Regulation Review

The NS Dept of Fisheries and Aquaculture (NSDFA) has commissioned a review of the regulations governing aquaculture in the province.   Comment forms can be submitted through September 6, ’22.

FOAH applauds Minister Craig for calling this review and encourages NSDFA to align NS Regulations more closely with the Doelle Lahey Report of 2014 on which the regulations were meant to be based. Our comments and recommendations can be found here. 

Click here to access the NSDFA comment form and submit your comments.

We encourage everyone to submit a form and suggest you make the following points about NS’s regulations:

·      NSDFA should increase its focus on regulation vs promotion

·      NSDFA should execute its plan to evaluate and assign color codes to regions based on their suitability for aquaculture.

o   This would transfer responsibility for environmental and economic impact assessment as well as public engagement from applicants to professional, 3rd party experts vs applicants who have obvious self interest in the outcome.

o   It would also speed up reviews and allow NSDFA to focus its resources on areas best suited to aquaculture vs sites selected based on being within eye sight of the applicant’s home.

·      NSDFA should increase transparency by

o   Making all documents and correspondence regarding applications available to the public

o   Responding to FOIPOP requests in a timely and responsive manner

o   Making the “Farm Management Plans” and compliance reports available to the public

·      Aquaculture Review Board should be required to consider applicant’s compliance record and the the NSDFA’s enforcement record relative to an applicant when evaluating license/leasing applications.

·      NSDFA should prohibit the sale of aquaculture leases for atleast 5 years after a leases is granted to prevent applicants from profiting by “flipping” the lease to another operator…something FOAH believes TPCI may do when/if its applications are approved.