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by Jennifer Dart
The Westerly News
June 14, 2006

Tofino council voted down its own recommendation to send a letter in support of a sustainable aquaculture industry in Clayoquot Sound to the Legislative Assembly and the BC Salmon Farmer's Association.

The suggestion was made by Coun. Gibson during last week's Committee of the Whole (COW) meeting, after she attended the assembly's hearing held at the Tin Wis Resort June 6.

All recommendations made at COW meetings have to be ratified by council at a subsequent meeting.

Couns. Strudwick and Tilitzky both agreed it was best not to send the letter.

Strudwick said he thought it was a "bad idea to embroil the citizens of Tofino" in a controversy on which the community is already divided.

The division was illustrated in the number of people for and against the industry wfho attended the council meeting, filling all the available seats in council chambers.

Strudwick said council would be further polarizing the community by writing the letter.

Coun. Tilitzky suggested it might be useful to encourage more discussion on what constitutes sustainable aquaculture.

Tilitzky said the industry "in its present state is not sustainable," and pointed to data on the energy used to raise carniverous fish outweighing the energy produced. He agreed great strides have been made in the industry, but said that change has been pushed for by the environmental side of the equation.

"I'd say [the industry] is much closer than 15 years ago [to sustainability], but it's not there yet," said Tilitzky.

Coun. Gibson disagreed, saying she chose the wording of the motion because she wanted it to "make sense for both sides." She said council should keep in mind there is a lot of misinformation about salmon farming, which was evident in the emails from the public leading up to the vote.

In her opinion, Gibson said the industry is trying to make practices sustainable and "wouldn't have wanted to see the [recent] sea lion deaths."

Despite the fact the industry is "certainly an important economic driver," Gibson said everyone concerned cares about the environment.

Coun. Ayres, Shaw and Anderson were absent from the meeting and chairperson Mayor Fraser did not weigh in on the issue. The chair is only required to vote if the vote is tied and in this case, Tilitzky and Strudwick voted against sending the letter, with only Gibson voting in favour and so the motion was defeated.

During the public question period, Ken Faris suggested it would be a "tremendous help" if council could find some way of encouraging an honest discussion among the opposing parties on fish farming to find some way of "overcoming the nastiness" that exists under the surface of the community.

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