On Friday, April 22, a federal court ruled that Former Federal Fisheries and Oceans Minister Bernadette Jordan breached the rights of B.C. salmon farmers to procedural fairness when she ordered them to phase out operations in the Discovery Islands by June 2022.
Justice Elizabeth Heneghan pointed out that by September 2020, the Canadian Science Advisory Secretariat produced nine scientific reports that concluded aquaculture in the Discovery Islands poses no more than a minimal risk of harm to migrating Fraser River Sockeye salmon.
“The reports were available to the Minister and DFO. DFO does not dispute this conclusion.”
”I do not agree with the minister’s position that the applicants had either constructive or actual notice of her decision regarding renewal of the fish farm licences.”
“I also agree with the applicants that they were denied the opportunity to meaningfully respond to concerns.”
Jordan made her decision after consulting with seven First Nations in the Discovery Islands, but Heneghan states the fish farms, “were not privy to the concerns raised by several First Nations.”
On April 5, 2021, the court granted the industry an injunction that would have allowed them to continue stocking fish farms until the closure date.
Heneghan reversed Jordan’s decision to ignore the imjunction:
“The decision of the minister will be set aside and the injunction granted on April 5, 2021 will remain in effect,” she wrote.
“The applicants have shown that the decision was made in breach of their rights to procedural fairness.”
It is not yet certain what Heneghan’s ruling will mean to the future of the fish farm industry in the Discovery Islands, or the Canadian government’s decision to end open net fish farming by 2025.
As of the end of March, only one of the 19 fish farms in the Discovery Islands was still operational.
The BC Salmon Farmers issued a press release stating they are “encouraged that the Federal Court has set aside the Decision of the Minister to remove salmon farming in the Discovery Islands and has upheld the earlier injunction granted on April 5, 2021. This is a positive development for the coastal Indigenous and non-Indigenous communities in which we operate, and the thousands of family-supporting jobs our sector sustains. We will be reaching out to First Nations in whose territories we operate to review this decision and will have more to say in the following days and weeks ahead.”
This story was compiled from several news reports, and a BC Salmon Farmers Association release, on the web.
Top photo credit: Beneath the surface at the Phillips Arm fish farm (2016) courtesy Ian Roberts of what is now MOWI Canada West.
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