Read the full transcript here.

Elizabeth May (Saanich—Gulf Islands)
2022-05-30 23:51

Mr. Chair, just by way of opening, I will say that I am basing a lot of these questions on testimony that we heard at the Standing Committee on Fisheries and Oceans. It is an excellent committee with a lot of non-partisan co-operation between members around the table, but I will not cite every witness in every specific question.
I am following up on an earlier question on the climate impacts of extreme weather events and the impacts on fish habitat. We know we have impacts on and threats to Pacific salmon from flooding, wildfires and the destruction of the riparian zones that used to shield the waters to keep them from getting too hot from increased water temperatures. However, I want to focus on what we are going to do to rebuild infrastructure after the November floods in B.C. We could do it wrong and worsen salmon habitat through building dikes and drudging or we could do it right. Some of the expert witnesses suggested that Washington state is where we ought to look for excellence in its flood plains by design program, which works to reduce flood risks while enhancing and restoring salmon habitat.

Can the minister update us on whether DFO is actively pursuing a flood plains by design program?

Hon. Joyce Murray (Vancouver Quadra)
2022-05-30 23:53

Mr. Chair, I absolutely share the concern that it is not just the effects of the flooding, slides and fires, but how we rebuild from them. I mentioned earlier that I am part of the emergency committee of provincial and federal ministers, and each of my and DFO’s interventions has been to make sure the other ministers understand the importance of having fish-friendly rebuilding. We are going to continue to press that point.

Our government provided $5 billion to the province to help rebuild from the flooding in November. That rebuilding has to be done in a way that is fish friendly, so I am going to be asking for a report on what we are doing to ensure that.

I thank the member for her concern.

Elizabeth May (Saanich—Gulf Islands)
2022-05-30 23:54

Mr. Chair, I will move to the problem of what people call aquaculture but my constituents insist I call toxic fish factories, and how we are going to get them out of the water, as the minister’s government promised. Some of the witnesses who testified recently on the science issue questioned why the department, not the minister personally, obviously, has in certain sections suppressed science on viruses and sea lice. The conclusion was that it had to do with the fact that the Fisheries Act structurally has a conflict of interest in both promoting the aquaculture industry and regulating it.

Would the minister be open to looking at the new aquaculture act to eliminate that conflict of interest, have a different department promote aquaculture and have DFO protect wild fish stocks?

Hon. Joyce Murray (Vancouver Quadra)
2022-05-30 23:55

Mr. Chair, we do have a process, the CSAS process, which provides the opportunity for peer review of science. I understand what the member is saying when she says that there has been some recent research that has come out since the CSAS report that determined minimal risk. At a certain point, when there is a body of work that has not been reviewed, I will be requesting that another peer review process take place through CSAS so that we can update our analysis of the risk to wild salmon.
Consideration in a Committee of the WholeDepartment of Fisheries and OceansMain estimates 2022-2023

Elizabeth May (Saanich—Gulf Islands)
2022-05-30 23:56

Mr. Chair, moving on, I was really pleased to hear the minister say that she recognizes that polystyrene is a real problem of plastic pollution in our coastal areas, but I was disappointed to hear that it sounded like DFO is not interested in getting it out of the ocean.
Is DFO working with Environment and Climate Change Canada to improve the regulations currently under review for ocean plastics to put polystyrene’s use in the marine and coastal areas on a list so that we avoid getting it into the ocean in the first place?

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Elizabeth May (Saanich—Gulf Islands)
2020-11-24 22:40 [p.2401]

Mr. Chair, I thank my hon. colleague for splitting his time with me. I also want to make note and thank a previous speaker, the member for Sydney—Victoria. Wela’lin. For people staying up late to watch the main estimates on fisheries, it was an important historical, personal and very relevant step toward reconciliation to understand who Donald Marshall Jr. really was.

