qathet Regional District’s (qRD) board will consider not endorsing an aquaculture use amendment for a fish farm operation on Lois Lake.
At the August 2 planning committee meeting, Pat Demeester said he was appearing before the committee regarding a provincial referral for an aquaculture use amendment for West Coast Fishculture on Lois Lake to move the farm to its original tenure site.
“I’ve been working as a fishing guide for 25 years,” said Demeester. “I do fisheries consulting for the province, so when the Province of British Columbia comes to Powell River, looking at fish and fish habitat, they call me. We go over the watersheds in the district and the different species we have in our watersheds here.
“I’ve been working on the subject of the Lois Lake fish farm for almost 20 years. I’m not anti-aquaculture, because we need to feed people. However, it’s a contentious industry in the province and it’s even more contentious when the industry goes outside of the guidelines that are laid out by the province and the federal government.”
Demeester said with the Lois Lake fish farm, there are three different government agencies that oversee the farm. He said Fisheries and Oceans Canada maintains the fish, and oversees the production of the fish inside the pens. The provincial ministry of natural resources is the tenure holder for the lake site and the ministry of the environment looks after ensuring the lake is not unduly affected by having the fish farm in the watershed, said Demeester.
The fish farm has been in court and has been charged with an array of charges, he added.
“I see here they have asked you to support a letter of them returning to 2015 tenure areas,” said Demeester. “A few years ago they moved out of their tenure and started to produce fish close to shore, which is having an effect. The style of farm they have opened – everything about it is illegal. They have lost tens of thousands of fish into Lois Lake.”
Demeester said the fish farm was supposed to remove the adipose fin from its farmed fish and limit on the farmed fish is six per day to help eliminate them from the lake. He added that there is Styrofoam from the fish farm in the lake and on the foreshore.
Demeester said people fly in from all over the world to fish here and he is booked from now until December 1 with people coming in from Europe.
“This farm is having a massive impact on the population of fish in the lake,” said Demeester. “The number that have escaped into the lake is unfathomable. It’s obvious they are eating a lot in the lake.
“I would ask that you not give a letter of recommendation to the fish farm until they clean up what they have done in our backyard, and until they go through their court cases.”
Electoral Area D director Sandy McCormick asked Demeester if he had been in touch with Tla’amin Nation. Demeester said he believes the nation’s position is no open-net pens in its territory.
Later in the meeting, when considering the provincial referral from the ministry of forests for the aquaculture use amendment for West Coast Fishculture, Electoral Area B director Mark Gisborne suggested that the committee recommend the regional board not support the aquaculture use amendment.
Gisborne said he was moving that the regional district not support the amendment, not because he doesn’t support aquaculture, but with what is going on at the Lois Lake location, the tipping point is the electoral areas B and C official community plans outline water studies for future growth south of town, and Lois Lake is the best option for getting water for those residents.
“Protection of drinking water is part of our strategic plan,” said Gisborne. “There are eight contaminants above the guidelines being discharged into the lake. I see the lake as future drinking water for growth south of town. If we support this application, it’s like rewarding bad behaviour.”
Manager of planning services Laura Roddan said there were compliance and enforcement actions underway by multiple agencies, both federal and provincial, and it is the province’s recommendation for the applicant to work through the different compliance matters. One is amending the tenure so the infrastructure is within the proper tenure area and that is all the application was about.
The committee voted to not support the recommendation.
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