Tag Archives: Salmon

BC Environment Minister Terry Lake addresses his government's ever-changing stance on Enbridge amid what has been a perplexing couple of weeks on the environment in BC(photo: Ward Perrin , PNG)

Enbridge Flip-Flops, LNG Pipeline, New Salmon Farm in Clayoquot Perplexing

Energy and Resources, Oil&Gas, Pipelines and Supertankers, , , , ,
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Today is a day of perplexity.

I’m perplexed at a notice I received asking me to join a protest against a proposed Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) pipeline near Smithers. This line is designed to transport northeast BC natural gas from a junction point at Summit Lake, north of Prince George, to Kitimat for processing into LNG so it can be shipped to Asian markets. It has flown largely beneath the radar, perhaps because the NDP Opposition haven’t opposed it.

What are the risks posed? Are we talking wildlife migration paths? Do spills pose a threat? Who is doing it and what sort of approvals do they require? When was the application? Were there public meetings, and if so where and what was the reaction?
 
I’m perplexed at the provincial government’s apparent imminent approval of a new fish farm in Clayoquot Sound. How can this possibly be done before the Cohen Commission report comes out? Has no one in that catastrophic government in Victoria read the recent and growing evidence of serious disease endemic to fish farms? It strikes me that approving a fish farm before Mr Justice Cohen issues his report is like Israel building houses on conquered land – an effort to create faits accompli on the theory that once approved, it will be difficult to dismantle them.
 
This government is not only incompetent – we can recover from that – but without a conscience or a soul, without the ability to know right from wrong.
 
I’m perplexed at the flip in the recent opinion column by the Vancouver Sun’s Barbara Yaffe on the proposed Enbridge pipeline. Several weeks ago, after months of approving the proposition, Barbara concluded, on the evidence that had recently come out on the company’s disastrous spill in the Kalamazoo River, that it was unsafe to build the line.
 
Today (July 31) she’s talking about the parties sitting down and negotiating about money to be paid to BC.
 
In the Vancouver Sun, same edition, Craig McInnes, who’s bringing some common sense to that paper, makes the obvious but little stated observation that with the Enbridge pipeline: “A, there is a risk and B, we are willing to accept the risk of a catastrophic spill if we get paid enough.”
 
He goes on to say, “As a Canadian who treasures our physical environment regardless of where the political boundaries lie, I find that equation to be unacceptable.”
 
Amen.
 
Then I’m perplexed with former federal Environment Minister David Anderson’s approval of Premier Clark demanding more money for a project Anderson has just stated his unchangeable opposition to.
 
Mr. Anderson, I know you don’t like me from another movie, but please take my advice and read Mr. McInnes’ column referred to above.
 
I’m perplexed that no one seems to care about Kinder Morgan’s proposed massive increase to pipeline volumes and tanker traffic through Vancouver in environmental terms.
 
I’m also perplexed that Premier Clark isn’t also claiming a greater share of the revenue from the Kinder Morgan lines, existing and, if approved, future lines.
 
I will be dealing with Clark’s position in next Monday’s TheTyee.ca but suffice it to say that in Canada we have free passage of goods and resources through neighbouring provinces. Ms. Clark evidently, to add to the sum of her massive ignorance, doesn’t understand that and fails to put herself in Alberta Premier Redford’s shoes and fails to ask what she, Clark, would do if Alberta demanded a share of BC royalties and stumpage on our resources in exchange for passage through Alberta.
 
In the non-perplexed department I commend Grand Chief Stewart Phillip’s clear and unequivocal stand against Enbridge and his statement that First Nations will, if the project is approved, blockade it.
 
Frankly, I’m perplexed that we’re still debating these issues and that our governments haven’t put an end to them, once and for all.

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Alexandra Morton laid out the case against salmon farms and their diseases to an audience of 200 at the Royal Vancouver Yacht Club on Monday

J’Accuse!…Fish Farmers and Our Governments

Oceans, Salmon Farming and Aquaculture, , ,
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In 1894 a French army officer, Alfred Dreyfus, was convicted of treason and sent to Devil’s Island prison.
 
In 1896 a Paris journalist, Emile Zola, printed an article called “J’Accuse!”, which tore apart the case and led eventually to his pardon – which he accepted because he was dying on the vicious tropical Devil’s Island – and he was exonerated to serve, gallantly though sick and old in combat in World War I. An Alsatian Jew, Dreyfus was seen by the military establishment automatically to be suspected.

