How does salmon farming contribute to the local B.C. economy?
Salmon aquaculture contributes enormously to our British Columbia economy – more than 3,500 direct and indirect jobs. Ninety percent of those jobs are in coastal communities, and 50 percent of those jobs are for women and First Nations. These are full-time, year-round jobs. Eight First Nations on the coast of British Columbia are involved in salmon aquaculture. The unemployment rate in Klemtu, a First Nations community on B.C.’s central coast, has been reduced from 90 percent to 30 percent since aquaculture came to the community. For more information, see: http://www.kitasoo.org/ Both Canadian and “off-shore” companies operate salmon farms in British Columbia – a mix that is common across most businesses and industries operating in the province. The high start-up and capital costs associated with salmon farming make the industry prohibitively expensive to smaller companies, and most farms in the province are operated by multi-national companies. Regardless of the location of their head
