Environmental Appeal Board rules in favour of BC Sablefish hatchery
Path cleared for development of new industry on west coast

By Quentin Dodd
After a wait of almost four months to hand down its judgment, the BC Environmental Appeal Board tossed out every argument by three organizations fighting against a provincial government waste-management permit given to Sablefin Hatcheries Ltd.'s controversial new hatchery for Alaskan black cod (sablefish) on Salt Spring Island.
Company manager Dr. Gidon Minkoff said later that he thinks the unanimous decision against all arguments by members of the Penalakut First Nation’s Elders, Salt Spring Island Residents for Responsible Land Use, and the Canadian Sablefish Association of commercial fishermen will clear the way not just for himself and his company but also for the sablefish aquaculture industry to develop in BC.
"It's a huge relief," confessed Minkoff. "Basically every single argument has been dismissed. It's very important for (people) working in BC and I think it means that the government knows now we're not just doing some nice work and developing very good technology; we're also doing it in a responsible manner and going through all the (approvals) stages, and consulting with First Nations, and the effluent quality is as high as it could be."
Minkoff said the permit which the three appellants were wanting overturned was only a temporary, 15-month approval for the hatchery's effluent treatment system, to see that it would work as well as was being claimed.
He said he now did not expect to have any problem approving an on-going operation permit for the system, to come into effect immediately on the expiry of the interim permit just three weeks or so later, on December 15.
"Now it's all been proven in court, I think it'll make it easier for government to work with us," he said. "The decision from the panel was that we're clean, and that's what we've been saying all along. The quality of the water leaving the hatchery into the (discharge) well (on a spit of land) is just barely above the ambient levels."
Minkoff said in 2004 the hatchery produced some 24,000 10-gram fingerlings for two growout buyers. As the case was unfolding and the final ruling was about to be handed down, the hatchery moved towards preselling the fingerlings from January's spawning season.
"We're already getting some orders for next year from more farms," he said. "We have contracts, so we are getting our production for next year pre-sold. Next year it?ll be 100,000 fingerlings and we want to get four different buyers."
It was mid to late November, that the board ruled that the three appeal groups had failed in all their arguments, including that the permit infringed on aboriginal rights and that the BC government's regional waste manager for the area had gone beyond the province's constitutional jurisdiction in issuing it.
And when it came to the claim that the waste manager and Sablefin had failed to consult adequately with the area's First Nations, the board rejected that too, saying that the requirement for proper consultation did not mean First Nations representatives could just ignore early attempts at communication and later claim that they hadn't been adequately consulted in a timely manner.
Minkoff lost one request to the panel though. He had asked to be awarded estimated costs of $7,500 against the Elders. The panel acknowledged it has the power to order that but said it reserves that for appeals which the board feels are clearly
frivolous or time-wasting.