Last Monday night, along with 200 others, I listened to Alexandra Morton outline the loss of our salmon and carefully and surgically weave together the case against the fish farm industry, the provincial government and the federal Department of Fisheries and Oceans.

The case goes back 12 years and mirrors the Campbell/Clark administration.
 
First it involved escapees from fish farms crowding native salmon on their spawning grounds, something that continues but became less relevant as Alexandra discovered that hundreds of thousands of wild salmon smolts were being slaughtered by lice from fish farms sited on their migration routes. Lately Alexandra has concentrated on diseases imported into our waters by farmed fish.
 
J’accuse both senior governments of deliberately avoiding this issue.
 
Before going further let me stress a fact that is of great importance but overlooked.
 
When I started helping Alex, my veterinarian, the estimable Moe Milstein, took me aside and said “Rafe, I don’t know anything about that particular issue but I can tell you that when you take huge numbers of animals and coop them up, disease on a massive basis is inevitable.”
 
From the outset, Alex was stonewalled by the Department of Fisheries and Oceans and by the provincial Department of Agriculture, Food and Fisheries.
 
Study after study was produced, all being peer-reviewed in prominent scientific journals, yet Alex was pilloried and threatened with jail.
 
World class ocean scientists everywhere praised her work and supported her scientific methodology. She continued to be harassed and insulted by government and industry alike.
 
As Alex presents her case on disease in fish farms and the impact on wild salmon you begin to wonder – isn’t this where DFO steps in?
 
As she moves on – surely the DFO gets involved now!
 
But the presentation proceeded to stunningly make the case that these diseased fish farms are slaughtering entire runs of wild salmon, but nary a move by the DFO, the federal Environment Department, the Provincial Ministry of Agriculture or Ministry of Forests, Lands and Natural Resource (which now controls tenures for fish farms).

It’s worse than mere neglect – while all this is going on, not only does DFO stand idly by but the Minister is globe-trotting, flogging farmed salmon in potential markets. The provincial Agricultural Ministry, rather than pulling licenses, is considering granting new ones!
 
J’accuse the fish farm industry of deliberately destroying millions of Pacific salmon with their Atlantics. They have hidden their documents, dissembled at every turn, admitted that their farms ought not to be sited near migration paths while expanding their operations and markets.
 
J’accuse the Province of ignoring worldwide science while renewing fish farm licenses and issuing new ones.
 
J’accuse the Department of Fisheries and Oceans of gross neglect of its statutory mandate to protect Pacific Salmon and, quite to the contrary, shilling for industry.
 
J’accuse the DFO of wilfully ignoring (or worse) the ever increasing scientific evidence of fish farms infecting large runs of wild salmon.
 
J’accuse every federal fisheries minister since 2001 of gross neglect of his/her duty to care for the wild pacific salmon. J’accuse these ministers of forcing DFO scientists to make political decisions paramount over scientific evidence.
 
J’accuse the Department of Fisheries and Oceans and Province of avoiding inspection of fish farms, which would have, without question, led to prosecutions.
 
J’accuse DFO, under political orders, of suppressing evidence and muzzling DFO scientists.
 
J’accuse the mainstream media of abdicating its responsibility to hold the governments they cover accountable and indeed looking for all the world as if they were promoting fish farms.
 
J’accuse both senior governments of failing to apply the Precautionary Principle, which would require fish farms to demonstrate they would not harm the wild salmon, instead of forcing those who care for the environment to establish their case against the farms.
 
This is a huge issue – in fact it goes to the root of the matter.
 
The Precautionary Principle is embedded in Canadian law and is sanctioned by the UN. Why shouldn’t industry be required to demonstrate beyond a reasonable doubt that what they will do will not harm the environment?
 
Why should Alexandra Morton, who as a result of her decades-long fight is in straitened circumstances, be required to fund the research and carry the burden of proof? 
 
We are fools on an international scale. Those countries which have had experience with fish farms, namely Norway, the UK and Ireland, see us as idiots.
 
A few years ago I was a guest of Dr. Patrick Gargan, a world renowned fish biologist who has consistently verified Alex’s work, in Galway, Ireland, where he has his laboratory. Wendy and I were guests in his lab, and his senior technician, on learning I was from BC asked, succinctly, “Can’t you fucking well read out in Canada? Don’t you know what’s happened in Norway, Scotland and here in Ireland?”
 
