Fisheries committee  Well, right from the start, when we started talking about closed containment, we were having regular community meetings in our village. Eric and some of the technical staff were present at the meetings to answer any questions. They were supportive of the project, especially given

Fisheries committee  It's perfect because the groundwater is there. There's a lot of groundwater. There's a little bit of salinity in the water, which is good for this kind of project. It's close to the transportation route. The highway goes right by the site. Hydro to the site is easily accessible.

Fisheries committee  As you know, in the earlier days we stated that we were against the open net fish farms because of the obvious damage to the environment. But we also said that we needed to provide an alternative to that, which is closed containment. We were just fortunate that our friend and col

Fisheries committee  The members of our community were quite supportive. There of course was concern about diseases. When we explained to them that the environmental monitoring would be quite strict and would be ongoing throughout the years of the project, they were quite supportive, yes, especially

Fisheries committee  Well, we said from the start that there shouldn't be any open nets. We haven't even talked about them shooting all the seals and sea lions that mistakenly go in and try to eat the fish. They've shot hundreds of those animals. There are existing regulations that should prevent tha

Fisheries committee  I think there's information in your kit that tells you that. It doesn't take that much more land than that leased for the existing open net farms. Just speaking for the first nations on the coast of B.C., they have reserve lands that are in these areas that would be good for op

Fisheries committee  Yes, you're correct.

Fisheries committee  No, it's completely different. In our salmon enhancement project, the Gwa'ni hatchery, we catch the wild salmon as they're coming in, we take the eggs from them, and then incubate the eggs. When they've hatched, they're kept in containers until they reach a certain size, and then

Fisheries committee  No, the Gwa'ni hatchery isn't a recirculating system. The water comes from the groundwater. It goes through the incubation process and then out into the river.

Fisheries committee  The Broughton Archipelago is right in our neighbourhood. It's in our backdoor you might say. We've been part of the people who have come in to catch the salmon fry to test about sea lice. We've seen the returns to the local rivers that are way below what they should be. You can't

Fisheries committee  Yes. I'm sure we'll be only too willing to share the information with first nations right across Canada. It might be of interest. We had a proposal from a Japanese firm that wanted to come in and test this kind of technology, but they wanted to keep the information to themselves

Fisheries committee  No, it isn't. Our run-of-the-river project will sell the power to B.C. hydro. It will just go on their grid, and it's theirs.

Fisheries committee  We have reports from our clam diggers that the clams close to the open net fish farms produce soft, dark, inedible meat. The beach also has an awful smell to it. These observations are from our clam diggers, so it does have a serious effect. Clams are one of the foods that firs

Fisheries committee  It's from the feces and all the other things that flow through the open nets.

Fisheries committee  When we tell people about this project, they want to know all about it. Of course, probably the main thing that would stop them from doing it is the cost. It's quite an initial cost, but we hope that when we go to the commercial size, which we think we'll be able to do, it will b