being taken care of and to look after it in the public interest. I mean, when those people were going around to the chicken farms, they had all kinds of biosecure suits and whatnot on. Why can’t they do that to go and look at a fish farm? No, they stay away. That seems to be the whole idea of this government — hands off, and stay away.
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There are a lot of concerns. I don’t see the government addressing it with regard to fish farms, and we certainly look for better things from them in the future, even though we’re not that hopeful.
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