Alexandra Morton is a hero and should be recognized as such throughout the nation – a nation that gives Orders of Canada to crooks while trying to put her in jail.
 
I’ve known Alex for over a decade and see the tremendous personal sacrifice she has made, to say nothing of the huge financial sacrifice.
 
Every step of the way – from escapees to sea lice to disease – she has been hassled, slandered, insulted and ignored.
 
Every step of the way she’s been proved right.

We are left, right now, with the two senior governments, especially Ottawa, still in denial and with Alexandra Morton doing all the work they should be doing and paying out enormous amounts for the research DFO should be doing.
 
All the while, the mainstream media ignores these issues while giving the Fish Farmers ample opportunity to attack Alex’s credibility.

This gallant lady who came to the Broughton Archipelago to study whales, became dedicated to saving wild salmon – and her thanks has been shit and abuse from the authorities.

For shame!

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Heavy Metals, Acid Mine Drainage a Threat to Pacific Salmon Watersheds

Heavy Metals, Acid Mine Drainage a Threat to Pacific Salmon Watersheds

Metals and Minerals, Mining,
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Heavy Metals, Acid Mine Drainage a Threat to Pacific Salmon Watersheds

Heavy metals and sulfuric acid, otherwise known as battery acid, or acid mine drainage, are toxic for wild salmon. That should be obvious, but after Bill C-38 – the federal budget implementation bill which “streamlined” environmental assessments, gutted environmental protection agencies, and virtually eliminated local spill response capabilities – the future of British Columbia’s best remaining salmon rivers and watersheds is uncertain. The possibility of mine pollution leaching into fish habitat and spawning grounds is a real and long-term threat. In fact, it’s already happening. For a glimpse of the future of Pacific salmon watersheds, you may need to look no further than the sordid case of Chieftain Metals and the Tulsequah Chief mine in the Taku River watershed in northwestern BC.

The Taku River flows from BC into Alaska and is the largest totally intact watershed on the Pacific coast of North America. It also contains an old mine site, the Tulsequah Chief, which was abandoned in the 1950’s. For over half a century the mine has slowly leaked contaminated water into the best spawning grounds on the highly productive Taku River.

Recent attempts to re-develop the mine – first by Redfern (which went bankrupt in 2009), then by Chieftain Metals (a company co-founded by the former CEO of Redfern) – brought the promise of cleaning up the site. Sadly, it was a false promise. On June 6, 2012, Chieftain Metals announced its intent to close the Interim Water Treatment Plant installed at the Tulsequah Chief site in November 2011 to address chronic acid mine drainage and heavy metals pollution. The company will now be violating its discharge permit, and contaminants will again seep into the river.

What happens now is anyone’s guess. At this time, Chieftain can’t afford to run the water treatment plant. The mine proposal, including a 122 km road through the currently roadless watershed, is fraught with financial and logistical problems and a dwindling social license from the residents of Atlin and the Taku River Tlingit First Nation.

Now is the time for the governments of BC and Canada to step in. If both governments choose to look the other way on the noncompliance by Chieftain Metals, it will show that neither government has any real interest in salmon habitat and fisheries conservation issues.

The stakes are high. The situation facing the Taku River may be a future scenario for the transboundary region as a whole. Along with the Taku River, the Stikine, Iskut and Unuk Rivers support robust populations of all five North American species of Pacific salmon, which sustain commercial, sport, and subsistence fisheries in both BC and Alaska. All of these latter three rivers are threatened by proposed mining projects that dwarf the Tulsequah Chief by several orders of magnitude.

BC Hydro’s Northwest Transmission Line (NTL), a 287 kV power line running 344 km north from Terrace to Bob Quinn on Highway 37 near the Iskut River, is currently under construction in the transboundary region. Billed as a “gateway” project to further industrial development, the power line could lead to the construction of up to 11 new mines.

Most all of these proposed mines, such as Red Chris, Kerr-Sulphurets-Mitchell, and Schaft Creek, are huge open pit copper and gold mines that would leave behind millions of tons of waste rock that would need to be treated for acid mine drainage for centuries to come.

