FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
OCTOBER 20, 2011

NDP: MINISTER OF FISHERIES AND OCEANS MUST TAKE ACTION TO PROTECT BC SALMON

OTTAWA – Today in Question Period, NDP Fisheries and Oceans critic Fin Donnelly hammered Minister of Fisheries and Oceans Keith Ashfield on his government’s lack of response to reports of a potentially deadly salmon disease Infectious Salmon Anemia (ISAV) in British Columbia’s Pacific Ocean.
 
“While our US counterparts in Washington State are proposing amendments to an appropriations bill that would launch an emergency research effort into the risks and threats of the discovery of ISAV in our shared Pacific waters, our Minister of Fisheries and Oceans continues to sit on his hands,” said Donnelly. “Their lack of action on this important issue is becoming an embarrassment on the international stage.”
 
Donnelly wrote to the Minister of Fisheries and Oceans in July, asking what measures were in place to determine and detect if ISAV, salmon leukemia, marine anemia or any other disease harmful to Canada’s wild salmon are present on the Pacific coast or at any stage of the industrial process. Months later the Minister responded with a letter outlining aquaculture management and a factsheet that claims that “no cases of ISAV have been identified in British Columbia.”

On Tuesday, Donnelly questioned the Minister in the House of Commons on what action the government has taken. The Minster offered a non-response and instead chose not acknowledge the emerging issue of ISAV.
 
“The Department of Fisheries and Oceans needs to take immediate action to determine the existence of this potentially devastating virus in BC waters,” said Donnelly. “While the Minister decides where to cut another $57 million from the department’s budget, he refuses to address the health of our already struggling wild salmon.”