Northern Spy
Guru
- Joined
- Feb 5, 2012
- Messages
- 4,092
- Location
- Canada
- Vessel Name
- Northern Spy
- Vessel Make
- Nordic Tug 26
True, but one side is backing out on the agreement to move from current locations so it escalates. Open up negotiations to solve the issue that started this. you live closer than I do so you must have heard about this over the years.
But you don't care one way or the other.
There was no agreement. In 2019 Trudeau issued a mandate letter to the (former) Fishing Minister to order them closed and not renew their licenses. Since then, companies sued the federal government. Separate federal court justices on separate occasions have found that the closures were unfair and with inadequate reason to justify them.
The DFO's own Cohen Commission found that the common conclusion of the nine separate reports submitted to the commission was "that aquaculture in the Discovery Islands poses no more than a minimal risk of harm to the Fraser River Sockeye salmon".
On the other side, NGOs say that the Cohen Commission reports are flawed, and their reports are correct.
It's a typical "he said/she said" situation, that has become way too politicized. Correction. It started as a political issue, and it remains a political issue. I guess it's not so easy to "follow the science" when it goes against one's agenda, and your own court system rules against one's mandates.. Now they rely on the plea to emotion and influencing opinion. I have many issues with Alexandra Morton's methodology of demonizing the fish farm industry.
The $1.5 billion dollar industry employs 6,000 people, many in remote locations. It employs a lot of First Nations people.
I never said I didn't care. I said I have no strong feeling for or against them. Fish farms, like grain and oilseed farming, animal husbandry, logging, mining, and oil production, are a real and (mostly) necessary ugly part of the Canadian economy.
Like others, I dislike clear cuts, I dislike open pit mines, I dislike the generator noise and location of many fish farms. (Somehow agriculture in the prairie provinces gets a pass. Spoiler alert, the prairies have been extensively modified by farming.) Lets include hydropower dams too. But I recognize that these industries are large drivers and providers of Western Canada's economy.
I don't buy into the Pollyanna myth that Canada is not a resource country and remain skeptical of pronouncements from urban dwellers about the evils that exist outside of the city and how they can make them better.
Anecdotally, salmon fishing has never been better since I've lived here for 20 years, and many locals say it is the best it has been in 40 years.
I'm OK with letting the court system, albeit slow, find the right compromise. I think they can do it without meaningless petitions from a largely uninformed or influence biased populace.
That said, I respect your difference of opinion and your right to it.
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