Ingesting even minute amounts of copper makes salmon more susceptible to predation. Ingesting sulfuric acid – created when the mining process exposes sulfide minerals to water and air – is acutely toxic for salmon. In a region that has heavy snows, frequent avalanches and seismic activity, the potential for an industrial accident is high. This poses an unacceptable risk to internationally significant salmon habitat.

In the post-Bill C-38 Canada, our nation’s environmental protections have been greatly weakened. But as renowned Canadian scientist Dr. David Schindler has said, “All species, including humans, require functioning ecosystems based on healthy habitats. It is the explicit role of government to find the balance between protecting this habitat and encouraging sustainable economic growth – not to pit them against one another.”

The transboundary region is a place where government can still try and get it right.  They can start by stepping up and forcing a cleanup of the Tulsequah Chief mine site. Failure to do so would send a signal that both federal and provincial governments have chosen to abdicate their responsibility to protect our environment, and that pollution risks to Pacific salmon watersheds will likely continue to grow.

Tadzio Richards is the Canadian Transboundary Conservation Campaigner for Rivers Without Borders

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John Weston, Conservative MP for West Vancouver-Sunshine Coast-Sea-to-Sky Country has let down his most vocal constituent, Rafe Mair

Another Open Letter to MP John Weston on Tankers, Salmon – from his Constituent, Rafe Mair

Canada, Politics, Western Canada, ,
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John,

When we met at the meeting at the North Vancouver church last night, on pipelines and tankers, you mentioned that we have known one another for some years ,as we indeed have. Far from having any dislike of you, my feelings are quite the opposite. I often remember the tour you took me on of Boston when I came to address the Harvard Canadian Club, of which you were a member.
 
I’m going to get right down to cases. You have disappointed me in that I thought that you might just buck the system and stand up for your province but you have manifestly failed.
 
You said last night that you voted for Bill C-38 because it would enhance “process” around fish habitat. That was a lie, John, and I’m surprised that a good Christian would make such an egregiously false statement. You voted for C-38 because you had to – just as one of your colleagues did after expressing some public concerns. The truth of the matter is this was the Budget and you had no choice. What you could have done and should have done, seeing you are a “process” person, about which more in a moment, is support those MPs irate that the budget process should be abused to contain substantive policy changes (fish habitat, for example) in it.
 
Let’s get down to what you said last night. I had accused you of knowing nothing about the environmental catastrophe of pipelines and tankers and while I applaud your honesty am stunned to hear a BC MP admit he knew bugger-all about the subject matter of the controversy but relied upon “the process” to see that environmental concerns are addressed.
 
Your big word was “process” – a nice, lawyerly approach except you miss the entire point, and please pay attention: These hearings, be they over pipelines, tanker traffic, or so-called “run-of-river” projects do not address whether or not the project should be done in the first place.
 
These are, to all intents and purposes, done deals. While the Joint Review Panel for the Enbridge Northern Gateway Project is an independent body, mandated by the Minister of the Environment and the National Energy Board, and is to assess the environmental effects of the proposed project and review the application under both the Canadian Environmental Assessment Act and the National Energy Board Act, you know and I know that your government is going ahead with the Gateway project, irrespective of the Panel’s findings.
 
This isn’t so you say? The government has an open mind on the matter?
 
Don’t you know what your Natural Resources minister has said ad nauseum?
 
Watch and read his comments such as, “Environmental and other ‘radical groups’ are trying to block trade and undermine Canada’s economy, according to Natural Resources Minister Joe Oliver, who has also stated, “Unfortunately, there are environmental and other radical groups that would seek to block this opportunity to diversify our trade.”
 
Prime Minister Harper said in a Q & A, “I think we’ll see significant American interests trying to line up against the Northern Gateway project, precisely because it’s not in the interests of the United States. It’s in the interests of Canada…they’ll funnel money through environmental groups and others in order to try to slow it down but, as I say, we’ll make sure that the best interests of Canada are protected.”
 
John, read what your leaders have said…take the time I did on the Internet and you will find that to your Prime Minister and the Natural Resources Minister, the Gateway is a done deal and the hearings simply provide a way for environmental groups to delay.
 
In fact, Oliver deals extensively with timelines and the need to get this project running “expeditiously”.
 
I have been to enough of government sponsored “hearings” to know that they are a sham. As I’ve said, “Id rather have a root canal without anaesthetic than attend another.”
 
