It’s not about wild first, it’s about votes first
Where
is the application of the precautionary principle to protect wild salmon when
it comes to the Trans Mountain oil pipeline expansion project?
Commentary
By Fabian Dawson
SeaWestNews
The new Liberal political policy plank to
transition all open-net fish farms in British Columbia to land-based facilities
by 2025 is both poached and baked.
Largely copied from the NDP and the Greens,
this policy is reckless and destructive because there is no proven feasible
technology existing for such a large land based transition at this time.
Underlining the sudden announcement by the
Justin Trudeau-led Liberals is a desperate attempt to get urban votes at the
expense of rural livelihoods.
Look a little deeper and you will find that
this Liberal political policy is not only poached but is baked with hypocrisy.
Federal Fisheries Minister Jonathan
Wilkinson, who has all along pledge that any government policy on this matter
will be backed by science-based decision making, is now applying the
“precautionary principle” for his about-face.
He tells Canadian Press the campaign
promise reflects a precautionary approach to a divisive issue in B.C. over the
protection of wild salmon.
“I believe we can get there,” said
Wilkinson, the Liberal candidate in the North Vancouver riding. “The technology
certainly exists. We have a number of years in front of us to get to that point
and I think we will, with goodwill on all sides, be able to get there.”
Wilkinson has also pre-empted the work of
an on-going scientific study by his own people, industry and Indigenous groups, claiming
that it is reasonable to assume the study was heading toward supporting closed
containment.
That is not exactly true.
A draft copy of the study by the technical
working group to continue fostering innovation in ocean farming in B.C.,
concludes that ‘the new technologies discussed in this report, as well as
conventional net pen systems, will all play a role in contributing to global
production of salmon products’
When it comes to the application of the
precautionary principle to protect wild salmon, the Liberals are at best
selective.
The Liberals bought the controversial Trans
Mountain oil pipeline expansion for $4.5 billion last year to overcome opposition
to the project.
There have been several reports characterising the risks posed to wild salmon by a Trans Mountain pipeline spill into the Lower Fraser River or a tanker spill into the Salish Sea.
“With nine species of salmon and trout
spawning in the tributaries of the Lower Fraser River and using the main
channels and sloughs to rear, a spill of diluted bitumen into the river or its
tributaries would be catastrophic, rendering many of these areas unsuitable for
the growth and survival of salmon embryos and fry,” states the Raincoast
Conservation Foundation.
“If the government of Canada does build the Trans Mountain pipeline, it must do so knowing this decision clearly jeopardises Canada’s greatest salmon river and a fish considered the lifeblood of British Columbia,” the group states.
So where is the application of the
precautionary principle when it comes to the pipeline?
Farm-raised salmon is B.C.’s highest valued seafood product, the province’s top agricultural export, and generates over $1.5-billion towards the B.C. economy, resulting in about 7,000 jobs.
The industry abides by stringent environmental regulations and has earned third-party environmental certifications for virtually every farm in B.C.
The open-net salmon debate, steeped in
politics and hijacked by social-media savvy eco-activists, has been raging for
more than two decades on the West Coast.
Despite apocalyptic projections that salmon
farms will decimate all wild salmon stocks on the West Coast, nothing of the
sort has happened.
These extinction reports, many by foreign
funded NGOs, use simplistic notions, to push the assumption that removing
salmon farms from coastal B.C. waters will save wild Pacific salmon, which it
will not.
The bottom line is that there is no credible
scientific evidence to show that fish farms are causing wild salmon declines.
The Justin Trudeau-led Liberals have become
victims of the eco-hype that time and again has been shown to be inconsistent
with the science of open-net salmon farming.
The application of the precautionary policy
on B.C’s sustainable salmon farming industry and not for the Trans Mountain oil
pipeline expansion project tells Canadians one thing.
It’s not about wild first, it’s about votes
first.
(Jonathon Wilkinson Facebook photo)