From the Vancouver Sun – Feb 16, 2011

by John Werring

Re: Alaska’s salmon ranching vs. B.C.’s salmon farms, Letters, Feb. 9
Aquaculture industry advocate Vivian Krause and BC Salmon Farmers
association executive director Mary Ellen Walling can’t seem to agree on
whether governments subsidize their industry.

Krause says they do, citing $4.6 million granted by the federal government in 2009-10. Walling adamantly says they don’t.

Walling’s
denial is curious as she is quoted publicly in at least one source
(Courier Islander, July 17, 2009) defending federal financial support
for her industry.

Krause’s claim is equally dubious. It includes
money from only one source: Fisheries and Oceans Canada. That is just
the tip of the funding iceberg.

A recent academic text, (The
Aquaculture Controversy in Canada, UBC Press, 2010), refers to “the
striking array of direct and indirect subsidies to the aquaculture
industry from Canadian governments.”

It identifies several sources
-like Farm Credit Canada and the Western Economic Diversification Fund
-and estimates annual funding for aquaculture from the federal
government at around $50 million.

Provincial subsidies also are
generous, providing millions of dollars in additional support for
upgrades of equipment, production increases and business promotion.

Public
support for industrial development can be a good thing, but in the case
of aquaculture, it should be spent advancing more sustainable uses of
our public resources, like closed containment.

Other assertions by
Krause and Walling -about numbers of jobs created, industry regulation
and salmon biology -are equally suspect.

John Werring

Aquatic Habitat Specialist, David Suzuki Foundation