I will ask the hon. member a number of questions. They are in the context of my extreme level of panic that Pacific wild salmon are in collapse and that the Department of Fisheries and Oceans does not seem to understand the level of urgency around a multifaceted and multi-layered crisis.
I will focus with my bit of time on some very specific questions.

Based on advice that the fisheries and oceans committee heard before prorogation, the only thing to do with the Big Bar slide to help the salmon in the Fraser River is to get a fish ladder in place. Has the Department of Fisheries and Oceans commissioned and contracted for the engineering and construction of a fish ladder as a permanent solution on the Big Bar slide?

Hon. Bernadette Jordan (South Shore—St. Margarets)
2020-11-24 22:41 [p.2401]

Mr. Chair, with regard to the Big Bar landslide, we have made significant progress but know that more has to be done. We are currently in the process of building a natural fish passageway. That is one of the things that has to be done to make sure we address the concerns in the Fraser River with regard to the slide.

We have been taking a multi-level government approach to this. We have the province behind us, we have worked with indigenous communities in the area and we are going to continue to do everything we possibly can to address this concern.

Elizabeth May (Saanich—Gulf Islands)
2020-11-24 22:42 [p.2401]

Mr. Chair, I take it the answer, then, is no. I would urge the minister to look at the testimony we had before the fisheries and oceans committee specifically from first nations leadership that the only solution, and it is going to be expensive, is a permanent solution with engineering and building a fish ladder. It must done.

I want to move to the issue of recommendation 19 of the Cohen Commission and the Discovery Islands. The minister and I exchanged concerns about this issue during question period some months ago. I am desperately concerned that the Department of Fisheries and Oceans constructed its review of the threat to wild salmon from the fish farms specifically excluding the parasitic effect of the sea lice that escape and affect wild salmon. It did not take those into consideration. Within the minister’s own department, Dr. Kristi Miller has done important work on this, which appears to have been excluded from consideration.

Why is it that we have not taken action, as the Cohen Commission recommended, to protect our wild salmon?

Hon. Bernadette Jordan (South Shore—St. Margarets)
2020-11-24 22:44 [p.2401]

Mr. Chair, first of all, I would like to clarify for my hon. colleague that we actually have contracted for the Big Bar ladder. That is the natural fish passageway. I want to clarify that it has been contracted. We are working on that. We know it is an important part of making sure the salmon are able to traverse the river.

With regard to the Discovery Islands, protecting the wild Pacific salmon is a priority for us, and we recognize the first nations’ historic cultural connection to wild salmon. Our government manages risk from sea lice using a science-based adaptive management approach. This spring, in consultation with our partners, my department revised the licences of marine aquaculture finfish operators in British Columbia to increase the enforceability of licence conditions pertaining to the management of sea lice. That is a step we are taking to address the concerns around sea lice.

With regard to the Discovery Islands specifically and the Cohen Commission, one of the things we heard loud and clear from the first nations in those areas was that we could not make a unilateral decision on the fish farms. They are in their territorial waters, and they wanted to have a say. They knew it was important we make the decision, but they wanted to make sure they were—

Elizabeth May (Saanich—Gulf Islands)
2020-11-24 22:44 [p.2401]

With respect, Mr. Chair, the department had plenty of time to consult between the Cohen Commission report and when we did not take those recommendations.
To the southern resident killer whales, I have had other discussions with the department about the sanctuary areas on Pender Island and Saturna Island. Not a single fine has been levied. No one who has violated the sanctuary for the whales has faced any punishment.

Can the minister commit to a much better and more robust protection of our southern resident killer whales?

Hon. Bernadette Jordan (South Shore—St. Margarets)
2020-11-24 22:44 [p.2402]

Mr. Chair, absolutely, we are committed to making sure we protect this iconic species. We are taking a number of measures to address the concerns that we hear with regard to the southern resident killer whales. We are going to continue to work with stakeholders and environmental organizations to make sure that we are addressing concerns.

