December 18, 2020 — Fisheries and Oceans Canada announced on 17 December it plans to phase out all existing salmon farming facilities in the Discovery Islands – located in British Columbia – with the upcoming 18-month period being the last time the area can be licensed.
The news comes in the wake of Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau writing a letter in 2019 to Minister of Fisheries, Oceans, and the Canadian Coast Guard Bernadette Jordan mandating that she “work with the province of British Columbia and Indigenous communities to create a responsible plan to transition from open net-pen salmon farming in coastal British Columbia waters by 2025 and begin work to introduce Canada’s first-ever Aquaculture Act.” The mandate was a reflection of the Canada Liberal Party’s platform, which called for a shift of all net-pen fish farming in British Columbia to land-based, closed-containment systems by 2025.