“It is ridiculous that our communities have to pay the price for the government's activist driven decisions and poor consultation process…we are done playing this game.” - Isaiah Robinson, Deputy Chief Councilor of the Kitasoo Xai’xais First Nation.

November 28, 2024

First Nations plan their own transition process for B.C.’s salmon farming sector

“It is ridiculous that our communities have to pay the price for the government’s activist driven decisions and poor consultation process…we are done playing this game.” – Isaiah Robinson, Deputy Chief Councilor of the Kitasoo Xai’xais First Nation.

By Fabian Dawson
SeaWestNews

Frustrated by a federal government transition plan fixated on a predetermined ban of marine salmon farms in British Columbia, First Nations leaders said they will enact their own process to take control of aquaculture decision-making in their traditional territories.

The salmon farming First Nations said their approach will prioritize sustainable aquaculture that balances environmental protection with economic benefits and integrate traditional ecological knowledge with modern scientific innovations.

Dallas Smith, spokesperson for the Coalition of First Nations for Finfish Stewardship (FNFFS), told SeaWestNews that both the Federal and Provincial administrations will be invited to the consultation process with Rights Holder Indigenous Governments, to create a responsible transition framework for the sector.

“We’ll have a technical table with experts that will help ensure the right technology is installed in our territories and we’ll bring in the conservation sector, the aquaculture workforce, local communities and other affected stakeholder groups into the consultation process,” he said.

“We will ensure that our transition plan will respect each territories uniqueness and each nation’s autonomy and allow for a realistic amount of time that will encourage business certainty and conservation efforts.”

Smith said he expects the First Nations-led transition consultations will chart its own course as the Trudeau government advances it’s transition plan for ocean-based salmon farms in B.C., which includes a proposed ban on the sector beginning in 2029.

The Trudeau Government in announcing the ban, primarily to appease activist groups, disregarded its own scientific experts and a wealth of peer-reviewed research demonstrating that salmon farming in British Columbia has only negligible impacts on wild stocks.

In Ottawa yesterday, the B.C. Salmon Farmers Association (BCSFA) released a new report that projected taxpayers will be on the hook for an astronomical $9 billion in compensation to existing salmon farmers, suppliers, and First Nations, should the Liberals enact the ban.

The “reckless” ban threatens to wipe out B.C.’s leading agri-food export, destroy 4,560 jobs, harm the livelihoods of over 1,000 Indigenous people connected to the industry, and negatively impact more than 1,400 vendors within the sector’s supply chain across B.C., the report estimated.

The devastating impacts on remote Indigenous communities in B.C., where salmon farming once broke the cycles of despair and suicides is beyond measure, said Isaiah Robinson, Deputy Chief Councilor of the Kitasoo Xai’xais Nation, which has been farming salmon since the 1980s.

“Salmon farming isn’t just about jobs in my nation, it is also the backbone of First Nations communities up and down the coast of British Columbia…This ban will sink us,” said Robinson.

“Without salmon farming, our coastal communities will face generational trauma. Parents will lose their jobs. The youth will leave their territories because there are no opportunities to stay. Families will lose their pride and hope for their future.

“How can we put a price tag on suicides, addictions, overdoses, domestic violence and an increased strain of our already overwhelmed rural health care system? How do you compensate a mother losing her son to suicide? How do you answer children who are growing up watching their communities crumble under poverty? These are real, unmeasurable costs that will ripple across our nations which will be impacted by the Government’s transition plan,” said Robinson.

Robinson and other members of the FNFFS denounced activists, backed by affluent urban elites, who have swayed politicians and certain First Nations groups—most of whom have no direct involvement in salmon farming—to spread misinformation about the aquaculture industry.

“We’re being forced off a path of prosperity and into a path of poverty by people who do not run salmon farms in our territories and who are actively impeding the sovereignty of coastal First Nations in B.C.,” said Robinson.

“It is ridiculous that our communities have to pay the price for the government’s activist driven decisions and poor consultation process…we are done playing this game.”

David Kiemele, Managing Director of Cermaq Canada, one of the top three salmon farming companies in B.C. said his company’s partnership with the Ahousaht First Nation, which has a value of $543 million over a 30-year generational cycle, “is now completely at risk of disappearing.”

The business uncertainty caused by the government’s yet undefined transition plan has led to Cermaq and other salmon farmers like MOWI and Grieg Seafood with operations in B.C. to reevaluate their plans, suspend projects, and redirect investments to regions with more stable conditions for aquaculture.

“I want to be very clear, if these jobs are lost, they are not coming back. These impacts will be generational in British Columbia,” said Kiemele, stressing that 100 percent of B.C.’s farmed salmon is produced in agreement with Rights Holder First Nations.

(L to R) Image from a video screengrab shows Isaiah Robinson, Deputy Chief Councilor of the Kitasoo Xai’xais First Nation, Dallas Smith, spokesperson for the Coalition of First Nations for Finfish Stewardship, David Kiemele, Managing Director of Cermaq Canada and Tla-o-qui-aht First Nation Hereditary Chief Simon Tom.