Fisheries committee  Thank you, Lisa Marie, for using my traditional name. I greatly appreciate it. In terms of the precautionary principle, during the consultation process for Discovery Islands, that was a big part of the discussions, and we learned that there is no policy pertaining to fish farms in British Columbia to implement the precautionary principle.

Fisheries committee  Thank you for the question. Consider that there were no salmon rivers directly adjacent to the fish farms in Discovery Islands. The whole consultation process was about the impacts through migratory salmon. When that is the basis and when you consider the Supreme Court ruling of the Haida and the Taku Tlingit, even the potential to infringe on aboriginal rights triggers the duty to consult.

Fisheries committee  Thank you. The Broughton Archipelago fish farm LOU with the Province of British Columbia was a shared recommendation and some shared decision-making that implemented the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, which of course the federal government has committed to do as well.

Fisheries committee  When we think about first nations, lands, decision-making and consent as the government pursues this, it would be fine and wonderful if the impacts remained site-specific, but clearly they don't. This being the reality and the fact associated with migratory wild salmon, the government is now in a position where it would definitely need to hear first nations' perspectives on consent, but they must also be balanced with what impacts occur that are an infringement of aboriginal rights across the province.

Fisheries committee  In my earlier remarks, I highlighted what Mr. Jay Parsons' response was to me when I dissected and presented the CSAS process. When I say “lack of objective science”, I'm speaking about CSAS in relation to open-net cage fish farms. When you have a proponent of fish farm company number one, and then the involvement of industry—which are fish farm companies two, three and four—and then stakeholders in multi-industry associations who can be brought in and who select people they're comfortable with to develop the terms of reference and to develop a list of who's going to review the science and develop a paper for peer review, there is no objectivity there.

Fisheries committee  Is that directed to me?

Fisheries committee  The comments I would provide are based upon information that Alexandra Morton shared with me. I also speak with the leadership from my first nation, the Kwikwasut'inuxw Haxwa'mis, the 'Namgis First Nation and the Mamalilikulla. They are the ones who are doing this independent science of the Broughton Archipelago.

Fisheries committee  I've been called many things in my life.

Fisheries committee  I believe, and this is supported by what is occurring globally, that the land-based closed-containment fish farm industry is taking hold. I'm aware that the industry publication IntraFish in the past year or so actually started to do a monthly update on this growing portion of aquaculture globally.

Fisheries committee  The evolution is like everything else. Every other industry's been brought to a place of evolution, whether it's mining or whether it's forestry. It is time now for Canada to do the same for land-based closed-containment. When you consider that it would not need to be coastal, and it wouldn't need to be Atlantic salmon, you would wind up having greater opportunity to diversify economies across the province, and not just in coastal British Columbia.

Fisheries committee  Thank you for your question. When I consider that the provincial and federal governments have both made commitments to fulfill reconciliation, to implement the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, this to me is that evolution. We must not wait for the great big silver horse to come riding in with reconciliation in tow.

Fisheries committee  When I comment about independent science, I envision a lab, a team of qualified, certified, experienced scientists accomplishing the same science as DFO, with an agreed-upon methodology, an agreed-upon process, where the outcome leads to truth, not something that is biased towards industry.

Fisheries committee  When we consider Justice Cohen's report, he was very clear there is not one industry or one impact that is annihilating the salmon in British Columbia. What we need is a holistic approach considering all of the stressors, all of the impacts, and reaching out and changing what we can when the opportunity arises.

Fisheries committee  In terms of pinnipeds, I don't know enough about them. I know there is support for a culling, but there's also a need for watershed restoration and so forth to assist B.C. salmon.

Fisheries committee  There's a group of bogeymen. That's the thing. We need to identify them all and reduce them by whatever means is acceptable to protect wild salmon. Today, we don't have that. We don't have an eye for the protection of salmon in British Columbia. We have mitigation plans, which have failed endlessly.