Surely, John, prisoner of the system though you might be, you must admit that your government is bent on approving Gateway and in fact your leaders admit it. That being so, John, how can you baldly state that there is “process” of any meaning here?
 
There are some issues that go straight to the heart our social community and how we want to live.
 
One such issue, 20 years ago, was the Charlottetown Accord which would have dramatically altered the Canadian system of governance. To the people of British Columbia, the pipelines and tanker traffic similarly go to the very root of what we believe in and how we want to live. We’re dealing with the very soul of BC and you would have us believe that we are getting a process within which we can make our feelings known in a meaningful way?
 
You know that Gateway is a done deal as far as your government is concerned and that the hearings are not designed to discover what the people want to see happen to our province. The plain truth is that no matter what the Panel recommends, your government will approve the projects.
 
On the questions about the Fisheries Act, to say this will enhance “process” is rather like, “In order to save the village it was necessary to destroy it.”
 
For habitat to be protected, development must be prohibited, for the moment you open it to “process”, you condemn it to destruction. I tried to make you and others understand that some things by their nature cannot be mediated, nor can impacts be “mitigated”, an awful weasel word. The example the minister gave of a carp pond was puerile and dangerous. It’s not carp ponds you’ve exposed to the front-end loader but the BC salmon about which you know nothing. How can you take away protection from development without knowing what the hell you’re doing?
 
The DFO was politicized back in the 1980s by Tom Siddon in the federal government’s giveaway to Alcan and its Kemano Completion Project. This is a very sad chapter and you should know that the Mulroney government suppressed a devastating report by DFO scientists which condemned the KCP in no uncertain terms. The scientists (dubbed the “dissident” scientists by Alcan, a sobriquet they bore with honour) were given early retirement, transferred or refused promotion they were rightly expecting). That 1984 Report was released in 1992 by me after I received it in a brown envelope. If you want the inside story on that I will introduce you to Dr. Gordon Hartman, one of those dissident scientists.
 
The person to talk to about the gutting of the enforcement arm of DFO is Otto Langer, an ex-DFO man to whom I would be happy to introduce you.
 
John, you are an embodiment of almost child-like naiveté who has been captivated by the elected dictator system we find ourselves in. You have allowed yourself to self-hypnotize into believing untruths because you must  – then perpetuating dangerous falsehoods. It’s rather like the Stockholm Syndrome, where you’ve fallen in love with your captors.
 
I think it was Senator Daniel Moynihan who said, “You’re entitled to make up your own mind but not your own facts.”
 
Sincerely,
 
Rafe
 

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The Fraser Canyon, which powerful interests fought for decades to dam

From Moran Dam to Enbridge: The Danger of Focusing on Economics Over Environment

Energy and Resources, Oil&Gas, Pipelines and Supertankers, WATER, , , , ,
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Robyn Allan is the former President and CEO of the Insurance Corporation of BC and is an economist by trade. I have enormous respect for Ms. Allan and concur with her conclusion, stated frequently and as recently as July 6 in The Vancouver Sun, that the proposed Enbridge Pipeline will have a deleterious impact on the Canadian economy generally and that of BC in particular.
 
The economics of this huge issue are, of course, very important to the decision making process and to the decision itself. My caveat is, however, to dwell on the economy brings with it great risks.
 
The argument is the same one respecting dams and fish. If one were to debate a dam on the Fraser River near Lytton, the economic argument is all in favour of the dam. While the salmon runs to be ruined will cost the province and those who fish a lot of money, that is offset by the enormous financial gains from the dam itself many, many times over. In fact such a dam, called the Moran, has been on the drawing board since late in the 2nd World War when it was pushed by the federal government. Premier WAC Bennett raised this issue again in the 1960s and was only stopped by the outcry of those who put the heritage of our salmon ahead of the incredible profits that would come from a huge dam.
 
Here are the stats according to Wikipedia:
 
The dam would have been 261 metres (856 ft) high, generating as much power on average as Grand Coulee Dam and twice of Hoover Dam combined – much of this energy would have been sold to the north-western United States. It would form a gigantic reservoir 260 kilometres (160 mi) long, containing some 35.4 cubic kilometres (28,700,000 acre·ft) of water at maximum pool reaching almost to the town of Quesnel. A significant portion of this capacity would be reserved for flood control.
 
