Canada’s BC salmon farm ban could cost $9 billion

Prepared by RIAS Inc, the report finds that the ban announced in June this year and the current proposed draft transition plan would result in at least CAD9 billion in unnecessary costs to Canadian taxpayers to compensate for the sector’s closure, and to subsidise unproven closed containment technology companies.

Among the losses, the report highlights CAD 1.17 billion in lost economic activity, CAD 435 million in lost GDP, CAD 133.6 million per year lost to First Nations, the termination of 4,560 well-paid, full-time jobs across Canada, and the elimination of a further 50,000 tonnes of farm-raised Canadian salmon.

“The proposed ban is a reckless decision by the Trudeau government that ignores both science and economic reality,” said Brian Kingzett, Executive Director of the BC Salmon Farmers Association. “BC salmon farming companies, suppliers and First Nations within whose territories we operate have communicated to the federal government that transition cannot be a ban on marine net-pen salmon farms in less than five years and maintain a viable farmed salmon sector.”

The report was announced at a press conference in Ottawa by the Coalition of First Nations for Finfish Stewardship alongside David Kiemele, Managing Director of Cermaq Canada, representing the salmon farming sector in BC.

“What wasn’t included in the CAD 9 billion bill to Canadian taxpayers announced is the social cost to First Nations if Ottawa continues to ignore the rights, title, and self-determination of coastal Nations hosting salmon farming in their traditional territories,” said Dallas Smith, spokesperson for the Coalition. “You cannot cut a cheque for the damage that will occur to impacted Indigenous communities if our salmon farming partners are forced to leave BC. This includes increased suicides, overdoses, poverty, and the loss of our rights. Canada can avoid these unnecessary social and economic costs if they let Rightsholder First Nations lead the transition of salmon farming in their territories.”

BCSFA said that BC Salmon farmers have been committed to continuous innovation, and that mandating the sector to transition to unproven technologies in a short time frame ignores the willingness of BC salmon farmers to administer alternative innovations that can achieve the same outcome.

Innovative solutions need to be tailored to unique coastal characteristics and aligned with the goals of the rightsholder First Nations who host salmon farms in their territories, it said.

“Unfortunately, these decisions made by the Trudeau government seem to have been co-opted by well-funded, anti-salmon farming activists, who have spent years pushing the false narrative that salmon farms significantly threaten wild Pacific salmon when peer-reviewed science says it does not,” Kingzett said.

BCSFA noted that federal and independent scientists have repeatedly concluded that salmon farms pose no more than “minimal risk” and long-term data continues to indicate that salmon farms are not a driver of sea lice levels on wild Pacific salmon.

The removal of salmon farms in BC will not impact the population levels of wild Pacific salmon, the association said.

BCSFA and Coalition are urging Prime Minister Trudeau to consider a more realistic, no-cost-to-taxpayers alternative to transition that would achieve the same outcome as a ban without imposing devasting impacts on the sector, on First Nations’ rights, and on coastal communities in BC.

“Given the trade and economic crisis that this country continues to face, there’s an opportunity for the government to pivot to a positive direction on the future of salmon farming in BC,” Smith said. “We are part of the solution.”

BCFA represents over 60 businesses and organisations throughout the value chain of finfish aquaculture in BC. Its members account for over 95% of the annual provincial harvest of farm-raised salmon in BC.

Farm-raised salmon generates over CAD 1.17 billion for the provincial economy.