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B.C. Liberals Vote To Fast-Track Approval Of Fish Farms.
By admin | November 6, 2004
Canadian Press
Amy Carmichael
Nov. 6, 2004.
Fish farms should be approved along the coast of British Columbia, provincial Liberal party members resolved Friday at a major policy convention.
It was one of few economic motions that passed in a schedule focused largely on social issues around health, education and safe communities.
Delegates blasted Ottawa, accusing the federal government of inaction and red tape they say is stalling the development of everything from a big-gun war on marijuana grow-operations to the fast-tracking of fish farms.
They voted to redouble efforts to convince the federal government to speed up the aquaculture approval process. It can take three years and discourages investment, said North Coast MLA William Belsey.
Party members showed their commitment to the industry by voting down a resolution that asked the province to ban fish farms from areas travelled by migrating wild salmon.
Belsey said aquaculture companies need the freedom to move around and that allowing them to do so will actually protect the environment.
“If we keep them only in one site and make it impossible for them to get another site that they can move their farm to and allow the original site to fallow, they start running into problems.
“We see parasites, we see disease, we see a buildup on the bottom of these pens.”
He said the government should be giving fish farmers five sites and requiring them to rotate their stocks every year or two.
The practice is a must for land farmers if they want to avoid blight and Belsey said the government shouldn’t be surprised when sea lice turns up at aquaculture sites that aren’t rotated.
Concentrations of sea lice have been noted around fish farms on Vancouver Island and the Broughton Archipelago.
Aquaculture outfits are having a hard time getting more sites approved, said Nanaimo MLA Mike Hunter.
He said the federal government takes years to investigate the business proposals, which often face huge public and environmental opposition.
“Fish farming is controversial. There’s a lot of debate out there and a lot of facts that aren’t understood.
“But irrespective of all that I think in this country, when it takes the federal government three years to approve a site, that’s unacceptable.”
Charging ahead with aquaculture development would likely cause more friction with Alaska, where fish farming is banned.
Environmentalists and government officials from the state spoke out against the recent approval of an aquaculture site near the state border.
They are concerned farmed fish might escape and interfere with their wild stocks and spread sea lice.
Despite the concerns of its Alaskan neighbours, the provincial’s government has streamlined its review process. It’s the federal government, said Hunter, that’s dragging its heels and discouraging investment in a legitimate business.
“This is an economic opportunity we haven’t fully exploited,” he said.
While Ottawa slowly files paperwork, bags of money are being harvested not by legitimate farmers, but the people who grow marijuana in B.C., many delegates noted.
In a session with Solicitor General Rich Coleman, they asked the province to at least make sure it is doing everything in its jurisdiction to fight the drug trade.
Coleman told the convention the government is already working on new proceeds of crime legislation aimed at pot growers.
He said it would allow authorities to seize things like homes and cars and put the reverse onus on the suspects in a grow op to show the money used to obtained such goods was earned legally.
Coleman says the bill should be introduced in the spring session of the legislature.
They are also looking at regulating the sale of hydroponic growing equipment, including its advertisement on television.
The party moved on from the serious morning policy discussion, showing in the afternoon it also likes to party.
Delegates watched musical performances and listened to a fireside-style chat between Premier Gordon Campbell and the B.C. Liberal Women’s Commission.
They were looking forward to what promised to be a pep-rally speech by the premier Saturday to get members geared up for the May election.
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