This spring and summer, there is a lot going on, and consequential decisions to be made with a focus on coastal industries. As in any significant industrial decision, those who are impacted the most are workers, small businesses and then they ripple through communities.
Rewrite of Salmon Allocation Plan
The Salmon Allocation Plan (SAP) and its execution are the foundation of all that happens during each season. The current framework for the SAP has been in place since 1999 and is under review.
The SAP starts with the Fisheries and Oceans Canada (DFO), making a preseason estimate of the expected return to the more significant river systems and the salmon species entering them. It is this Total Allowable Catch (TAC) that is allocated between the First Nations, commercial and recreational fisheries.
Before this review of the SAP, there had been a number of discretionary harvest and sell agreements established between different First Nations and the DFO without a formal change to the SAP.
With legal challenges to the Ahousaht decision exhausted, which recognized First Nations’ right to harvest and sell fish within their traditional territories, DFO Minister Dominic LeBlanc ordered a review of the SAP in 2021. It became obvious that the new Indigenous fishery needed to be formally recognized within the SAP.
In the current SAP formula, conservation is placed ahead of all other fisheries, followed by First Nations fisheries. Then chum, pink and sockeye salmon are split 95% to the commercial fleet, 5% to the recreational fleet that also has priority access to Chinook and coho salmon.
The Commercial Salmon Advisory Board (CSAB) consists of two representatives from each Area Harvest Committee (AHC A-H), as well as representatives from the Native Brotherhood of BC (2), the processing sector (2) and the UFAWU (2).
Among other points, the CSAB called for a fixed percentage allocation for Indigenous rights, commercial and recreational fisheries, and an end to the recreational sector’s priority on coho and Chinook. They also recommended that any commercial licence bought by the federal government and transferred to First Nations remain under the same rules and regulations as the commercial fleet.
After decades of decline in part due to weak stocks but also policy, how this works out is critical to the future commercial salmon fishery.
Forestry
For 2026, the province-wide actual cut is set at 29 million cubic metres for each of the next three years—still well short of the province’s own allowable annual cut (AAC) of approximately 60 million cubic metres.
In the months since the Provincial Forestry Advisory Committee (PFAC) tabled its final report, From Conflict to Care, earlier this spring, the progress on Forest Landscape Planning remains bogged down.
The Wilderness Committee has launched a new campaign directly against the PFAC’s approach to old-growth forests. Sierra Club B.C. has really stepped up its campaign with a promotion aired during the FIFA World Cup 2026 in Vancouver and broadcast around the world.
Meanwhile, the province has adopted the language of the environmental campaign. The messaging of the federal government’s Transformation Task Force Final Report in April 2026 does not connect access to old-growth timber when addressing increasing the supply of affordable fibre. This is what forestry workers on the coast are waiting for. None of this brings comfort to the forestry-dependent coastal communities when it appears the War in the Woods may be igniting again.
Salmon farming
Today, 100 percent of B.C.’s farmed salmon is raised in agreement with Rights Holder First Nations. The sector directly and indirectly employs over 1,000 Indigenous people and provides about $134 million in total annual economic benefits to First Nations peoples.
And yet, salmon farming faces an existential threat. June 2029 is when the salmon farming industry, as it operates today, is to shut down.
Fisheries and Oceans Canada’s own 2020 Salmonid Alternative Production Technologies Technical Working Group Report made it clear that B.C.’s environment for licensing, research and development offered no viable pathway to secure private financing or deploy alternative operational technologies at scale. Fast forward to 2026: absolutely nothing has changed, yet the federal government is pressing ahead regardless with a June 2029 deadline that its own historical data proves is impossible.
According to the B.C. Salmon Farmers’ paper, Economic and Financial Impacts of the Draft Transition Plan for BC Salmon Farms, the salmon farming sector has seen a 45% reduction in sites over a six-year period. This has led to annual losses of over $770 million in economic output, $286 million in GDP, 3,000 jobs and $170 million in income for families.
Negotiations continue between the Coalition of First Nations for Finfish Stewardship (FNFFS) and the B.C. Salmon Farmers Association, with the federal and provincial governments, seeking a workable transition plan. The negotiations are at a critical juncture.
Central Coast Marine Protection Area
The Central Coast Marine Protected Area (CCMPA) announced on May 22, 2026, established a marine protected area unlike others. The executive governance of CCMPA is charged with the responsibility to recommend to provincial and federal cabinets, covering all matters, including industrial and recreational activities for all user groups.
The leadership group includes six regional First Nations, the Province of British Columbia, the Government of Canada and Parks Canada.
The CCMPA and the Great Bear Rainforest together cover roughly half the B.C. coast, involving 16 First Nations. It appears that British Columbia and Canada expect this format to be applied to other areas.
The risk is a patchwork of differing regulations and licensing, compounded by the rising number of disputes between First Nations over overlapping territorial claims. The CCMPA is another consequential test of how co-management will function across British Columbia.
Busy Summer on BC’s Coast
While loggers, fish boat deckhands, salmon farmers and fish processors are hard at work, all those challenging issues will be swirling around their heads and every lunchroom discussion.
Meanwhile, activist campaigns heat up, First Nations are pursuing and achieving ever deeper success and benefits through employment, stewardship, joint ventures, equity, board seats and majority ownership of resource projects.
There is historic competition and division between working people as there is between the nations involved in these key coastal industries. The fact that the future of salmon fisheries, forestry and salmon farms is in jeopardy demands finding common ground. Life on the coast will not be healthy if forestry, salmon farming, commercial and recreational salmon fisheries are not healthy and productive.
The choice to apply the precautionary principle without fairly weighing the contributions these industries make to prosperity, economic sovereignty and environmental innovation is one that coastal workers and communities can no longer afford.
If sustainable forestry, fisheries and aquaculture, including salmon farming, become the collective goal, all will be better for it.
Jim Rushton is a 46-year veteran of BC’s resource and transportation sectors, with experience in union representation, economic development, and terminal management. Reach him at [email protected].
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