Tag Archives: Standing committee on Fisheries and Oceans

Rivers & Oceans

Fish fight over West Coast licences and quota resurfaces at federal committee

Canada’s National Observer, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

A parliamentary committee investigating whether corporations and foreign owners have a stranglehold on Canadian fisheries is experiencing a serious case of deja vu. 

Witnesses speaking about the dire straits faced by commercial fish harvesters and coastal communities on the West Coast are raising the same issues first presented to the Standing Committee of Fisheries and Oceans (FOPO) starting in 2018. 

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Rivers & Oceans

Fisheries and Oceans Canada faces deluge of calls to improve ‘suspect’ science

Canada’s National Observer, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

The Department of Fisheries and Oceans is being flooded with calls for change after a parliamentary committee examined how the federal agency conducts, interprets and acts on its own science. 

The investigation ended with 49 recommendations to address concerns about how DFO science is presented to the fisheries minister and the public before important political decisions are made — particularly those involving B.C. salmon farms or commercial fisheries on either coast. 

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Indigenous Nations, Rivers & Oceans

Recommendations from the Standing Committee on Fisheries and Oceans

Originally published on by the Parliament of Canada

As a result of their deliberations committees may make recommendations which they include in their reports for the consideration of the House of Commons or the Government. Recommendations related to this study are listed below.

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Rivers & Oceans

Waiting for DFO to decide the fate of open-net pen fish farms

Sometime in the next three weeks, Canada’s Minister of Fisheries, Joyce Murray, will decide whether the licenses for 79 fish farms will be renewed. 

“I heard a rumour that the minister laid out her options or her ideas to cabinet and cabinet has the plans right now. They’re  figuring out what to do. We can expect an announcement quite shortly on the plan around the transition of farms out of British Columbia and also the licensing decision,” said Stan Proboszcz, senior scientist with the Watershed Watch Salmon Society.

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Rivers & Oceans

Pro Fish farm scientists respond through Globe and Mail

On Friday, May 27, a group of pro-fish farm scientists responded to recent testimonies before the House of Commons Standing Committee on Fisheries and Oceans through an opinion article in the Globe and Mail. 

Four of the authors are from British Columbia. 

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