For those of us committed to the health of wild salmon and their habitats, elections aren’t just political milestones—they determine who holds the pen on critical funding, policies, and protections that shape the future of our rivers, our coasts, and our communities. Now that the election is over, it’s essential that we stay engaged and ensure that the promises made translate into meaningful action.

Outlined below are the commitments made in the 2025 Liberal Party Platform that, if kept, will impact wild salmon and their habitats in British Columbia.

If you’re here looking for any renewed commitments on the fish farm ban, we’ll break the news now: there are none.

The only mention of ‘aquaculture’ in the platform was under a section on building a clean economy, noting:

“From the mining of minerals and metals, to harnessing clean energy, fueling oil and gas production, harvesting forests sustainably, and advancing aquaculture, the workers and businesses in these sectors are the backbone of our economy.”

Freshwater Commitments

The Liberal platform included several commitments that, on paper, could benefit wild salmon and freshwater ecosystems:​

• Protect more of our freshwater as it becomes increasingly attractive to foreign actors by developing a National Water Security Strategy and prohibiting their inclusion in trade deals.

• Modernizing the Canada Water Act.

• Strengthen water stewardship through the Canada Water Agency.

• Launching a municipal stream under the Freshwater Action Plan for regions facing freshwater challenges and equipping them to safeguard local water resources.

• Investing $100 million to create a Strategic Water Security Technology Fund for Canadian R&D, AI, monitoring, and enforcement tools.

• Increasing funding by $10 million to fight aquatic invasive species.

• Matching private donations up to $250 million through the new Canadian Nature Protection Fund, to restore old-growth forests, safeguard carbon-rich peatlands, and revive our coastal waters.

• Prioritize natural infrastructure, like forested areas and wetlands. Nature protects against flooding, storm surges, extreme heat, mudslides, and other natural disasters. The government will use a mix of conservation funding, climate change adaptation funding, and leverage public-private infrastructure investments to invest in nature that protects communities.  

• Establish a new Indigenous Climate Readiness and Adaptation Fund and support Indigenous-led conservation initiatives to safeguard forests, waterways, oceans and wildlife and to bolster disaster response activities.

• Conserving 30% of Canada’s land, freshwater, and oceans by 2030.​

• Proactively rehabilitate and mitigate environmental and species at risk impacts in areas where we expect there to be significant infrastructure development over the next five years. We will do this in cooperation with project proponents, provinces, territories, and Indigenous partners that could impact endangered and at-risk species across the country. This includes habitats and environments near ports, railroads, airports, highways, critical mineral sites, energy infrastructure, and more. This will ensure prevention, mitigation, or offset measures are in place before projects even break ground.

While these initiatives are promising, there are some important realities to keep in mind.

The proposed $100 million Watershed Security Technology Fund, while welcome, is nowhere near the scale of investment needed to truly safeguard watersheds across Canada. Along with our many partners at the BC Watershed Security Coalition, Watershed Watch has been advocating for a B.C.-specific Watershed Security Fund of at least $1 billion to fund real on-the-ground work—floodplain planning, wetland restoration, local water stewardship, and local initiatives that allow communities to better manage and secure their watersheds.

Technology and research are important, but without serious investment in restoring and protecting the lands and waters that salmon depend on, the future remains precarious. $100 million may sound like a lot, but spread across our vast country and its many watersheds, it’s not even close to enough.

Another important caution: while the proactive mitigation and offset language sounds positive, too often, mitigation projects check a box for developers without delivering real results, while providing cover for destruction. A couple of ‘wildlife logs’ placed along streams, and a few trees planted can be called restoration, even though invasive species soon take over, salmon see no benefit, and more habitat is destroyed nearby.

Fisheries and Coastal Commitments

The platform also outlines investments that could support fishing communities and marine ecosystems. Strengthening coastal infrastructure is critical—not just for communities that depend on fishing, but also for the health of the marine environment.

• Protect marine life and clean up our shores. Ghost gear (lost or abandoned fishing equipment) traps and kills fish, marine mammals, and seabirds, damages sensitive habitats, and litters coastlines.

• Map Canada’s ecologically sensitive areas. We will map Canada’s carbon and biodiversity-rich ecological landscapes – including ocean coastlines, peatlands, and permafrost areas – to enable a more holistic ecosystem approach to conservation, carbon accounting, and project development. 

• Help our fisheries respond to tariffs and reduce risk in new markets by creating a new Arctic Fisheries Fund, and revamping the Atlantic Fisheries Fund, Quebec Fisheries Fund, and the British Columbia Salmon Restoration and Innovation Fund, increasing funding by 20% for each.

• Ratify the High Seas Treaty to protect biodiversity in international waters.

• Invest an additional $250 million to repair and maintain small craft harbours—vital infrastructure for fishing communities.

• Provide an additional $30 million through the AgriMarketing Program to help fish and seafood producers access new markets.

• Direct the Canada Infrastructure Bank to prioritize projects in fisheries, food supply, and agrifood—unlocking investment to support food security and affordability.

Moving forward, it’s crucial to keep pressure on federal leaders to reaffirm the 2029 deadline for removing open-net pen salmon farms. This commitment must be clearly reflected in the next Fisheries Minister’s mandate letter to ensure that the transition to sustainable aquaculture remains a government priority.

Another notable gap in the platform is any mention of the Pacific Salmon Treaty, which is coming up for renegotiation. This international agreement with the United States governs how salmon are harvested and conserved across our shared waters. The current Treaty is allowing Alaska to overfish B.C. salmon and dodge accountability. The Treaty’s renewal will have major consequences for our wild salmon, yet it was absent from the party’s commitments.

The Road Ahead

With the election behind us, the focus now shifts to action. The next key step will be to engage the federal government before mandate letters are issued to ministers, which set out their instructions and priorities.

It’s essential that wild salmon and watershed protection aren’t sidelined. Mandate letters can either drive real change or quietly water down promises.

We’ll be watching closely and advocating for:​

• A Fisheries Minister from B.C., as the past two ministers have been from eastern Canada.

• A reaffirmed commitment to fully end open-net pen salmon farming in B.C. by 2029.

• Improvements to fishery management that advance sustainable fishing practices and stop overfishing of endangered salmon and steelhead runs, along with a stronger Canada-US Pacific Salmon Treaty.

• Substantial investments in on-the-ground watershed restoration, exclusion of our fresh water from international trade agreements, and the upholding of environmental guardrails that defend salmon habitat, even as development projects move forward. We can grow our economy without sacrificing the health of our rivers, forests, and coastal waters.

• Effective flood planning that addresses the needs of all, including First Nations, farmers and fish.

Wild salmon can’t afford for momentum to stall. Their future depends on sustained public pressure, strong political leadership, and real investments where it matters most—on the ground, and in our watersheds.