In a major victory for anti-fish farm advocates, the British Columbia Supreme Court has ruled that fish farms are the jurisdiction of the federal government and not the B.C. government.
Environmentalist Alexandra Morton, who has long opposed salmon farms in the Broughton Archipelago and other sensitive areas, along other activists, brought the constitutional challenge.
The significance was outlined in an e-mail Morton sent to her supporters before the decision:
"I will be receiving the Court's decision on whether the provincial government can continue regulating and siting salmon farms. If we win the fish farm licenses of B.C. could become unlawful," she wrote.
The justice in the case, Christopher Hinkson, has suspended his decision for 12 months to allow the two levels of government to arrange for the change of related laws.
Morton wrote that in her opinion, the Department of Fisheries and Oceans "has not done a great job with their role with salmon farms, but the big difference between the federal and provincial governments is that the federal government is responsible for our oceans and our ocean fisheries. As it stands now the agency in charge has no legal responsibility to protect wild salmon from the impacts of salmon farms and we can see the result of that."
Winning the case would not end the situation, she added, expecting legal appeals to be made and the DFO's stewardship of the industry to take time to get started.
Morton says wild salmon pump $1 billion a year into B.C.'s economy and need to be protected for the entire ecosystem.
Ottawa delegated responsibility for licensing fish farms to the provinces in the late 1980s.
