Thank you very much for the opportunity to speak with you. I live in Black Creek, just south of Campbell River. I work in Campbell River. My office is located there, but I was here in Ottawa for the seafood value chain round table meetings earlier this week, so I have taken advantage of the lovely weather in Ottawa and stayed an extra day or two.
Thank you very much for giving me the time to speak with you today. I am the executive director of the B.C. Salmon Farmers Association. The BCSFA represents salmon farming companies operating in British Columbia as well as the service and supply sector that supports them.
Together, our sector provides 6,000 direct and indirect jobs, the majority of which are in remote or rural Vancouver Island communities, such as Port Hardy, Port McNeill, Klemtu, Gold River, Ahousaht, Ucluelet, Tofino, Sechelt, and others.
B.C. has, on average, 75 farms in operation at any given time, producing around 75,000 metric tonnes of salmon each year. This is significant economic activity in our province, representing about $800 million in provincial revenue each year, but the B.C. industry produces only about 3.5% of the world's farmed salmon. We're a big player in the province of British Columbia but a very small player on the world stage.
As you likely know, because of your work here at this committee, we are about to mark the first year anniversary of having the Department of Fisheries and Oceans as our primary regulator. The regulatory transfer that happened in mid-December last year has meant a significant amount of work for DFO and our companies as all of us navigate this new environment. There have been some challenges along the way, but we remain confident that as the regulation settles into place, there will be opportunity for streamlining operations in British Columbia.
Movement in this area will be important in the coming years as efficiencies in our operations become ever more important. With the price of salmon dropping significantly in the last six months and forecasts that this downturn will be somewhat sustained, our farm companies are being stretched to the max. But I know you have not asked me here so you can listen to an economic update. You have questions about closed containment, and we're glad you offered us the time to provide some answers.
Salmon farmers, particularly those in British Columbia, are actually on the leading edge of land-based recirculation technologies. With state-of-the-art facilities, we raise our fish in closed containment tanks for the first year of their lives.
I know that my colleague Clare Backman from Marine Harvest Canada came and spoke with you a couple of weeks ago about the innovative work being done with his company and the lessons being learned through research and further investigation both by our members and by other aquaculturalists.
However, there are still questions—those at a practical level about the technology and those at a philosophical level about why this is such a focus and how we as protein producers can continue with the lowest impact on the environment.
All calculations and the development-scale projects currently under way require the fish to be held at a significantly higher density than they are found in the ocean. That condition is not good for fish health and fish welfare. The cost of energy to run such facilities would be significant, both financially and environmentally, and the locations where these facilities could be operated are limited by the requirements for each facility.
All of these considerations would mean this technology, if it's developed to a commercial fish farm scale, would likely not operate in the areas where our companies work now. That is important to note for the rural Vancouver Island communities that look to us for stability in their resource-dependent economies, and that could have a significant effect on our many first nations agreements.
Taking a step back too, we have to consider the reasons we're having this discussion in the first place. Opponents to the aquaculture industry are insisting that salmon farming should be done on land, on the premise that our business harms the environment. That's based on presumptions that are simply false.
Our activity in the water, like any other activity in water or on land, has an impact. The goals of good management are to assess any risks of that impact and to manage them in the best way possible. We believe we're doing that well.
As we saw at the Cohen commission, despite significant propaganda to the contrary from farming opponents, the experts retained by Cohen looking at salmon farming could not find any statistical connection between salmon farm production and the returns of Fraser River sockeye, low or high.
Moreover, recent allegations about a connection between salmon farming and ISA have been proven completely false. I raise these points because they provide important context for the present discussion. Closed containment is being touted as a replacement for open-net aquaculture, not a supplement to it. Make no mistake, there are activists who seek to end our industry, and the false allegations that have been put forward to the Cohen commission and through the news media continue to be proven false.
We have a tremendous opportunity in this country—and I will speak for British Columbia in particular—to become a world leader in the raising of salmon as a healthy, nutritious, and affordable protein. Canada has all the natural assets to be leading the world in salmon farming, and we have so much potential to grow.
Producing for global demand of B.C. salmon using closed containment as the method is simply not an option. It is far too energy-intensive. The density means that the product is less healthy, therefore requiring far more treatment with antibiotics, and the capacity is simply not realistic. Closed containment could not even touch the current capacity of open-net farming, let alone be able to increase current farming levels dramatically to meet the world demand for Canadian salmon.
Our companies and my members have proven themselves time and again to be proactive, productive, responsible and innovative. They have always quickly adapted to engage new technologies where it can improve the management of their farms. The adoption of full recirculation systems in our hatchery stages is one very good example of that. That's the appropriate role of closed containment in our aquaculture industry. It does that well. We encourage additional research and development to make it even better, but it's certainly not a replacement for the industry as a whole, from hatching to harvest.
I encourage this committee to support the overall salmon farming industry in British Columbia and in Canada, and to recommend policy that favours its growth and careful expansion. We have a top-notch product, we should be further developing it, and along with researching opportunities for our future, we do have to ensure that our present is strong and successful.
Thank you very much for the opportunity to be here. When we get to the question period, I will be happy to answer any questions you may have.