“We should write a letter to the Premier encouraging the government to reject the committee’s recommendation,” said Port Hardy Councillor Bev Parnham. “They could destroy the industry.”
A formal motion was approved after a discussion, sparking a letter to BC Premier Gordon Campbell.
“Our community is partly sustained by both aquaculture and wild fishery and we have an interest in both fisheries being environmentally and economically healthy,” wrote Mayor Hank Bood. “Council would like to go on record as not supporting the recommendations of the Special Committee as they do not provide viable options to the aquaculture industry.
“The committee could have been the catalyst to bring industry, government and environmentalists into a close, cooperative working relationship,” Bood continued. “Such a relationship could have gone a long way towards establishing British Columbia as a leader in both aquaculture development and environmental protection.”
Parnham’s comments were in response to an open letter to the fish farming industry from the BC Salmon Farmers Association.
BC special committee panned in Port Hardy
CANADA - The salmon farming industry would be destroyed if the recommendations from the Special Committee on Sustainable Aquaculture are accepted, said council.