This is an iconic species that nobody wants to become extinct. We are going to do everything we can to make sure that we protect it.

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Keeping track of our life in COVID, this week we enter our seventh month of pandemic.

My first sharing of good news for the week is that the New Brunswick Greens decided I could help more by staying in British Columbia and making phone calls and participating remotely.  (phew!)

It is lucky our interim leader, Jo Ann Roberts, is already in the Atlantic bubble. She got to Moncton this week to participate in the launch of all the Moncton area Green campaigns. All the candidates are female, including Jo Ann’s daughter Claire Kelly!

One fun aspect of this little Sunday missive is learning more from readers across Canada. This note was in reaction to last week’s GSM from an old friend in Newfoundland and Labrador:

“….When you hold that whole scene in your mind (Muskrat Falls) beside an image of two oil tankers passing each other, one leaving NL bearing conventional oil and the other bringing us dirty oil from wherever it is cheapest, you have energy idiocy in nutshell, as it were.”

There are so many issues that can be labeled (rightly) as emergencies.  I am blessed that the role of MP allows me to try to make a difference in all of them. Getting our kids back to school safely, stopping the logging of the last old growth, the need for more development assistance for the vulnerable and marginalized in Canada and around the world, and the ever-present and growing climate emergency.

No one can deny one of those flashing red lights on our emergency dashboard is the threat to our Pacific Salmon.  As I mentioned in last week’s letter, prorogation has pulled the plug on the Parliamentary Fisheries Committee hearings into the threat to Pacific Salmon. An August 18th press release from the Tsleil-Waututh, Squamish and Musqueam First Nations proclaimed the collapse of our Sockeye and urged the government to make an emergency order to close all sockeye fisheries on the Fraser River. (Green Party press release in response.)

The press release quotes BC Assembly of First Nations Regional Chief Terry Teegee:  “Fisheries and Oceans recently put the estimated return of sockeye to the Fraser at 283,000. This is the lowest return in my lifetime, and probably the lowest in history… Ten years ago, the Cohen Commission was looking into sockeye decline when we had over a million fish returning. The federal government has clearly not taken this situation seriously – this is a non-partisan issue. Fisheries Minister Jordan needs to declare this stock collapsed and issue an emergency order to close all sockeye fisheries. We don’t have any more time.”

The Cohen Report focused on the threat to wild salmon from toxic fish factories (erroneously called “fish farms.”)  The Liberal 2019 election platform promised to end open-pen aquaculture in BC waters by 2025.  But as time goes by, Minister of Fisheries Bernadette Jordan has restated the goal as coming up with a plan to transition to closed containment by 2025. Not what was promised.

Now, hero of BC’s wild salmon, Alexandra Morton is once again raising the alarm. Minister Jordan has a deadline of September 30 to act to enact Mr. Justice Cohen’s recommendations.

This is from the email she sent yesterday:

“I launched this video last night to let people know that on September 30 the Minister Fisheries has to decide whether to enact or ignore Justice Bruce Cohen’s recommendation #19 –  if we want Fraser River sockeye the salmon farms in the Discovery Islands (off Campbell River) must be removed if they are having greater than minimal impact.  I have included the Minister’s phone numbers so you can let her know that you will be watching whether she finds the salmon of the Fraser River worth saving.

“In my opinion, the minister cannot look at the young salmon migrating through the Discovery Islands and honestly say the risk of the salmon farms to them is ‘minimal.’  I believe DFO has been captured by the Norwegian interests operating farms on this coast and what we are seeing is a scandal that will change this coast forever if we don’t let her know that we are watching how she responds to Cohen recommendation #19.

“Funding for my work has become critical as I continue to do the research and outreach to make people aware that there is nothing we can do for wild salmon if they are not reaching the open ocean.  Thank you to all of you who have become monthly donors, even the smallest amounts are helpful because there is no overhead here… just the work.

