A recently released economic impact report, commissioned by the British Columbia Salmon Farmers Association (BCSFA) found a proposed ban on net-pen salmon farming in British Columbia, Canada, would result in at least CAD 9 billion (USD 6.4 billion, EUR 6.1 billion) in “unnecessary costs” for Canadian taxpayers.
Canada renewed salmon-farming licenses in B.C. in June, effectively setting a five-year time limit on the industry in the province. The Canadian Department of Fisheries and Oceans (DFO) later released its draft salmon aquaculture transition plan in September, which outlined how the government will support the industry and the people and communities affected by its loss.
“These conditions will strengthen protections for wild species and the marine environment while ensuring aquaculture facilities can operate safely during this transition period,” the DFO said in its transition plan.
BCSFA has long opposed the transition plan, which it said sets an unrealistic time period for completely transitioning the industry away from in-ocean farming to land-based farming and ignores science that shows a net-pen ban has little benefit to wild salmon.
“The proposed ban is a reckless decision by the Trudeau government that ignores both science and economic reality,” BCSFA Executive Director Brian Kingzett said.
According to the new report – compiled by RIAS Inc. – the proposed ban will also have severe consequences for the region’s economy, as taxpayers in Canada will wind up paying big if the government follows through on the transition plan’s promise of supporting those affected by the closure.
“It will reverse and harm once positive Indigenous economic development and reconciliation efforts and severely impact employment in areas with a history of underemployment,” the report stated. “An unjustified ban and push to unproven technology on salmon farming in B.C. will reduce Canadian agri-food production by 400 million healthy meals per year, eliminate B.C.’s top agri-food export, destroy 4,560 jobs, and cost Canadian taxpayers at least CAD 9 billion.”
According to the report, the ban would cause a CAD 1.17 billion (USD 832 million, EUR 793 million) reduction in annual economic activity, lower Canada’s GDP by CAD 435 million (USD 309 million, EUR 295 million), and reduce payrolls in the area by CAD 259 million (USD 184 million, EUR 175 million).
The impacts of the proposed ban would affect more than just salmon-farming companies, the report also found.
Tertiary services would also be affected, with the report offering multiple case studies, including Browns Bay Packing Company – which got its start processing farmed salmon in 1989 and has already been forced to scale back because of the DFO’s decision to ban salmon farming in the Discovery Islands.
“When the Discovery Island decision was made in 2019, Browns Bay Packing was forced to cancel its next evolution: a state-of-the-art seafood-processing facility in Campbell River in partnership with local First Nations,” the report said. “This facility would use year-round farmed salmon production to stabilize operations and support multiple seasonal commercial indigenous fisheries that did not have dedicated processing capacity.”
The report also said the impacts on Indigenous communities will be significant.
All salmon-farming activity in B.C. is done in agreement with First Nations groups who hold the rights to the areas being farmed, and the sector directly and indirectly employs over 1,000 Indigenous people with an economic benefit to First Nations groups of CAD 134 million (USD 95 million, EUR 90 million).
The Coalition of First Nations for Finfish Stewardship, formed in 2023 to oppose the net pen aquaculture ban, said those impacts will be devastating to communities in B.C.
“What wasn’t included in the CAD 9 billion bill to Canadian taxpayers announced today is the social cost to First Nations if Ottawa continues to ignore the rights, title, and self-determination of coastal Nations hosting salmon farming in their traditional territories,” Coalition of First Nations for Finfish Stewardship Spokesperson Dallas Smith said. “You cannot cut a check for the damage that will occur to impacted Indigenous communities if our salmon farming partners are forced to leave B.C.”
Aside from the social impacts, the net pen ban could inadvertently result in salmon companies avoiding any investment at their farms in B.C. since there is no incentive to improve if the ban is already set in stone.
“A ban on marine net pens means that most of the innovative technologies being developed and tested by salmon farming companies and other tech suppliers cannot be deployed in B.C.,” the report stated.
The report added that innovative technology could potentially achieve the same outcomes for which the government claims it is banning salmon farming.
“It will take much longer than the five-year time frame set out in the government’s June 2024 transition decision to adopt the right combination of technologies suitable to specific site conditions and characteristics in B.C.,” the report states. “In the absence of near-term stability measures by the government, including movement away from the term ‘ban’ and DFO-initiated regulatory decisions that could result in further loss of production volume, the ability to invest and innovate in B.C. salmon farming will disappear.”
