Premier John Horgan has asked his deputy minister to lead a review of the province’s animal health lab that has landed Agriculture Minister Lana Popham in hot water at the B.C. legislature.
Horgan tasked Don Wright with sorting out whether allegations about the “integrity” of the lab’s science are founded.
Wright, who is also the head of the public service, will work with the Public Service Agency.
The allegations come amid fish-farm protests and questions from the Opposition Liberals about the appropriateness of Popham’s political role in launching the review.
The province says a scientist, Kristi Miller-Saunders, challenged the integrity of the lab’s research when interviewed for a report on the CTV program W5. Miller-Saunders is head of the molecular genetics program at the Department of Fisheries and Oceans’ Pacific Biological Station in Nanaimo.
“If we have a federal scientist on national television drawing into question the work of provincial scientists, it only stands to reason for reasonable people to say: ‘Let’s get to the bottom of that,’ ” Horgan told the legislature. “That’s exactly what we’re doing.”
The Opposition Liberals, however, have accused Popham in the legislature of targeting fish pathologist Gary Marty, who works at the lab and has disputed claims that open-net fish farms pose a high risk to wild stocks.
Horgan and Popham denied that Wednesday.
“This is not about Dr. Marty,” Horgan said. “It is about the lab and how the federal government views the work of that lab.”
The issue dominated question period for the third straight day Wednesday. The Liberals went after Popham for leaving the impression that the Department of Fisheries and Oceans, rather than a single scientist, had complained about the lab’s research.
“We now know that there have been no official complaints against the province’s Animal Health Centre,” said Liberal critic Michelle Stilwell, MLA for Parksville-Qualicum.
“The facts that the minister tried to create simply don’t exist. Instead, if the minister is supposed to be believed now, all of this seems to be based on the concerns raised by a single individual.”
DFO said in a statement Tuesday that, while it made no formal complaint, the B.C. government was being “diligent” in following up on Miller-Saunders’ concerns.
Horgan, who fielded all the questions directed at Popham in the legislature, said the Liberals are blowing up the issue “like an atomic bomb.”
“The concern that the public has is there’s a dispute among scientists about the impact of finfish aquaculture on our wild salmon stocks,” he said. “And an appropriate response from a government official, a minister responsible for that lab, is to get to the bottom of it, and that’s what we’re doing.”
Popham said her office organized a call with Miller-Saunders after seeing the scientist on W5.
“This was on national television and there was accusations about our provincial lab, one that I am the minister of. So along with my staff, my deputy minister, we organized a call,” Popham said.
While she acknowledged that the public service is the appropriate venue for a review, she defended the phone call, saying it wasn’t out of line for a minister to step in. “I obviously was interested in why there were those accusations, so I think it’s absolutely appropriate.”
The allegations causing concern are unclear. Popham has repeatedly said they are about the “integrity” of scientific data.
She sidestepped questions from reporters Wednesday who asked if she was investigating an allegation expressed on the program about a conflict of interest.
“I’m not doing anything with [that], this is in the hands of the public service,” Popham said.
“It’s an allegation by a scientist against our science. That’s a serious allegation.”
The review will determine if best practices and ethical standards are followed, including against potential conflicts of interest, according to the terms of reference.
It will look at how policies are implemented and whether they are communicated clearly.
It will not review the conduct of individuals, the government said.
Popham’s investigation comes amid ongoing protests at three fish farms off north Vancouver Island in the Broughton Archipelago. Fish-farm opponents have also occupied Popham and Horgan’s constituency offices.
Open-net pens allow water to flow freely between farmed salmon and the ocean environment, which some environmentalists say exposes wild stocks to viruses and disease. Some First Nations have argued the farms are operating in their traditional territory without their permission.
A fish scientist at the centre of a debate about fish farms says he’s not surprised people think there might be a conflict of interest at his lab.
Gary Marty, a fish pathologist at the province’s Animal Health Centre, said the lab conducts work for both the fish-farm industry and government.