I deliberately include Alexandra’s appeal for funds. She is literally living hand to mouth while doing this work for us, while attacked by the likes of Margaret Wente and Vivian Krause, falsely claiming she is well-funded by foreign interests.

Meanwhile, I have sent the Prime Minister, as well as all key ministers, an urgent appeal for immediate action. The following is from my letter to Trudeau of August 26.

“Key measures include:

• Doubling Funding to the British Columbia Salmon Restoration and Innovation Fund;

• Delivering on the platform commitment to phase-out open pen salmon aquaculture operations by 2025;

• Restoring and protecting watersheds all up and down the Fraser and Thompson watersheds;

• Implementing the Wild Salmon Policy;

• Announcing that the platform commitment to plant 2 billion trees will achieve multiple benefits in carbon sequestration, climate adaptation, biodiversity enhancement, job creation and wild salmon habitat restoration, by immediately planting ecologically appropriate trees along slopes in areas of salmon habitat where all vegetation has been wiped out by earlier seasons’ forest fires;

• Removal of poorly sited dikes and flood prevention obstructions in the lower Fraser,

• Action on hatcheries for the most severely depleted stocks (but maintaining a priority on salmon stocks capable of restoration being allowed to recover without competition from hatchery salmon);

• Protection of herring stocks; and

• Addressing a more permanent solution to the rock slide at Big Bar, moving to contract with engineering firms to build fish ladders.

The goal must be resilient watersheds capable of meeting multiple ecosystem goals.  The clock is ticking on saving Pacific Salmon.”

I will keep you posted on the response.  Thanks for all your support and kind notes after my weekly newsletter reaches you. Apologies to those readers to whom I have not had time to send a reply. Please know, all your messages mean the world to me.

Welcome to September!

Love,

Elizabeth

This weekly newsletter is published by Elizabeth’s EDA in Saanich-Gulf Islands. You can sign up for it here.

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“The presence of these freighters anchoring in the Salish Sea is incredibly disruptive to my constituents and the local environment,” said Ms. May. “Transport Canada’s decision to extend the Interim Protocol for the Use of Southern B.C. Anchorages is simply not acceptable.

Paul Manly (MP, Nanaimo-Ladysmith) said that not only are local residents suffering from noise and light pollution, there’s also dust from maintenance work, sewage being dumped into the water and damage to the ocean floor from dragging anchors. “Residents of Thetis Island and Ladysmith are also being affected and they’re calling for an immediate moratorium on these anchorages,” said Mr. Manly.

According to Transport Canada’s website there is no formal process to regulate the behaviour of ships anchored outside port boundaries.

“Residents have not been properly consulted by Transport Canada nor have they been updated on the status of these ships,” said Ms. May. “Surely it would have been common courtesy for Transport Canada to ensure that these early measures occurred? The Salish Sea is a sensitive ecosystem, home to endangered species like the southern resident killer whale whose habitat is being constantly invaded and threatened by the presence of these vessels.

“I therefore ask Transport Canada to have the freighters using southern B.C. anchorages removed by the end of June, when the protocol was supposed to end, and find another solution to traffic jams in the Port of Vancouver. Residents and wildlife should not have to suffer for the mistakes of Transport Canada.”

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c/o Aquaculture Management Directorate

Fisheries and Oceans Canada

14W087-200 Kent Street

Ottawa ON K1A 0E6

March 14, 2018

Re: Consultations on the notice of intent with respect to amendments to regulations for managing movements of live fish

In his mandate letter to the Minister of Fisheries and Oceans, Prime Minister Trudeau directed that the minister’s “overarching goal will be to protect our three oceans, coasts, waterways and fisheries and ensure that they remain healthy for future generations” and particularly to “protect the health of fish stocks… and to support responsible and sustainable aquaculture industries on Canada’s coasts.” The Department of Fisheries and Oceans’ (DFO) intent to amend section 56 of Fishery (General) Regulation (FGR), in total contravention of this mandate, solidifies the DFO’s abrogation of responsibility to protect wild salmon, in this case through the administration of introduction and transfer (I&T) licenses, a process begun under the previous government in 2010.

