Last year, your writer noted that the federal Liberals were committed to closing the BC salmon farming industry. Three weeks ago, they began the process and closed down 19 fish farms near Campbell River on Vancouver Island. That follows the closure of salmon farms on Broughton Inlet on the west coast of the island. In both cases, the feds never bothered to consult with the industry and workers affected by the closures. The feds stated that closures resulted from consultation with seven First Nations, most of whom are not involved in the fish farming business. There is no surprise there; federal Liberals are infamous for consulting only with folks who agree with their predetermined policy decisions.Such major closures have an inevitable impact on the remaining industry as it makes processing plants, fish transportation and related service industries uneconomic and subject to closure. That makes remaining open-net fish farms unviable, so they too will likely close. The federal Liberals want the entire industry gone by 2025. Also gone will be the 7,000 jobs and close to a billion dollars in economic activity. The feds coldheartedly refer to those job losses as a transition and try to deflect the consequences by throwing out smokescreens of delusions. Those include the usual pie in the sky promises of more green economy jobs. The other cruel deception is that sustainable land-based salmon farms will be built in BC coastal communities that lost all those jobs and revenue. I suspect even economics-ignorant federal Liberals and NDP know that will not happen in any impacted areas. The only reason open-net salmon farms are located in remote BC coastal areas is that the open net production process is the cheapest way to raise farmed salmon. Once you remove the only economic advantage to being there, the operators will quit and not return. They will move to other coastal areas in the world where governments welcome the jobs and economic activity. Federal Liberals, in their duplicitous political machinations, stated that they want to transition the industry to locally-based land-based fish farms. Virtually anybody connected to the fish farming business knows that there is no economic business case to be made for any land-based fish farming anywhere in BC. High tech massive land-based fish farms are being built, but in Indiana, Florida and California, even one is being considered for Ontario. They are in those areas because they are closer to main consumer markets and are being built in jurisdictions that are much more business-friendly than eco-socialist NDP BC. Global fish farming businesses are investing up to $100 million for each high-tech facility. They are the future and involve closed water systems, GE salmon, more favourable climates, plant protein feed sources and outstanding economies of scale. They are more expensive to operate than open-net farms, but technology will mitigate that over time. New open-net fish farms are opening in Chile, but they are far from major consumer markets. In true political hypocrisy, the federal Liberals are trying to encourage new open-net salmon operations in Atlantic Canada, but severe winter weather conditions make that a most difficult alternative.What is astonishing is that the BC and federal NDP party support the closure of the open-net fishery and the subsequent loss of 7,000 jobs on Vancouver Island. Neither has condemned the federal action and job losses. Amazingly the area affected by this economic devastation is represented by the NDP federally and provincially what were these voters thinking. Lest we forget, the NDP still self-righteously claims to be the workers party just not open net fishery workers or any resource worker for that matter. BC commentators state the closure situation is a victim of the crossfire between federal Liberal and NDP political-strategic maneuvering to garner votes in Vancouver and Victoria. Both parties are trying to out-green each other to capture urban eco-socialist votes. How callous and brutal can governments be that they are prepared to sacrifice the livelihoods of thousands of workers in the name of green political correctness and political power. Of course, we in Alberta know all about the political ruthlessness of federal liberals and their NDP allies. Both national parties are determined to wipe out our resource-based economy to appease the sacred privileged elitist voters of urban eastern Canada. To those folks on Vancouver Island now being hung out to dry by the ruthless federal Liberals and NDP welcome to the club.
Will Verboven is an ag opinion writer and ag policy advisor.
Like Loading...
Related
Continue reading here:
