April 8, 2003 -
VANCOUVER – Federal Fisheries Minister Robert Thibault must answer to Parliament about serious allegations of dishonesty and deception made in a minority report from the House of Commons fisheries committee, the David Suzuki Foundation said today.
"The assertions by MP John Cummins that Department of Fisheries and Oceans (DFO) staff have mislead the minister about the effects of net-cage salmon farming, lied to the public, and even encouraged the minister to mislead Parliament are extremely serious and are made by someone with insider information that must be examined," said Otto Langer, director of the Suzuki Foundation’s marine conservation program.
The best way to deal with the issue would for Minister Thibault to be called before the bar of the House of Commons which deals with such allegations, said Mr. Langer.
On Tuesday, Mr. Cummins, MP for Delta-South Richmond, who is a member of the parliamentary committee, released a minority report that is scathing of DFO’s handling of salmon farming, saying the industry is not ecologically benign and that DFO is not adequately monitoring the industry or fully enforcing the Fisheries Act, which is designed to protect wild fish and their habitat.
"When you have the same director in charge of habitat protection and the promotion of aquaculture, as is the case on the West Coast, it is obvious there are problems," said Mr. Langer, a biologist who worked at DFO and Environment Canada for over 30 years before joining the Foundation.
"DFO staff are making ridiculous recommendations like rewriting the Fisheries Act or creating an Aquaculture Act to deal with the problems caused by net-cage salmon farming when the Fisheries Act is, in fact, the strongest piece of environmental legislation in Canada," he said, adding: "It just needs to be enforced properly and completely."
Scientists have identified serious problems with net-cage salmon farming, including the escape of over one million fish, including Atlantic salmon which have been introduced on the West Coast, disease transfer and proliferation because of the net cages, and destruction of marine life under and around the large farms.
"For years, academics, fisheries experts and conservation groups have been saying what Mr. Cummins has reported to Parliament – that DFO is way off track and promoting salmon farming over the health and protection of wild fish and the marine environment," said Mr. Langer. "This has to stop and Parliament must call on the minister to explain how his department has let this happen."
For more information, please contact Otto Langer or Jean Kavanagh at
604-732-4228. After 5:30 p.m. pdt Ms. Kavanagh can be reached at
604-721-9332.