From 2010 to 2015, the previous government worked to shift full responsibility for fish health from the DFO to the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA), a process being finalized by the current government. In its notice of intent with respect to amending section 56 of Fishery (General) Regulations, the DFO justifies its intention to amend the act by citing this previous shift of responsibility. It argues that given the CFIA’s amendments to the Health of Animals Regulations and Reportable Diseases Regulations and implementation of the final component of the National Aquatic Animal Health Program (NAAHP), it is now “the nationally and internationally recognized lead federal authority for preventing the introduction and spread of aquatic animal diseases in Canada.” Consequently, there is significant program overlap between the CFIA and DFO, which both entities have been working to correct not by ensuring that the DFO continues to issue I&T licenses to intentionally release and transfer live aquatic organisms into fish bearing waters or fish rearing facilities, but instead collaborating “to transition responsibilities from DFO to the CFIA.” The final step in this process is to “amend FGR section 56 to resolve the program overlap.”

The proposed amendment to section 56 would mean that the minister, “when issuing I&T license, would no longer need to consider disease risks that were already being managed by the FCIA through the NAAHP.” To make this change would be an unconscionable repudiation of the Minster and DFO’s duty to protect wild salmon from all threats, including harmful diseases, as laid out both in the Prime Minister’s mandate letter to the Minister and the DFO’s commitment to Canada’s Policy for Conservation of Wild Pacific Salmon (WSP).

In his mandate letter, the Prime Minister sets out that it is the Minister’s responsibility to use “scientific evidence and the precautionary principle… when making decisions affecting fish stocks and ecosystem management.” The issuance of I&T licenses has a direct impact on wild salmon fish stocks and coastal ecosystems, as the introduction of piscine reovirus (PRV) infected farmed salmon into net pens in the ocean has had catastrophic effects on wild salmon stocks.

Furthermore, in the mandate letter, using the same language found in every mandate letter to every Cabinet minister, the Prime Minister commits that “no relationship is more important to me and to Canada than the one with Indigenous peoples. It is time for a renewed, nation-to-nation relationship with Indigenous Peoples, based on recognition of rights, respect, co-operation, and partnership.” And yet the DFO is currently facing a Notice of Application in Federal Court from the ‘Namgis Nation, which is seeking a judicial review of the DFO’s disinclination to test farmed Atlantic salmon for PRV before moving smolts from Marine Harvest Canada Inc.’s hatcheries into open-net farms in their territory. The 2015 decision Morton v. Canada confirmed PRV is a disease agent of enormous potential harm to salmon protection and conservation and prohibits the issuance of I&T licenses to transfer salmon infected with PRV. And yet the FDO are not conducting PRV tests before issuing I&T licenses, threatening both the health of the wild salmon and our relationship with Indigenous Peoples, in this case the ‘Namgis Nation. In their press release regarding the Notice of Application, the ‘Namgis asserted that they felt “the Minister’s PRV policy threatens the ongoing process of reconciliation in Canada” as well as the “already extremely depleted wild salmon populations in their territory, a resource that has sustained them for millennia.”

If it is the Minister’s responsibility to use the precautionary principle to ensure the safety of wild salmon stocks and to prioritize the relationship with Indigenous Peoples, then it must remain the Minister’s responsibility to issue I&T permits that will impact wild salmon stocks and improve the criteria for their issuance by requiring PRV testing of all fish before transfer.

Furthermore, the WSP’s guiding principles, which according to the DFO’s website the department wholly embraces, holds the conservation of wild salmon and their habitats as the highest priority. Given this stated dedication, the intended renunciation of the Minister’s responsibility under section 56 of the FGR to ensure the health of all fish introduced into the ocean is mysterious to me, particularly given that our wild salmon are facing potential extinction and that open-net salmon farms among the greatest threats to their continued survival.

