The Standing Committee on Fisheries and Oceans in 2001 recommended "early detection and mandatory reporting of diseases for farmed aquatic animals."

The Ministry of Agriculture, Fish and Food and DFO have clearly been told public disease reporting must occur. But imagine if First Nations and fishermen had been aware that IHN was raging through the migratory corridors of the collapsing Fraser sockeye? I think some did consider this. In 2001, Bud Graham of the Ministry of Agriculture, Fish and Food and the B.C. Salmon Farmers Association signed a non-binding "Letter of Understanding" outlining a voluntary disease reporting scheme, outside any legislation, into a database "with restricted access and a series of firewalls to maintain individual company confidentiality."

Salmon feedlot disease became so top-secret the Ministry of Agriculture, Fish and Food's own inspectors were cut out of the loop. How could they audit the feedlots without this basic information? The agreement did give access to the provincial vets required to write drug prescriptions.

The Freedom of Information fracas

When the Ministry of Agriculture and Lands (formerly known as the Ministry of Agriculture, Fish and Food) had its salmon feedlot disease records requested under Freedom of Information legislation (FOI), the ministry stalled for six years. When the FOI Commissioners Office stepped in and investigated, the feedlot companies threatened government -- if the FOI was honoured, they would never report their diseases again. The Freedom of Information Commissioner prevailed and forced the Ministry of Agriculture and Lands to release the information. So, are the feedlots owners making good on their threat? A second FOI request came in for the recent disease records and this is going to test the unraveling regulatory mess. What are the feedlots to do now? The Ministry of Agriculture and Lands bought time by flatly refusing the FOI, even in the face of the recent decision. And the stand-off continues.

The Canadian Food Inspection Agency takes a swing at this

Twenty years after stepping outside the Constitution of Canada, the Ministry of Agriculture and Lands is diligently protecting the feedlot owners, most of who are Norwegian, from the public.

But what about the world community and their pesky demand for sustainability? The Canadian Food Inspection Agency reports that Canada has not fully met "any" of the fish disease reporting requirements set by the World Health Organization for Animal Health, to which Canada is a signatory. As a result, they report, Canada is now subject to a lesser market due to a lax regulatory framework.

Oops.

The Canadian Food Inspection Agency stepped into this battlefield in December 2009 listing 23 aquatic pathogens as "Immediately Notifiable Diseases," including IHN, which the OIE has always considered a reportable disease.

The Ministry of Agriculture and Lands refuses to answer if IHN is now reportable or not.

This can't be about fish

There is a major fault line opening here with no internal fix possible. While the salmon feedlot industry has taken the stand that it will not report disease, the Canadian Food Inspection Agency regulated mandatory reporting of 23 fish diseases to meet market standards. While the federal government is going to inherit this mess, they are not ready and so it remains adhered to the BC Liberals, like a sea louse.

An industry that cannot respond to its own market is not viable. All of this raises the question, what is going on in these feedlots that they are so scared of telling us about? And how will the Ministry of Agriculture and Lands respond to the Cohen Inquiry which cannot make a credible assessment of the Fraser sockeye decline without the ministry's salmon feedlot disease database.

As the lump under the carpet keeps growing and is now crawling around, the BC Liberals and federal Conservatives keep telling us this is good for us. They like to say this is about jobs, even though the salmon farmers are mechanizing away those jobs away to lower costs. Government never mentions the 40,000 people that depend on wild salmon through the $2 billion fishing and wilderness tourism industries.

I would like to suggest none of this is about fish. It looks like a mistake with no exit strategy. Someone did not do a full risk analysis on that first step off the tracks in 1989. Wild salmon are in the way of massive industrialization by foreign companies and someone probably thought the public could be weaned off wild salmon with feedlot salmon.

The solution

The salmon feedlots are in a catch-22. Either they release their disease information and take their place among sustainable seafoods but risk being found responsible for the sockeye collapse, or they can try and defy the Canadian Food Inspection Agency, Cohen Inquiry and World Health Organization for Animal Health, keep their secrets and be content with lower prices. The answer is simple, close the barn door.

There are Canadian businesses rising to the challenge, developing closed, land-based aquaculture offering jobs and leading technological development. They have been marginalized by government, possibly because they compete with the Norwegian industry, but they could be better managed.

If a thriving B.C. economy is the goal, the solution is simple:

• Order all fish feedlots out of the ocean, no more ill-conceived "fixes"
• Encourage wise development of Canadian land-based aquaculture to replace the jobs lost from closing ocean feedlots
• Allow us to use what we know about wild salmon to restore them to the benefit of BC and Canada

The only losers in this scenario are foreign shareholders, those taking B.C.'s rivers for private power generation, logging, mining, and oil companies who would put our coast in jeopardy from tanker traffic. In a world of failing food security, toxic oceans, and frail economies, wild salmon are far more precious to B.C. than any single industry.

Canada's mismanagement of the salmon feedlot industry is a building scandal on the world stage.