Nearly a decade after Dominic Barton’s economic council urged Canada to seize its aquaculture opportunity, his return as chair of Invest in Canada is renewing hope that the sector could finally get the policy certainty needed to attract new capital and expand.
By Fabian Dawson
SeaWestNews
Dominic Barton is back at the centre of Canada’s economic strategy, and the country’s aquaculture industry is hoping the new investment czar will revive one of the growth opportunities his own economic council identified nearly a decade ago.
Prime Minister Mark Carney this week appointed Barton as chair of Invest in Canada, the federal agency charged with attracting foreign direct investment and helping move major projects from investor interest to actual development.
The appointment comes as the Carney government pushes to catalyse $1 trillion in total investment over the next five years as part of a broader drive to build a stronger, more resilient Canadian economy, expand domestic production and reduce reliance on foreign suppliers.
Carney has also made food security part of that agenda, committing more than $3 billion over 10 years to produce and process more food in Canada and build a more independent food system.
In 2017, the Advisory Council on Economic Growth that Barton chaired identified aquaculture as one of Canada’s high-potential food and export sectors and urged Ottawa to create the conditions for rapid expansion.
The council called for Canada to triple its share of the global aquaculture market from about 0.2 per cent to 0.6 per cent, increase exports by almost US$2.6 billion and pursue an economic development strategy that would allow the sector to grow.
Canada instead lost ground. Aquaculture production remained largely stagnant and then declined from its 2016 peak as competing producers expanded.
The reversal has been particularly sharp in British Columbia, where farm-raised salmon production has fallen by more than 40 per cent from its 2015 high.
In 2024, the Trudeau government announced that open-net pen salmon farming in B.C. would end by June 30, 2029, following years of pressure from anti-salmon farming groups.
The policy came despite federal science assessments that concluded pathogens from Atlantic salmon farms in B.C. posed no more than minimal risk to the abundance and diversity of migrating wild stocks under existing farming practices.
Industry leaders say the resulting regulatory uncertainty, stemming primarily from political decisions by the Trudeau administration, has stalled investment and accelerated Canada’s growing reliance on foreign salmon.
According to the Canadian Aquaculture Industry Alliance, (CAIA) Canadian salmon imports have more than doubled since 2015 and reached about $700 million annually, with increasing volumes coming from major competing producers such as Chile and Norway.
Tim Kennedy, president and CEO of CAIA, said Barton should remember the opportunity his own council identified.
“The Advisory Council to the Finance Minister that Mr. Barton chaired clearly identified aquaculture as a sector that has great potential for Canada,” Kennedy told SeaWestNews.
“Many of the recommendations were clear and achievable.”
Kennedy said the economic opportunity remains, but Ottawa needs to actively pursue it.
“The opportunity for Canada is still there, but needs to be actively pursued, with a strong positive policy signal from the federal government, the identification of a clear federal departmental champion, and a change in course for British Columbia,” he said.
“This sector can be a major draw for Canadian and foreign investment and innovation and job creation.”
Kennedy added: “It’s time to move forward and Mr. Barton should remember the investment opportunity that lies in our coasts and waters, especially the largely untapped aquaculture potential.”
B.C. salmon farmers and their First Nations partners estimate that with regulatory certainty, the sector could generate about $2.5 billion in annual economic output, contribute $930 million to GDP and support roughly 9,000 jobs by 2030.
That puts salmon farming in B.C. squarely inside the investment challenge Barton has been asked to help address.
Invest in Canada is being given a larger role in attracting global capital and helping investors move from initial interest to projects on the ground. But in B.C. aquaculture, the first challenge may be retaining and rebuilding investment in an established Canadian industry.
Years of licence uncertainty, farm closures and shifting federal policy have made companies increasingly cautious about committing new capital to the province.
That mirrors a broader concern about investment leaving Canada.
A recent RBC analysis found that more than $1 trillion in investment capital exited Canada between 2015 and 2024, with $2 leaving the country for every $1 arriving through foreign direct investment.
Barton’s office said he was travelling and unable to respond before publication to questions from SeaWestNews about whether he still stands behind the aquaculture recommendations of the council he chaired, or whether Invest in Canada would support renewed investment in B.C. salmon farming.
CAIA’s latest data show Canadian aquaculture generated about $6 billion in economic activity in 2024, contributed $2.27 billion to GDP and supported 18,074 full-time jobs.
The sector produced 160,318 tonnes of seafood valued at $1.36 billion in 2024, while aquaculture exports were worth $971 million in 2025. Farm-raised salmon remains the industry’s economic engine, accounting for almost three-quarters of aquaculture employment, with 13,242 full-time jobs in 2024.
Yet Canada remains well below the production levels Barton’s council believed could be achieved. Total Canadian aquaculture production is still about 20 per cent below its 2016 peak, while B.C. farm-raised salmon production remains more than 40 per cent below its 2015 high.
“Canada has everything it needs to be a global leader in aquaculture: resources, expertise and demand,” Kennedy has said.
“What we need now is a policy framework that enables growth. This is about growing Canada’s economy, growing our food system, and growing opportunity in coastal and rural communities.”
That call is being echoed by Kendra MacDonald, CEO of Canada’s Ocean Supercluster, who says Ottawa risks missing a multi-billion-dollar aquaculture opportunity if it continues to let political hesitation and misinformation slow investment.
“We have the natural assets to lead in aquaculture, but if we don’t act with urgency, we will simply miss the opportunity,” she told SeaWestNews, in an earlier interview.
Main file image shows Dominic Barton, the new chair of Invest in Canada.