Ottawa challenged on BC salmon aquaculture – Resource Works

July 29, 2025

A new study challenges Ottawa’s plan to ban ocean-based salmon farms—putting science, Indigenous rights, and rural livelihoods at the centre of the conversation.

An important new study finds salmon aquaculture pens in the ocean are no real threat to wild salmon — and has put pressure on the federal government to scrap its planned ban on marine net-pen salmon aquaculture in BC coastal waters. The sector is calling for an end to the plan,announced in June 2014 by the Justin Trudeau government. It called for “only marine or land-based closed-containment systems.”

After a visit from Joanne Thompson, the current federal minister of fisheries, Brian Kingzett, executive director of the BC Salmon Farmers Association, hopes that Ottawa’s closure plan is dead. He said in late July that key salmon-aquaculture firms in BC waters will be forced to close unless Ottawa backs off on its scheme by the early fall. ‘The sector will have to start making decisions in 2026 if we don’t have a signal in the next 60 to 90 days.” He adds: “These are publicly traded companies with capital that can go to any other jurisdiction in the world. We’ve already sent probably a billion dollars of capital — projects that were planned back to Norway.” He says its not just salmon producers who would be hurt. Thousands of jobs would be lost, affecting, among others, 500 First Nations employees in the sector. As well, feed supplies would be disrupted for chicken and pork farmers, who now get protein from processing waste in the salmon industry. “The ripples would be phenomenal.”

Read More: https://resourceworks.com/ottawa-challenged-on-bc-salmon-aquaculture/