The argument that our Pacific salmon are worth more than money prevailed then – would it prevail today if the issue was revived, which I’m certain will happen?
 
With the proposed Enbridge Pipeline, the financial benefits are not worth the candle, as Ms. Allan so clearly and accurately says. The trouble is that the governments won’t pay the slightest attention to her or to The Common Sense Canadian’s economist, Erik Andersen. There will be a barrage of one-liners about progress, jobs, blah blah blah, so that economic truths will be trumped by public relations.
 
The environmental implications of the proposed pipeline are serious beyond belief. We’re talking 1,100 km, over 1000 rivers and streams. My point to Robyn is that before we get to economics, let’s see what this pipeline will do.
 
Enbridge has an appalling environmental record – about one rupture or spill per week. There is no question that if the pipeline goes through there will be multiple spills. And as Ms. Allan astutely points out, due to the shell corporation structure Enbridge has set up to own and operate the pipeline, their liability for a spill will be severely limited (by design, of course), leaving British Columbians holding the bag for cleanup costs.
 
The substance being transported is not crude oil as we understand it, but bitumen, a near solid, which unlike other oils, sinks like a stone, and is infinitely more toxic. Enbridge has shown in the Kalamazoo River case that it simply cannot completely clean up, even when it can easily bring workers and machinery into the area.
 
The Northern Gateway pipeline goes through some of the least accessible places it the world, where the only way to get in is by helicopter. There is no way in the world that workers and equipment could be brought to the site and even if they could, the damage from the spill could never be properly cleaned up.
 
It’s interesting to note that Enbridge and its supporters sneer at the possibility that they would have to file plans for crossing 1000 rivers and streams – this, they say, is absurd.
 
I ask why is it absurd? The common environmental requirement for pipelines is that they must file plans for crossing watercourses – why should that not be the case just because there are a lot of watercourses?
 
In conclusion, I thoroughly agree with Robyn Allan but simply say we shouldn’t let ourselves get to the spot where the economics are considered.

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Newfoundland Salmon Farm Quarantined due to Suspected ISA Virus Outbreak

Oceans, Salmon Farming and Aquaculture, ,
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Read this story from FIS (Fish Information & Services trade publication), reporting that the Canadian Food Inspection Agency has quarantined a salmon farm off the coast of Newfoundland due to a suspected outbreak of the deadly Infectious Salmon Anemia virus. (July 6, 2012)

The Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) has quarantined an fish farm on the south coast of Newfoundland due to a suspected outbreak of infectious salmon anaemia (ISA).

Newfoundland and Labrador veterinarians detected the virus during routine testing at the site, explained Miranda Pryor, the executive director of the NL Aquaculture Industry Association.

“In the ocean, there’s a lot of naturally occurring viruses and bacteria and other things that can impact our farming situations,” said Prior, CBC News reports. “And unfortunately, it appears that this may be the case at this site right now, maybe impacted by something it caught from the wild.”

While ISA is harmless to humans, it can kill up to 90 per cent of the salmon it infects, depending on the strain.

Prior added that the aquaculture pen suspected of containing infected fish has been quarantined to minimise the risk of spreading the virus throughout the facility.

This is the first time a fish farm has been quarantined in Newfoundland and Labrador, she highlighted.

CFIA has taken samples that it will hand over to the Department of Fisheries and Oceans (DFO) for testing. Obtaining these test results could take weeks. If ISA is confirmed, CFIA may take further action to obstruct a possible outbreak.

Although the agency is refusing at this time to release the name of the company that runs the quarantined facility, Cooke Aquaculture assures it is not one of its sites.

Two weeks ago, evidence of another outbreak of ISA was found at Cooke Aquaculture’s fish farms in Nova Scotia which CFIA has been investigating. The company documented many cases of ISA and engaged in the killing of affected fish; affected facilities were put under quarantine until all fish were removed from the site and all pens, cages and equipment were cleaned and disinfected.

In May, CFIA quarantined a third salmon farm in the province of British Columbia in just two weeks over fears about the presence of haematopoietic necrosis virus (IHN).

Read original article: http://www.fis.com/fis/worldnews/worldnews.asp?monthyear=&day=6&id=53635&l=e&special=&ndb=1%20target=

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Harper's Team BC: The PM poses with his BC caucus - all of whom should resign, according to Rafe (photo: Alice Wong staff)

If I was a BC Tory Under Harper, I’d Resign

Canada, Energy and Resources, Oceans, Oil&Gas, Pipelines and Supertankers, Politics, Salmon Farming and Aquaculture, Western Canada, , , , , ,
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I have received a lot of feedback on my recent blog on John Weston, MP.
 
