Getting to the bottom Six years after provincial Environment Minister George Heyman told Canadians his bottom line was to ensure effluent going into the ocean was free of pathogens, I felt it was time

Getting to the bottom
Six years after provincial Environment Minister George Heyman told
Canadians his bottom line was to ensure effluent going into the ocean was
free of pathogens, I felt it was time to move past corresponding. I filed a com-
plaint with the Office of the British Columbia Ombudsperson. After several
months of review, they initiated an investigation in June 2024.
Ombudsperson investigations are confidential, with no legal power to com-
pel action. I was told it would take about six months to complete, then they
would provide their recommendations to the Legislative Assembly. If our
MLAs don’t respond, the report becomes public.
The Heyman denial scenario has been on repeat since salmon farms arrived
in the as both provincial and federal governments continued allowing
salmon farms to multiply despite evidence they were killing wild salmon.
Finally, 30 years on, the federal and some First Nation governments reacted
to the scope of evidence and closed nearly half the salmon farms on the
coast.
Heyman, seemingly oblivious, offered up the ocean as a sacrifice zone -a
dump for infected blood from the salmon farming industry. As a result,
countless millions of wild salmon continue to absorb this foreign virus as
they pass Campbell River.
I suspect the Ombudsperson’s report will be ignored as much as I was, but
this cannot be an excuse to stop trying to make government accountable.
Неута
“bottom line” was meant to protect the industry’s bottom line.
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