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BC special committee panned in Port Hardy

By Gazette Staff
Jul 12 2007

PORT HARDY - The salmon farming industry would be destroyed if the recommendations from the Special Committee on Sustainable Aquaculture are accepted, said council June 12.

"We should write a letter to the Premier encouraging the government to reject the committee's recommendation," said Port Hardy Councillor Bev Parnham. "They could destroy the industry."

A formal motion was approved after a discussion, sparking a letter to BC Premier Gordon Campbell.

"Our community is partly sustained by both aquaculture and wild fishery and we have an interest in both fisheries being environmentally and economically healthy," wrote Mayor Hank Bood. "Council would like to go on record as not supporting the recommendations of the Special Committee as they do not provide viable options to the aquaculture industry.

"The committee could have been the catalyst to bring industry, government and environmentalists into a close, cooperative working relationship," Bood continued. "Such a relationship could have gone a long way towards establishing British Columbia as a leader in both aquaculture development and environmental protection."

Parnham's comments were in response to an open letter to the fish farming industry from the BC Salmon Farmers Association.

"We entered into this process with a degree of skeptical optimism," says the letter. "We understood that the NDP had targeted our industry during the last provincial election campaign, and like you, we were skeptical about their motives."

The association welcomed the committee, believing a close look at the salmon farming, would convince the committee that the industry is worth while.

"We felt, if we could engage the committee in a constructive way and provide open access to them ... that they would see a sustainable industry and a bright future for British Columbians on the Coast," said the association letter.

"Yet despite all our efforts, the NDP led committee proposed sweeping changes to the industry -- calling for a complete transition within five years to closed containment, a cap on production, no new licenses unless they are in closed containment systems and a complete moratorium on expansion north of Cape Caution.

"If these recommendations are accepted by the BC Liberals they will create a very difficult situation for all salmon farming companies in the province."

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