Tag Archives: Tlowitsis Nation

Politics, Rivers & Oceans

The future of 3 wharves within Area C

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It has been nine years Transport Canada (TC) transferred administration of three wharves in Discovery Islands-Mainland Inlets (Area C) to the Strathcona Regional District (SRD). The SRD was also given $2.9 Million for maintenance and upgrades that were to be completed before November 2024. The work was not done and now the cost of upgrading the wharves Owen Bay on Sonora Island, Surge Narrows on Read Island, and Port Neville on the northern shore of the Johnstone Strait, has risen.  

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Politics

Mawhinney: Centering decisions on Island Values

“One of the core messages and core reasons that I am running for Regional Director is because I want decisions to be centered on island values. To me, island values are respect for First Nations, long term sustainability, also the rural nature that we all love. That’s why we live here. Quadra Island has a rich history of volunteerism. The role of the director is really to be an advocate for the majority of the community at the Strathcona Regional District (SRD),” said Robyn Mawhinney who hopes to be elected Regional Director of Area C (Discovery Islands and Mainland Inlets) on October 15th, 2022.

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Politics, Rivers & Oceans

DFO approves three fish farm expansions in Clayoquot Sound

(Part 1 of 2, click here for Part 2)

Fisheries and Oceans Canada (DFO) is in the midst of consultations about the immediate future of fish farms in the Discovery Islands and transitioning the open net pen industry out of coastal British Columbian waters by 2025. But DFO approved the expansion of Cermaq Canada’s farms at Bawden Point, Millar Channel and Dixon Bay in Clayoquot Sound.

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Indigenous Nations, Rivers & Oceans

The First Nations calling for a renewal of fish farm licenses

Editor’s note: The licenses for 79 fish farms will come up for renewal by the end of June, 2022. If the Department of Fisheries fails to reissue them, there will only be seven farms left in the province. These are all in the Broughton Archipelago and their licenses come up for renewal in 2023. 

On March 21, a group of what was supposedly 17 First Nations supporting the fish farming industry put out a press release. Cortes Currents is not on the First Nations for Finfish Stewardship email list, and at that point had not heard of the group. We subsequently asked Dallas Smith, spokesperson for this coalition, for an interview. When he did not reply, Cortes Currents published a write-up largely based on that original press release. Within hours of posting a link through social media, someone directed Cortes Currents to independent biologist Alexandra Morton’s Facebook page where there was evidence that this group of 17 was at best 12 and more likely 11 First Nations. Since then, the list has grown smaller. 

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Indigenous Nations, Rivers & Oceans

The Ugly Side of “Beautiful Fish”

Traditional territory of both the Tlowitsis First Nation (who support fish farming) and Ma’a̱mtagila Nation (who are against it)

By Desiree Mannila, originally published on the Watershed Sentinel

A proposal for five new fish farms off the north coast of Vancouver Island has sparked disappointment for ocean protectors who achieved the phase-out of seventeen fish farms in the Broughton Archipelago in 2019. The farms are being proposed by John Smith from Tlowitsis First Nation, in partnership with Grieg Seafood. Smith is attempting to rezone the Chatham Chanel to allow these farms.

The proposal is in direct opposition to the work that wild fish advocates have done to remove the farms from their territories. Decades of work has resulted in the federal government committing to creating a phase out plan by 2025, as well as a promise from the Government of British Columbia to establish rigorous new rules for renewals of salmon farm tenures in BC waters past 2022. The proposal is a shock to the 102 Indigenous communities that signed a petition in 2019 demanding farms be removed from their territories.

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