From a decision to phase out open-net salmon farms to buying a controversial oil pipeline, outgoing Prime Minister Justin Trudeau left his mark on B.C.
Trudeau, who announced his resignation on Monday, is no stranger to the province, having studied at the University of B.C. and served as a teacher in Vancouver from 1999 to 2002.
Over his nine-year tenure as prime minister, he passed a range of national policies he’ll likely be remembered for, including the carbon tax and a range of child-care benefits.
In B.C., his government will also be remembered for its purchase of the Trans Mountain Pipeline despite heated protests and numerous court cases, as well as the move to phase out open-net salmon farming.
Trudeau’s B.C. legacy is mixed, according to Indigenous leaders, even as he draws praise for passing the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous People (UNDRIP) into law.
As reactions to Justin Trudeau’s pending departure pour in, British Columbians are reflecting on how life has changed after nearly a decade under his leadership. Trudeau has always maintained close personal and political ties to B.C. Michelle Ghoussoub takes a look at his legacy in the province.
Salmon farm transition
On the West Coast, Trudeau will be remembered for his decision to phase out open-net salmon pens, which has been delayed until 2029 to allow for a transition to land-based closed containment farms.
Environmental groups say the open-net salmon farms, which employ over 5,000 people in B.C., are causing disease and the depletion of wild salmon stocks.
“I’m grateful that [Trudeau] set the direction for the transition of open net pen fish farms,” said Bob Chamberlin, who represents over 100 First Nations in B.C. as chair of the First Nation Wild Salmon Alliance.
“I’m grateful that we finally had a government that began to fully embrace the importance of wild Pacific salmon to British Columbians, Canadians and First Nations.”
However, the salmon farming industry and some other First Nations say that with a more than $1 billion industry at stake, the transition plan is too rushed.
“We’ve been told by senior bureaucrats, we’ll just put another industry in there,” said Isaiah Robinson, deputy chief councillor of the Kitasoo Xai’Xais Nation on B.C.’s Central Coast.
“And .. we know the reality. That’s not how things work.”
It was a 2019 Liberal election campaign promise: transition all Pacific open-net salmon farms to closed containment systems as wild salmon populations face existential threats. As CBC’s Rafferty Baker reports, while the feds have announced a ban – it is coming with a significant delay.
Robinson says more than half of his region’s economy depends on salmon farming, and while they support a gradual transition, they do not support a total ban on open-net salmon farming.
He and Chamberlin say they’re in talks with political leaders of all stripes as Canada heads into an election this year.
Pipelines and reconciliation
Arguably, one of Trudeau’s most tangible legacies in B.C. was his government’s controversial purchase of the Trans Mountain Pipeline, a project whose ultimate cost was over $34 billion.
Even as Trudeau passed a range of policies to combat climate change, Rueben George of the Tsleil-Waututh Nation sees the government’s decision to buy Trans Mountain after then-owner Kinder Morgan threatened to abandon the project as a stain on his legacy.
George, the manager of the nation’s Sacred Trust Initiative, which aimed to halt the pipeline, recalls a meeting with Trudeau and his cabinet — months after many members of George’s family voted for the Liberal leader under the promise he would not build more oil pipelines.
“I said the worst kept secret in Canada is that you’re going to approve the pipeline,” George told CBC News. “And that’s exactly what he did. Climate change leaders do not build pipelines.”
Heiltsuk First Nation Chief Marilyn Slett praised Trudeau’s government for passing a range of policies that aided First Nations in B.C. — including an oil tanker moratorium on the North Coast and an agreement to help safeguard the Great Bear Sea — as well as for signing UNDRIP into law.
But the chief said there was still much work to be done on reconciliation, citing boil water advisories remaining in place for many communities in Canada and what she said were shortfalls in child-care funding.
“We continue to experience violations of our land rights, self-determination, sovereignty,” she said. “And this is despite Canada’s adoption of UNDRIP and that commitment to reconciliation.
“Along with that commitment was a promise to co-developing laws and policies in alignment with UNRIP, and that remains unfulfilled, leaving many First Nations to fight for their rights in courts.”
