August 13th, 2024
Overview of the Court Hearing
From June 10th- June 13th 2024, twenty-five Lax Kw’alaams representatives, including band councillors and leadership from the Nine Allied Tribes, attended a federal court hearing in Vancouver. The Lax Kw’alaams Band requested a judicial review of the Minister of Fisheries and Oceans’ decision to endorse the Northern Shelf Bioregion Network Action Plan, and to start rolling out Marine Protected Areas in the Northern Shelf Bioregion (NSB) where the Lax Kw’alaams commercial fleet regularly fish. The purpose of the court hearing was to consider Lax Kw’alaams’ request for a judicial review.
Why did Lax Kw’alaams request a judicial review?
Our main concern is that the network of Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) scheduled for implementation in the Northern Shelf Bioregion would negatively impact our commercial fishing interests. One of the main arguments in our case was that the decision to endorse the Network Action Plan, which sets out a blueprint for hundreds of marine protected zones, was made without adequate consultation with Lax Kw’alaams or an assessment of socio-economic impacts this network could have on our fisheries. We requested a judicial review to ensure our right to consultation and accommodation is respected.
What will happen next?
Justice McVeigh is reviewing the evidence before making her judgement. This will likely take several months or more, but we will provide an update to the community as soon as the decision is made.
Meanwhile, the Marine Protected Areas Network in the NSB is now in the implementation phase, which means that various marine protections are being discussed and rolled out across the entire Northern Shelf Bioregion. Engagement with stakeholders is now occurring at a site-by-site level, and the Lax Kw’alaams consultation team is working to understand the best path forward and engage in consultation in this new process. Our goal is to engage in consultation in good faith to ensure that the rights and interests of our people are heard and accommodated.
Background info on the Northern Shelf Bioregion Marine Protected Areas Network
The NSB MPA Network is a proposed network of Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) that would stretch from North Vancouver Island to the Alaskan-Canadian border across an area of 102,000km2. The plan for the MPA network proposes hundreds of different marine protected zones with various harvesting restrictions and protections. Some zones are scheduled to be implemented as soon as 2025. While there are no new MPAs slated for establishment in Lax Kw’alaams’ territorial waters at this time, our commercial fishers routinely fish in areas where marine protections will be implemented—for instance, in the Hecate Strait. We are concerned the NSB MPA Network will restrict where and how our commercial fishers can harvest and our ability to trade quota with other areas. Since there has been no socio-economic assessment of the network as a whole, we will likely be unable to measure the impact of the NSB MPA Network until it has already been established. To learn more about the planned network and sites, visit https://mpanetwork.ca/.
More Information
We will hold a community meeting in late Fall 2024, when we hope to hear back about the result of the court hearing and will be able to discuss next steps. If you have further questions or concerns about the NSB MPA network and how it affects Lax Kw’alaams, please contact:
Braden Dudoward, Councillor/Fisheries Committee Chair: [email protected]
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