And some say we have accomplished nothing, what will the come back be this time from the PAPG?
Aqua Lobbyists Rewrote Fish Act, Senate Committee’s Told
Aquaculture lobbyists are responsible for a rewrite of the Fisheries Act that fails to provide a “fair balance” on environmental protection, says a Conservative senator. The remarks came as the Department of Fisheries acknowledged public protest has prompted rewording of regulations favouring aquaculture companies.
“It’s difficult for me to believe that you haven’t turned this almost entirely over to the industry,” said Senator Thomas McInnis (Nova Scotia); “I don’t see that balance. There is a tremendous public outcry of concern and uncertainty with respect to aquaculture.”
The fisheries department proposes to amend section 36 of the Fisheries Act that bans dumping of any “deleterious substances” in fish habitat. Aquaculture operators have sought repeal of the section as a barrier to pesticides on fish stock.
Speaking at hearings of the Senate fisheries committee, Senator McInnis said regulators failed to address environmental worries and appeared to defer to lobbyists. “The Department of Fisheries and Oceans is a major department, and what I see is that you’re turning it over,” he said.
“It is not fair balance,” said McInnis. “I know that it came from the industry, and that’s fair. They have a right to lobby, but this is not as clean-cut as you make it, and that’s the problem.” McInnis is former president of the Association for the Preservation of the Eastern Shore, founded in 2012 in Sheet Harbour, N.S. to protest local licensing of offshore pens by Snow Island Salmon Inc.
Regulators last August 23 first detailed Fisheries Act amendments to sanction the use of licensed pesticides in aquaculture providing that companies take “measures to mitigate detriment to fish” and report any “unusual fish morbidity”. A senior official said the amendments remain “the centerpiece of the department’s broader aquaculture regulatory reform agenda”, but are being revised amid protest.
“In some respects they are a response to industry lobbying to be sure,” said Michael Alexander, assistant deputy minister. Alexander explained that draft regulations for companies “talked about their ability to self-report. Many of the comments that were received through the consultation period focused on that very point, and that is one of the items we’re looking at.”
“We have been looking at alternatives,” Alexander said. “Maybe just any mortality of fish that is in the area must be reported, not ‘unusual’ mortality or morbidity, not to leave it up to them to decide. These are the sort of changes that we are currently examining.”
‘Nobody Else Gets Special Treatment’
The Canadian Aquaculture Industry Alliance has appealed for the amendments, citing current regulations as a barrier to growth. “It’s a farming industry; we’re not fishing,” Ruth Salmon, executive director, earlier testified at the fisheries committee; “Canada now only accounts for 0.2 percent of global aquaculture production”; “Why have we flat-lined? The principle challenge confronting our sector is the complicated set of regulations that restrict growth and limit investment.”
However several witnesses opposed to Fisheries Act amendments described Canadian aquaculture as a marginal, subsidized business reliant on preferential treatment. “Look at what’s driving this – concerted industry lobbying,” said Robert Johnson, of the Halifax-based Ecology Action Centre; “It’s no small thing. It’s a big game-changer. No other industry gets special treatment to put harmful substances directly into our Canadian bays and harbours.”
Biologist Michal van den Heuvel of the University of Prince Edward Island said the aquaculture amendments would “decriminalize” polluting of waters and pass regulation to provinces. “Let’s face it, the provincial legislation has fewer teeth,” said van den Heuvel; “I say this is essentially a get-out-of-jail-free card. I don’t say that lightly. I think release of these illegal compounds is criminal.”
The critics were among 124 scientists to co-sign a February 17 petition to cabinet demanding withdrawal of the amendments. Ecology Action’s Johnson cited federal data that aquaculture companies employ some 4,000 Canadians nationwide, and benefit from subsidies: “The industry, under a fundamentally flawed model, has been very poor at creating jobs,” he said.
Health Canada last year confirmed payments of $92.7 million to compensate aquaculture firms for diseased fish. The payments were made over three years to salmon farmers in British Columbia, Nova Scotia and Newfoundland & Labrador.
By Paul Delahanty
Author
Topic: Get your facts straight? (Read 1342022 times)