John Cummins, M.P. Delta-South Richmond

News Release

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
February 6, 2001

Auditor General Gives DFO Failing Grade On its failure to Regulate Fish Farms

OTTAWA--"As expected, the Auditor General has `concluded that Fisheries and Oceans is not fully meeting its legislative obligations under the Fisheries Act to protect wild Pacific salmon stocks and habitat from the effects of salmon farming'", said John Cummins, M.P. (Delta-South Richmond).

The audit found:

• The Department of Fisheries and Oceans (DFO) is not carrying out its regulatory responsibilities to enforce the Fisheries Act with respect to salmon farming;
• There are shortfalls in research and monitoring to assess the effects of salmon farming operations; and
• DFO has not put in place a plan for managing risks and assessing the potential cumulative environmental effects of proposals for new sites.

In earlier reports the Auditor General documented the department's failure to protect habitat and to manage wild salmon stocks where he had found that loss of habitat continued, and that some wild stocks were declining.

Today, the Auditor General found that "salmon farming has the potential to create additional stress on wild stocks over time, especially if the industry expands". He catalogues the failure to undertake research and to monitor salmon farms, the destruction of adjacent salmon habitat and the escape of farmed Atlantic salmon.

"It also notes that while the department had, in 1985, drafted rules for the siting of fish farms they were never put in place. Future expansion of fish farms, the report warned, may require a federal environmental assessment."

"The report represents a serious indictment of the department's failure to manage the salmon aquaculture industry on Canada's West Coast. Nevertheless, there are serious implications for the intensive salmon farming industry on Canada's East Coast where wild salmon stocks are in dramatic decline," said Cummins.

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For more information, please contact:

John Cummins, M.P.
(613) 992-2957
(604) 970-0937 (Cell)