Homalco Nation Scraps Fish-Farming Plan - British Columbia

"A B.C. First Nation that was looking to begin salmon farming has dramatically reversed course by closing ranks with an environmental organization it once opposed. The two groups signed an unusual cooperation agreement to help protect a lengthy stretch of the Canadian West Coast against the fish farming industry.

Legally-drafted protocols are usually signed between non-government organizations and the federal or provincial government, but the elected chief of the Xwemalhkwu (Homalco) First Nation based in Campbell River got together with the president of the Georgia Strait Alliance Thursday to ink a written commitment that the two groups will work together for the restoration and preservation of marine waters in Bute Inlet – the traditional home base of the Homalco – and its surrounding area.

Chief Darren Blaney said he mistrusts the B.C. government and remains anxious it might use new legislated powers it gave itself late last year, to force salmon farms into place in the Homalco’s claimed territorial waters in and around the inlet, against the wishes of the First Nation. (See earlier Tyee article.) “I’m suspicious. I don’t trust them,” Blaney acknowledged, adding that he hopes to sign similar protection and cooperation agreements with both the Klahoose and Sliammon First Nations, who also have territorial waters adjoining the area the Homalco are claiming.

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Under the previous, now-ousted chief, the FN seemed favourable towards salmon aquaculture, including fish farms. It set up a hatchery to help restore salmon runs to three major river systems in Bute, and it conducted talks with at least one fish-farming company about having some pen sites relocate to the area from unsuitable sites off the west coast of Vancouver Island. But Blaney said that all that changed after he was elected and the company indicated it couldn’t commit to hiring numbers of Homalco members for as long as five years, because it had to give first consideration to its own personnel from the existing farms."

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http://www.thetyee.ca/News/current/Island+First+Nation.htm