Let me say that this was directed to Weston because he is my MP and it applies with equal force to all Tory MPs from British Columbia.
 
I’ve been asked if I would resign were I in John’s position and I say YES. Now, I realize that’s easy to say – he who has not sinned has not been tempted. I have no doubt, however. I sat in a cabinet that had half a dozen ministers who would have resigned under these circumstances. Premier Bill Bennett recognized this and it was taken into his consideration, I’m sure.
 
Now, under our system – such is the measure of its idiocy – all elected members on the government side must often compromise, otherwise the government couldn’t function. There were occasions where cabinet passed policy that I had spoken out against in the past and I told the press that when cabinet makes a decision all must support it. But these were areas of policy, not matters that go to the root of your commitment to your voters and your constituency. They were not matters of conscience. Any who have sat on the board of, say, a golf club will readily get the distinction between matters of business and matters of conscience. Premier Bill Bennett understood the distinction – Stephen Harper, no doubt also understands but he knows his backbenchers well and knows that there is almost nothing that goes to the conscience of his MPS because they have none.
 
Let’s be clear what issues we’re talking about here.
 
The environment of BC as a whole is not merely threatened but is on the brink of disaster from policy decisions already taken by the Harper government. I refer, of course, to its support of the Enbridge pipeline and expansion of Kinder Morgan’s pipeline to Vancouver; its open support of tankers loaded with deadly bitumen from the Tar Sands; its ongoing support of the Department of Fisheries and Oceans to promote fish farms while their statutory basic raison d’etre is to protect our salmon; and its utter abandonment of protection of fish habitat as demonstrated in its gutting of the DFO in BC.
 
These, I contend, are not merely matters of policy but go the very root of what British Columbia is and as such simply cannot be supported by any Member of Parliament from our province.

Ask yourself this: if in the past election Tory candidates were asked if they support the above policies, I suggest that not one of them would have answered yes. If they had been and they replied that they were for these policies they would never have been elected and they know that.
 
I pick on Weston because, as I say, he’s my MP. In fact, the entire BC Conservative caucus ought to resign en masse. That they haven’t and won’t brands them as they are – lickspittles and toadies who put their parliamentary seat before their duty.
 
My prediction is that Weston will be rewarded with a cabinet seat in the next major shuffle – after all, he has been faithful to Harper and he’s moved his family back to Ottawa, which move could well have come from a nod or a wink from Harper.
 
After all, if sacrificing your constituency and your province for personal gain is to mean anything, there must be a reward and in my view it will come.
 

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Parasite Turning Farmed Salmon Sold at Costco to Mush

Oceans, Salmon Farming and Aquaculture,
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Check out this video and story from CTV News on BC-farmed salmon being sold at Costco stores infected with the Kudoa parasite, which turns the flesh into “slimy mush”. (July 3, 2012)

Some B.C.-farmed salmon is reaching store shelves with a parasite that can liquefy the fish’s flesh into an unappetizing goop, CTV News has learned.

 

Consumer Dale Reynolds recently picked up a salmon fillet from Costco, but the texture made him think twice about serving it to his family.

 

“I started noticing it had indentations in it,” Reynolds said. “Started taking a closer look and noticing these pit holes that were in it and wondering what was going on, what was eating at it. It just didn’t look normal.”

 

Marine Harvest Canada, B.C.’s largest fish farming company, confirmed to CTV News that the fish was infested with the Kudoa thyrsites parasite – the second most common parasite in farmed salmon, which causes a condition known as “soft flesh” syndrome.

 

“It’s unacceptable that someone was able to purchase a piece of this salmon,” spokesman Ian Roberts said. “It’s rare that someone would find this in the market.”

 

The parasite doesn’t pose a health risk to humans, but can render fish flesh into a jelly-like consistency, according to the Pure Salmon Campaign.

 

Kudoa can also survive long after the salmon is killed, and the parasite’s longevity is making it a widespread problem in B.C. Marine Harvest alone spent $12 million last year to clear out infected fish and provide refunds for tainted products, and there are estimates that Kudoa affects 20 to 50 per cent of all salmon farmed in the province.