Such was a key finding of the Cohen Commission, a landmark study under the leadership of Mr. Justice Bruce Cohen in October 2012, mandated by the previous government to investigate the decline of sockeye salmon in British Columbia’s Fraser River. It took 3 years and $26 million to develop this report of over 1,000 pages, which included the testimony of scientists, First Nations and the public. The report presented 75 policy recommendations for combating the multiple threats to the survival of British Columbia’s wild salmon, including the need for far more stringent monitoring of local salmon farming operations. Among Justice Cohen’s supporting remarks for his recommendations he wrote:

“I therefore conclude that the potential harm posed to Fraser River sockeye from salmon farms is serious or irreversible. Disease transfer occurs between wild and farmed fish, and I am satisfied that salmon farms along the sockeye migration route have the potential to introduce exotic diseases and to exacerbate endemic diseases that could have a negative impact on Fraser.”

The previous government chose to completely ignore the Cohen report, which it had commissioned at enormous expense to taxpayers. The current government, though proposed amendments like that of section 56, has also demonstrated a lack of active concern regarding the danger to wild salmon stocks reminiscent of that to the tragically foreseen fate of Atlantic cod in the 1990s. This administration has had numerous opportunities to address problem over the past two years, first with Petition E-270, which called on the government to legislate the removal of caged salmon from our oceans. The response was that such action was unnecessary, as existing aquaculture regulations were sufficient. I believe Justice Cohen would beg to differ, as do I. The second missed opportunity was the government’s vote against amendments to the Fisheries Act in Bill C-228 on December 6, 2017. I sincerely hope that the DFO reconsiders this amendment and instead accepts full responsibility for the protection of wild salmon and acts on the immense danger posed to them by open-net farmed salmon.

Thank you for your consideration. I would be happy to meet with the department and staff to discuss these matters further.

Sincerely,

Elizabeth May, O.C.
Member of Parliament
Saanich – Gulf Islands
Leader of the Green Party of Canada

A copy of this submission is available as a PDF here.

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According to a leaked internal memo, three elements of the Salmonid Enhancement Program (SEP) are being cut without proper consultation, and include:

• the education and community support programs;
• the resource restoration components, and
• Steelhead and Cutthroat trout production at hatcheries.

“If true, this decision is devastating to conservation organizations in BC like Peninsula Streams Society that have worked hard in partnership with DFO to save Pacific salmon runs and educate on salmon conservation,” said Ms. May. “I call on Minister of Fisheries and Oceans Dominic Leblanc to reverse these cuts and allow salmon conservation organizations on the Pacific coast to continue their excellent and critical work.”

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The Green Party at the federal level notes that it is another example of the Conservative administration of Stephen Harper failing to build strong relationships with our closest neighbour and largest trading partner.

“The Alaskan wild salmon and tourism sectors are multi-billion dollar industries that would be decimated by a tailings spill. These concerns have been directly conveyed by U.S. officials to both the B.C. Government and Stephen Harper, but they appear to have fallen on deaf ears,” said Elizabeth May, Leader of the Green Party of Canada and MP (Saanich – Gulf Islands). “This mine is a reckless decision that will endanger the environment and the economy of our neighbours.”

The B.C. Government issued a full permit to Imperial Metals (who also owns the Mount Polley Copper Mine) to operate the Red Chris gold and copper mine on June 21, 2015. The mine is located approximately 130 kilometres from the Alaskan border. Several First Nations communities, as well as major Alaskan water bodies, are located downstream of the mine’s tailings sites.

“As we saw with the Mount Polley disaster last summer, tailings technology is far from perfect. A spill at Red Chris would be far more damaging than the Mount Polley spill due to local geological characteristics.” concluded Ms. May. “The federal government should be more engaged in the interests of strong Canada-US relations.”

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