The management at the Burnaby-based Fortune House Seafood Restaurant agrees with Mayor Derek Corrigan that the shark fin issue is best handled at the federal level.
Fortune House has seven shark fin soup options on its dinner menu and is the only Burnaby restaurant listed on the stopsharkfinning.net website, which asks visitors to boycott restaurants that serve the dish and posts a global list of restaurants that have it on the menu.
The secretary for the restaurant, Sally Lau, responded to requests for an interview with an emailed statement from the management.
"We support environmental protection, but we also treasure the freedom of choice," the email stated. "A municipal ban on shark fins is not the solution. Leave it to the federal government."
The restaurant is the venue for many Burnaby Board of Trade events, including a high tea dim sum with B.C. Multiculturalism Minister John Yap, taking place today (Oct. 31).
When asked during a phone interview last Tuesday if the shark fin ban might affect cultural and business relations in Burnaby if it goes through, board president and CEO Paul Holden asked if he could respond to the NOW about that via email.
"Let me think about that for a few minutes," he said. "It's not something that's been discussed on a board level here."
He did not send an email response and did not reply to a follow-up email from the NOW, which asked questions regarding the potential ban and the event at Fortune House.
Yap did not respond to requests for an interview on the cultural implications of a shark fin ban before press time, but Dan Gilmore, communications manager for the ministry, said the minister did not choose the venue for the board of trade event.
Though Burnaby's mayor and council are waiting for a staff report on the issue and are considering partnering with Vancouver and Richmond on a regional ban, Corrigan has said repeatedly it is something that should be handled by the federal or provincial governments.
"The problem is, and I've talked to staff about it, our authority is questionable in that area as to whether or not we have the ability to make that kind of ban," he said in a recent interview. "In places like Washington and Oregon and what they're considering in California, it's been state bans. So it sort of stretches the power of cities."
The challenge is balancing the city's limitations, cultural interests and sustainable environmental practices, Corrigan said.
"While we're trying to balance the interests of our ethnic communities in wanting to have what is considered a delicacy, we also are looking at a practice that is unsustainable and will eventually create an imbalance in the ocean," he said. "The issue of the un-sustainability of the practices of shark finning and how cruel the way in which they're harvesting these fins is, I think, has everybody worried."
It is not something the city would consider without regional support, he added.
The City of Vancouver has said it wants to pursue a ban with the two neighbouring cities but the City of Richmond has not yet made a decision on whether or not it will.
"We probably would not have taken that issue on except for the idea that several cities were dealing with it right now and formulating bylaws, so we had to come to a conclusion quickly," Corrigan said.
Since June, councils for Port Moody, Coquitlam, the City of North Vancouver and Maple Ridge have all passed motions banning shark fin sales.
Burnaby city staff will likely be presenting a report on the issue to council at the end of the month, according to Corrigan.
"My read of council is that most of the councillors are sympathetic to a ban," he said.
jfuller-evans@ burnabynow.com
