Atlantic Salmon Price Surge Exposes Ottawa’s Food Security Contradiction

As Atlantic salmon prices jump more than 25 per cent, the federal government continues to sit on a policy that would slash domestic production, deepen Canada’s reliance on seafood imports and weaken the country’s food security.

By Fabian Dawson
SeaWestNews

The price of Atlantic salmon, a staple at Canadian seafood counters, jumped a whopping 25.8 per cent in July, new data from Dalhousie University’s Agri-Food Analytics Lab shows, further signalling the need to increase domestic aquaculture production.

Ottawa, however, is still heading in the opposite direction.

The federal government has yet to reverse a Trudeau-era policy that would eliminate marine salmon farming in British Columbia after June 30, 2029, removing a major source of Canadian-grown seafood just as consumers face higher prices and mounting food-security concerns.

The July increase was among the sharpest recorded in Dalhousie’s monthly survey of 50 common grocery products across 13 Canadian cities.

The average grocery basket rose by a relatively modest 0.3 per cent between June and July, reaching $298.38. Thirty of the 50 products tracked became cheaper.

The meat-and-fish category rose 6.5 per cent, however, with Atlantic salmon increasing in 12 of the 13 cities surveyed. Only bacon, which climbed 28.9 per cent, posted a larger monthly jump.

“The national headline appears remarkably calm, but it conceals a highly uneven month,” said Dr. Sylvain Charlebois, senior director of the Agri-Food Analytics Lab, who has described the plan to ban salmon farming in B.C. as an “illogical move driven by activism rather than science.”

“Salmon remains Canada’s most consumed seafood,” said Brian Kingzett, Executive Director of the BC Salmon Farmers Association. “The data clearly shows demand is strong. With long-term regulatory certainty, Canada has a real opportunity to produce more of this food at home.”

Since 2015, farmed salmon production in B.C. has fallen by more than 40 per cent, driven by activist pressure and federal closures despite government scientists repeatedly concluding that the industry poses no more than a minimal risk to wild salmon populations.

Over the same period, Canada’s salmon imports have more than doubled reaching approximately $700 million annually. Much of this growth has come from increased imports of salmon from countries such as Chile and Norway as Canada turns to international suppliers to meet demand that could be fulfilled locally.

In addition to higher prices, greater dependence on imported salmon would also carry wider consequences for Canada’s food security, economic resilience and climate goals. Imported fish generally travels much farther by ship or air, producing more greenhouse gas emissions than salmon raised closer to Canadian consumers.

With regulatory certainty and renewed investor confidence, B.C.’s salmon farming sector says it could generate up to $2.5 billion in annual economic output and support about 9,000 jobs by 2030. By 2040, that could rise to $4.2 billion in annual output and more than 16,000 jobs.

“With the right framework in place, B.C. salmon farmers are ready to support Canada’s food system and help build a stronger Canada,” Kingzett said.

That offer stands in sharp contrast to Ottawa’s current policy, which collides directly with

Prime Minister Mark Carney’s promise to strengthen Canada’s food security, shorten supply chains and reduce the country’s reliance on foreign food.

Currently, B.C.’s salmon farming sector produces fresh, year-round protein in Canadian waters, generates about $1.17 billion in annual economic activity and supports roughly 4,560 full-time jobs.

The sector also purchases goods and services from hundreds of local businesses, including marine contractors, transportation companies, feed suppliers, equipment manufacturers and professional service firms.

Those jobs are concentrated in coastal and rural communities where forestry, commercial fishing and other traditional industries have been shrinking for decades.

More than 1,000 Indigenous people work directly and indirectly in the sector, while salmon farming delivers an estimated $134 million annually in economic benefits to First Nations.

Every active salmon farm in British Columbia operates under an agreement with the Rights-holder First Nation in whose territory it is located.

As the federal decision nears, anti-salmon farming activists are intensifying their social media campaigns, circulating claims discredited by government science while urging Ottawa to replace ocean farms with land-based operations.

That alternative carries its own long record of missed production targets, financial losses and failed projects. Despite those setbacks, activist-backed proponents are seeking as much as $2 billion in taxpayer support to build a land-based salmon industry in British Columbia.

Government studies have already raised serious doubts about whether such a transition is commercially or environmentally viable.

  The British Columbia Salmon Aquaculture Land-Based Siting and Alternative Technology Assessmentfound that only a handful of land-based salmon farms worldwide have reached annual production above 2,500 tonnes, and most have yet to demonstrate sustained profitability.

Fisheries, aquaculture and climate scientists have also described the push to move all B.C. salmon production onto land by 2029 as unrealistic, costly and environmentally damaging.

They estimate producing the world’s salmon supply in land-based facilities would take enough electricity to power a city of 1.2 million people for a year, while generating higher carbon emissions. Raising Atlantic salmon on land can also cost up to 12 times more than raising it in the ocean.

Main image courtesy of Mowi