February 28, 2024
A B.C. First Nations group is seeking an “emergency meeting” with Justin Trudeau regarding a transition plan for open-net pen fish farming.
Chiefs of the First Nation Wild Salmon Alliance (FNWSA) say they will be gathering to “expose Department of Fisheries and Oceans (DFO) bureaucrats” at a press conference on Thursday, for “systemically undermining Justin Trudeau’s mandate” on the open-net pen transition planning process.
The federal government has mandated that all open-net pen fish farms will be removed from the Discovery Islands by 2025, and all remaining open-net pen salmon farming in coastal waters will be transitioning to closed containments.
However, in a release, the FNWSA says, “the DFO is failing its fiduciary, constitutional and supreme court directed consultation requirements in the process.”
Stó:lō Tribal Council President Tyhrone McNeil says it is time the prime minister “turn his attention” to what’s happening within the DFO, claiming that the DFO is promoting to “expand open-net pen fish farms at the expense of B.C. wild Pacific salmon.”
“This will eventually lead to making an Aboriginal Right hollow with a substantial financial compensation required,” McNeil adds.
Read More: https://vancouver.citynews.ca/2024/02/28/first-nations-protect-salmon-farming/