B.C. Agriculture Forum Puts Salmon Farmers at Centre of Rural Canada’s Fight

British Columbia’s salmon farmers have built the kind of First Nations and community alliances needed to defend jobs, food production and small-town economies, a keynote address to the inaugural B.C. Agriculture Forum highlighted.

By Fabian Dawson
SeaWestNews

B.C.’s salmon farmers are providing a blueprint for rural industries fighting for survival by standing with First Nations and the communities that depend on them, one of Canada’s leading rural policy scholars told an agriculture forum in Penticton.

Dr. Ken Coates praised the sector for taking its campaign beyond the future of individual companies and putting the economic and social health of coastal communities at the centre of the debate over salmon farming.

“I’ve been working with colleagues of yours here at the B.C. Salmon Farmers Association, who are doing a remarkable job of trying to sustain not just their industry, but the whole community associated with them,” Coates told the inaugural B.C. Agriculture Forum this week.

He said the approach offers a lesson for farmers, ranchers and other resource industries facing shrinking political influence, mounting regulatory pressures and a widening divide between urban Canada and the communities that produce its food and natural resources.

B.C. salmon farmers have built alliances with coastal First Nations, municipal leaders, workers, national industry groups and supply-chain businesses while documenting what the sea farm closures mean for communities where alternative employment and investment are limited.

Coates said the industry has forced governments and the public to confront whether First Nations that have used salmon farming to create jobs and rebuild their economies could be pushed back into poverty by decisions made elsewhere.

That fight has taken on greater urgency as Ottawa reviews a controversial Trudeau-era plan, driven by anti-salmon farming activists, to end marine salmon farming in British Columbia by 2029, despite extensive government research finding the sector poses no more than a minimal risk to wild fish stocks.

Every remaining salmon farm in the province now operates under an agreement with the First Nation in whose territory it is located. The sector generates about $1.17 billion in annual economic activity, supports roughly 4,560 full-time jobs and provides an estimated $134 million a year in economic benefits to First Nations.

The Coalition of First Nations for Finfish Stewardship has urged the federal government to replace the phaseout with an Indigenous-led licensing, science and stewardship system supported by the B.C. Salmon Farmers Association.

The coalition’s proposal would give First Nations a central role in aquaculture approvals, expand Indigenous ownership, establish a permanent industry-funded wild salmon research program and strengthen an Indigenous aquatic health sciences centre.

Coates said agriculture must pursue the same kind of coalition-building as it confronts the erosion of rural and food-producing communities across Canada.

“This is the fight of your lives,” he said.

Coates described Canada as a country that has steadily allowed farming, forestry, fishing and mining communities to lose population, services, investment and political influence.

The effects can be seen in forestry towns hollowed out after mill closures, former mining communities that have disappeared and family farms absorbed into larger operations requiring expensive equipment and more land.

“We’ve lost a lot of the community architecture in our country,” he said.

Coates described the growing rural backlash as “the revenge of the places that don’t matter,” referring to communities that believe public policy treats cities as economically and politically important while leaving farming regions, small towns and remote communities behind.

In Europe, that anger has spilled into large-scale demonstrations, including thousands of farmers using tractors to shut down major cities. In Canada, he said, the divide is more visible in increasingly polarized voting patterns between rural and urban regions.

The pressure on producing communities will intensify as Canada faces trade disruption, a transformed relationship with the United States, extreme weather, weaker economic performance and difficulty retaining young workers and entrepreneurs.

“If you think it’s going to be a problem now, give it 10 more years,” Coates told the gathering.

Coates urged agricultural organizations to approach First Nations before projects or policy disputes emerge and identify opportunities that can be pursued collectively.

He also called for closer ties with new Canadians, including immigrants with farming and rural backgrounds who often settle in major cities with little exposure to agricultural opportunities.

Municipal leaders should be treated as permanent partners because local governments are left to manage the economic and social fallout when farms, mills, mines or seafood operations close, he said.

His recommendations included faster regulatory decisions, greater support for agricultural entrepreneurs and investments aimed at strengthening regions rather than individual businesses in isolation.

Agriculture must also do more to attract and retain young people through work experience, education and a clear message that they are needed in rural Canada.

Many young Canadians leave smaller communities because nobody asks them to stay or shows them how they can build a future there, Coates said.

“Agriculture is the bridge,” Coates said. “It is the glue that should hold this country together. You are the glue…Nobody out-works a farmer,” Coates said.

Earlier this month, Jennifer Woike and Danielle Synotte of the B.C. Agriculture Council (BCAC) told the BCSFA AGM that aquaculture belongs inside Canada’s broader food system, not outside it.

“BCAC and our members believe that aquaculture is agriculture,” said Synotte.

MAIN IMAGE – Alex Vander Eyk,  BCAC director representing floriculture,  Brian Kingzett, BCAC director representing aquaculture, Danielle Synotte, BCAC Executive Director, MP John Barlow for Foothills, Jennifer Woike, President of BCAC, Kaitlin Guitard of Young Farmers of B.C and Hannah Willms, BCAC director representing the Grain sector.