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Fisheries committee  Thank you very much for taking our presentation.

February 29th, 2012Committee meeting

Gerry Furney

Fisheries committee  I'll ask my technical expert to answer that. I'll supplement, hopefully, anything he misses.

February 29th, 2012Committee meeting

Gerry Furney

Fisheries committee  I'd prefer if he didn't comment any further. I don't want to try to participate in an economic discussion at that level. However, I believe that tourism is a wonderful industry for all of us in British Columbia, and not just on northern Vancouver Island. Overall, it's a wonderful industry.

February 29th, 2012Committee meeting

Gerry Furney

Fisheries committee  I don't believe there is any negative effect. The flow of fish up and down will continue to be up and down over the years. Last year we saw one of the biggest runs of fish ever in the Fraser River, fish that were not expected there, and I'm sure there were lots of so-called environmentalists worried about the fact that we had a huge return on the Fraser River.

February 29th, 2012Committee meeting

Gerry Furney

Fisheries committee  It's a very tough question to answer from a practical standpoint. I'm aware there were various studies done. There was one study a couple of years ago that came out of the University of Alberta. It was proven by people who looked at the results of that particular study that it was erroneous.

February 29th, 2012Committee meeting

Gerry Furney

Fisheries committee  I certainly do.

February 29th, 2012Committee meeting

Gerry Furney

Fisheries committee  I can. I think it's very irresponsible of any organization or any individual to jump into something like this and make flat statements that can harm an industry or harm the people who work for that industry, and harm the whole province that we have here, depending on the resource industries.

February 29th, 2012Committee meeting

Gerry Furney

Fisheries committee  I'm aware that the only way that aquaculture can expand is by developing new sites and/or getting permission to increase the volume, or the population, in their existing sites. If they're spending most of their time negotiating with other organizations that are against their existence, that's their choice.

February 29th, 2012Committee meeting

Gerry Furney

Fisheries committee  I'm aware of this, and I'm also aware that Marine Harvest could spend its time and efforts much more profitably if it were handling new sites and also the expansion of the population in the existing sites, which is an important request of theirs. They'd like to increase the population of their sites by about 20% in each of their farms because they've proven that this can be done economically and practically, but they haven't had that permission yet.

February 29th, 2012Committee meeting

Gerry Furney

Fisheries committee  Like anything else, any other business decision we make in life, any political decision we make in life, you have to show me that it's working, and if they can show me that it's working, I'm not going to resist it. I don't take a Luddite approach to anything. If there's a way of improving it, and we can improve employment and we can improve the product or produce more product, there's no way we should tell people they can't build it near a processing plant or near one of the major centres farther south.

February 29th, 2012Committee meeting

Gerry Furney

Fisheries committee  That's correct. I'm a businessman. I was a logger. I was a miner. I did a lot of work. I've never worked as a fisherman—that's about the only thing I could've worked in that I didn't. As a businessman, I understand that you have to be able to pay for your costs, and that the costs have to be held as low as possible, in the interest of providing an economical end product.

February 29th, 2012Committee meeting

Gerry Furney

Fisheries committee  Yes, certainly. They've done it in the major centres as well, with articles in the Vancouver Sun, The Province and the The Globe and Mail. The only really positive newspaper that covers the area in a practical sense is the National Post. I believe they have a good handle on what actually happens in British Columbia and its economy.

February 29th, 2012Committee meeting

Gerry Furney

Fisheries committee  That's a question that needs to be answered. My take on it is that the potential is there as long as the regulations were widened enough to allow new fish farms. But as Neil has pointed out, there has been very little activity in the creation of new fish farms over the last few years.

February 29th, 2012Committee meeting

Gerry Furney

Fisheries committee  I don't think there would be a problem in finding additional land. All sorts of land is available that has different designations. Some of it is parkland, some is industrial land, and some is zoned for forestry and will probably continue to be forestry associated. There would be no problem whatsoever because we have not had the kind of development on the west coast that we have seen and you have seen in other parts of Canada, where there has been a lot of private ownership.

February 29th, 2012Committee meeting

Gerry Furney

Fisheries committee  I would, as long as it could be done economically and practically on a continuing basis. There have been a couple of situations in the south end of Vancouver Island where on-land aquaculture was started, but didn't succeed in the long run. It was mentioned that there is one operation in Campbell River right now.

February 29th, 2012Committee meeting

Gerry Furney