Campbell Government Stands by MLA's Call to Abandon Commercial Fishery
VICTORIA – The Campbell government today refused to renounce Liberal MLA Ron Cantelon’s statement to local media that the commercial salmon fishery should be abandoned.
Scott FraserNew Democrat MLA Scott Fraser challenged Agriculture Minister Pat Bell in the legislature to denounce Cantelon’s comment, quoted in a local newspaper, that we should promote fish farming and “stop hunting [salmon] commercially for food.”
“According to the member for Nanaimo-Parksville, not only is this government not going to implement the aquaculture committee's recommendations, but [he] suggested that B.C. would be better off ending the commercial wild fishery,” Fraser said in the legislature.
“My question is a simple one to the Minister of Agriculture: is it his government's policy or plan to bring an end to the commercial fishery in favour of fish farms?”
Bell refused to provide a meaningful answer to Fraser’s questions, saying that fisheries licensing is the responsibility of the federal government; he also refused to denounce Cantelon’s comments.
“If the Campbell government really cared about protecting wild salmon stocks, they would agree to fallow the fish farms in the Broughton Archipelago,” Fraser, the MLA for Alberni-Qualicum, said following question period.
Cantelon, who was the deputy chair of the Special Committee on Sustainable Aquaculture, also said that the moratorium on fish farms on the north coast is likely the only recommendation of the committee that will be implemented, telling the media that “I don’t anticipate any other recommendations being implemented.”
When reporters questioned Cantelon this afternoon about his comments, the MLA at first suggested he was misquoted but then later stood by his quotes as published by the Parksville Qualicum Beach News.
Carole James and the NDP have been pushing the Campbell government to work with the industry to make aquaculture sustainable and provide long-term jobs.
