WHEREAS the Province of British Columbia receives significant economic benefits from both wild and farmed salmon and depends on the future security, viability and stability of both sectors; AND WHEREAS emerging closed containment aquaculture technologies offer the ability to separate commercially farmed salmon from the natural environment, limiting negative environmental impacts, especially the transmission of diseases and parasites between farmed and wild salmon: THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED that the Union of British Columbia Municipalities UBCM requests that the provincial and federal governments move to establish a closed system aquaculture innovation fund; AND BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the UBCM request that the provincial and federal governments create and implement a plan to transition open net-cage salmon farms to closed containment system aquaculture.
Ministry of Agriculture Lands The Ministry of Agriculture and Lands Ministry is committed to adaptive management and acknowledges the concerns of the Union of British Columbia Municipalities regarding the future security, viability and stability of both wild and farmed salmon and, in particular, limiting negative environmental impacts between the two sectors. The Ministrys approach to closed containment is consistent with the recommendation of the Pacific Salmon Forum, which called for a detailed assessment of containment technology prior to any substantive investment of public funds in commercial trials. It is reasonable to take these initial steps to ensure government, as well as industry, focus investments strategically and provide the best possible chance of developing viable and sustainable systems, including the development of a closed system aquaculture innovation fund. To this end, the Ministry, through the Investment Agriculture Foundation, provided financial support to the Save our Salmon Society to support closed containment project development as well as providing financial support to the Canadian Science Advisory Secretariat, Fisheries and Oceans Canada, for their comprehensive technical review of closed containment systems. Further, there are several well established federal funding programs administered by Fisheries and Oceans Canada that could be accessed for funding closed-containment research and development projects, namely the Aquaculture Collaborative Research and Development Program and the Aquaculture Innovation Market Access Program. As required by the recent Supreme Court decision, regulation of finfish aquaculture in marine waters will be transferred to the federal government in December 2010. During the transition, the provincial government will work with the federal government to ensure an adequate regulatory framework is in place that sustainably manages the aquaculture industry in British Columbia.