The decision on whether to renew salmon farming licenses on the West Coast that will come before the federal cabinet on Tuesday is a microcosm of the struggle between the environment and the economy that has bedeviled the Liberal government ever since it promised to balance these competing interests in 2015. The predicament facing the Ehattesaht First Nation on Vancouver Island’s West Coast is its compelling symbol: The band has hanging in the balance a new $300-million salmon-farming opportunity that could help it out of deepening economic and social hopelessness, but it could all be scuppered by environmentally activist ministers.