“Certainly the potential for conflict of interest, I discussed this with our other staff, and it’s certainly there,” Marty said.
Agriculture Minister Lana Popham has come under fire this week for saying she would investigate the “integrity” of the lab’s science — a move the Opposition Liberals criticized as politically motivated and inappropriate.
Popham initially said the review came at the request of the Department of Fisheries and Oceans, before the federal department said that wasn’t true. DFO said it never made an official request, but one of its scientists expressed concerns.
On Wednesday, Premier John Horgan said he had assigned his deputy minister, who is the head of the public service, to oversee the review.
“I think the review is welcome,” Marty said.
“I don’t anticipate any problems with the response, but if there are some suggestions we can take, we’ll go ahead and make adjustments as needed.”
"The Animal Health Centre is the only place in Canada with team of board-certified veterinary pathologists who specialize in fish and work in an accredited diagnostic laboratory, Marty said."
“If someone wants those parameters for examination of their fish, there’s only one place in Canada where they can get that done. And that’s our lab,” Marty said.
The lab informs clients when it might have another client with a potential conflict of interest, he said. “It’s something we have to deal with all the time.”
Marty said he did not take the allegations, in which he has been named, as a personal attack.
“I saw it more as an attack on the entire lab than an attack personally.”
The federal Department of Fisheries and Oceans says it never asked the province to investigate a fish lab, despite repeated claims from Agriculture Minister Lana Popham to the contrary.
Popham has come under fire this week from the Opposition Liberals for a review of the Animal Health Centre, including work by fish pathologist Gary Marty — who has disputed claims that open-net fish farms pose a high risk to wild stocks.
Popham, MLA for Saanich South, has defended the review, saying it comes in response to concerns by DFO about the integrity of the lab’s research.
“I want to emphasize that it was the Department of Fisheries and Oceans who called some of our data into question. We would take that very seriously because these are the partners that we work with as we look at fish pathology,” Popham said in question period Tuesday.
DFO said Tuesday that while one of its scientists has expressed concerns, the department has not lodged a formal complaint. The concern about scientific testing at the lab came from Kristi Miller-Saunders, who is the head of the molecular genetics program at DFO’s Pacific Biological Station in Nanaimo, it said.
“Fisheries and Oceans Canada [DFO] has not made any official complaint to the Province of B.C. regarding the diagnostic work undertaken by the province’s Animal Health Centre,” DFO said in a statement.
“While DFO has not lodged an official complaint, the B.C. government is being diligent in following up on the concerns raised by Dr. Miller-Saunders. The department welcomes this review by the B.C. provincial authorities and will co-operate in any way it can.
The federal department has an agreement in place with the lab to conduct diagnostic testing on farmed salmon samples collected through the DFO fish health audit program, which is in place through March 31, 2020, it said.
Popham’s investigation comes amid ongoing protests at three fish farms off north Vancouver Island in the Broughton Archipelago.
Open-net pens allow water to flow freely between farmed salmon and the ocean environment, which some environmentalists say exposes wild stocks to viruses and disease. Some First Nations have argued the farms are operating in their traditional territory, without their permission.
B.C. Liberal environment critic Peter Milobar called the latest developments “stunning” and Popham’s behaviour “very troubling.”
“I think it’s time for the minister to come clean on what’s really driving this personal agenda, because that’s really what it’s starting to look like, that it truly is her own personal belief system overriding how a minister of the Crown should be acting and responding.”
Popham was not immediately available for comment.
In addition to the lab review, Popham has come under criticism from the B.C. Liberals for a letter she wrote Oct. 13, which they say threatened to put a “chill” on business investment in the province.
The letter effectively put Marine Harvest Canada on notice that the province might not renew the company’s fishfarm tenures in the Broughton Archipelago.
Popham’s letter made no mention of salmon health, and focused instead on the province’s commitment to the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.