 

The industry is currently studying the microscopic menace to protect farmed salmon, but experts say the greater risk is the impact the parasite could have on fish in the wild.

 

“What we don’t know is the magnitude and impact on the larger ecosystem,” said John Volpe, a University of Victoria environmental studies professor. “This parasite is like this time bomb inside the fish.”

 

Costco didn’t respond to a CTV News interview request, but a manager told an undercover reporter that the problem is not uncommon.

Watch video: http://bc.ctvnews.ca/parasite-ridden-salmon-sold-in-b-c-stores-1.864202

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BC's Fraser River sockeye face increased risks as many DFO employees working in habitat protection stand to lose their jobs

Harper Wasting No Time Slashing DFO Habitat Jobs as Notices go out to Staff

Canada, Fisheries, Politics, Western Canada, ,
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According to Otto Langer, the former senior DFO scientist and manager who first blew the whistle on Stephen Harper’s plan to gut the Fisheries Act, the job cuts associated with Harper’s program will soon be taking effect in BC. Langer sent out the following warning on June 27.

Today all DFO habitat protection and management staff in Canada are receiving letters that they are now “red-circled” – i.e. they are being affected by Bill C-38 with it’s budget and habitat legislation and program cuts (i.e. DFO downsizing) and many will soon not have a job. Yesterday all staff in the BC-Yukon region were advised of this happening in a telephone call from Pacific Regional Director General Susan Farlinger. Staff were directed to not discuss this with anyone and only DFO Ottawa was allowed to comment on the issue.

132 habitat staff across Canada will be fired (laid off) in the next few months in that many will have to compete for remaining jobs. In the Pacific Region, they now have 92 staff and that is to be reduced to 60 – an approximate 33% cut in staff. Also, all habitat office locations in Pacific Region are to be closed down, with the exception of Whitehorse, Prince Rupert, Kamloops, Vancouver and Nanaimo. That means offices such as those in Mission, Campbell River, Prince George, Nelson, Williams Lake, Smithers, Port Hardy, etc. are to be shut down. If the Enbridge and natural gas pipelines go across northern BC, there will be no habitat staff in Prince George or Smithers, etc. to respond to potential disasters – the closest offices will be Prince Rupert or Kamloops.

The office in Port Hardy has looked after salmon farming issues, which it will be unable to do now.

This puts DFO back where it was in the early 1980s, i.e. 5 offices in BC and even less staff than they had in 1983 with many giant projects such as Enbridge, gas lines, gas liquification plants, New Prosperity Gold Mine, Site C Dam on the Peace River, Panamax tankers of jet fuel up the Fraser River, Roberts Bank Port expansion, etc. now being proposed and pushed along. Never in the past 50 year history of habitat protection have we seen such great cuts in staff the face of upcoming massive industrial development that can and will harm habitat and our fisheries of the future.

Finally, Ottawa has given all DFO habitat staff directions to remove the “Habitat Management Program” title from their organization and from their offices, etc. in that they are now to be called the “Fisheries Protection Program”.

In summary, this puts DFO back to where they were in the late 1970s in terms of habitat staff numbers in the Pacific Region, but with next to no legislation to protect overall habitat and a greatly reduced presence in the field where the habitat damage takes place. Their efforts will of course be distracted over the next year or more in that staff will have to compete for the surviving 60 positions and put their minds to what they can do for a living when laid off and where they move to to get a job to support their families, etc. I am told the already very low morale of the staff was destroyed by Bill C-38 and now it has received its final blow – the willingness and direction to do their jobs can now be measured in negative quantities.

One can now say that the Harper Government has ‘right-sized’ the workload for the reduced number of staff! They will protect less habitat, despite the incredulous claims of DFO Minister Ashfield and many Conservative MPs that DFO will provide the fishery with better, more focused protection. More staff-related budget cuts have been outlined for 2013 and 2014.

All DFO habitat protection offices from Quebec to the BC-Alberta border, i.e. Central and Arctic Region, will also be drastically cut and all offices will be shut down except in Ottawa, Burlington, Winnipeg, Edmonton and Yellowknife. It is indicated that of 63 DFO offices in Canada with habitat staff (now “fisheries protection” staff), most will be closed and the number of offices having habitat-type program staff will be reduced to 14 for a giant geographic area – i.e. Canada.

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