Thank you.
My name is Ward Samson. I'm past president of the Newfoundland and Labrador Wildlife Federation, which was formed in 1962. We're affiliated with the Canadian Wildlife Federation.
For a number of years we have been asking for equal and unimpeded access to our outdoors in Newfoundland and Labrador. We firmly believe that hunters and fishermen and fisherwomen should have access to our land to enjoy outdoor pursuits.
We also firmly believe that we must manage our wildlife so that future generations have those resources to use and enjoy. Unfortunately, over the number of years that we've been part of Canada, those resources and freedoms have been fraught with the mandates of industry and special interest groups, which have dictated government policy both federally and provincially.
In 1949 we joined Canada as the tenth province. On three occasions before that, we didn't join. Canada wanted us, but we said no, we didn't want to come. But we did join in a plebiscite in 1949. I would like to remind the people present and all of Canada that for almost 500 years the fishery was the mainstay of Newfoundland and of the rest of Europe, South America, North America, and the Caribbean. We didn't have a real federal fisheries presence until 1953. They became less minuscule because they had some details to work out with the Canada and Newfoundland agreement. It was not until the 1970s that we had a big fisheries presence in Newfoundland.
As you all know, in 1992 we had a cod moratorium--no more fish to catch. Canada managed our offshore fishery for 39 years. We had managed it for 500. Thirty-nine years, and nothing left--done, over with, can't catch any more fish. Occasionally we can take a few cod, five fish per day; that's it, no more, no less.
How did Canada destroy this fishery for Newfoundlanders? Some of them are at fault too; don't get me wrong. In 39 years--not 500, not 100, but 39--gone, no more fish. There are mounds and mounds of reports that would explain why, maybe, but the reality is mismanagement of a resource by central Canada's government policy and the Newfoundland government's policy. Today, from our perspective, we cannot even get a fish to eat without going through many federal government hoops.
I participated in a province-wide protest about five years ago. I didn't get charged, but we don't have to have a licence any more. We can catch five fish, but we don't have to have any more tags for our cod. Nova Scotia gets 11 months. What do you think of five weeks? Why is this gap between provinces? I don't understand it.
When we talk about sustainable development, we must reflect animal movements and have no artificial borders put in place by governments and bureaucracies.
I don't think the codfish understand that they are Newfoundland and Labrador fish. When they reach close to Nova Scotia, do they say that they can't cross the border? Do they say “We are Newfoundland and Labrador fish, and we cannot cross the border”? I think not.
We cannot manage for fish alone. Sustainable development must manage for people. We have to manage for people, not fish. People want equal and fair treatment.
Do we sell farm tractors to other countries in return for cod quotas--which they did--on the Grand Banks? Maybe it wasn't your government, but they did it.
Do we ensure that landlocked countries in Europe get fish to eat and have a codfish quota--which they did?
Do we insist that an inshore fishery fleet in Newfoundland harvest cod on the spawning grounds in winter time--which they did? Five friends of mine drowned in a boat off the south coast of Newfoundland harvesting cod in the winter. They were on the spawning grounds. They were told to go and catch them, boys, so that foreign fleets couldn't come in and catch them.
What happened was that they were knee deep in cod spawn, and I know, because my uncles were there. They were knee deep in spawn, and they were shoveling them off the decks of the boat. They were undersized fish, shovelled off, dead, and floated out, because the market dictates, not conservation. The market dictates for fish and for cod.
Is what I just told you sustainable development of a resource? No, it's definitely not. That is what happens, and that is what has happened in Newfoundland. Because of past government policy, that means they've left their small bays and inlets and have gone off to Alberta, to Fort McMurray. And they're not coming back. They're gone.
We managed the development of the fishery, oh yes, but not the sustainable development of the fishery.
That's the cod fishery.
I just want to mention Muskrat Falls. Maybe you've heard about Muskrat Falls, the Danny Williams thing.
Listen, we have a proposed development of Muskrat Falls. This power line that runs from Muskrat Falls to St. John's is going to cross 586 salmon rivers. They are not all big ones, but there are 586. Now, I don't know where they're going to cross. I've asked. They don't know where they're going to cross. Those small streams and rivers are spawning streams for salmon. Do they know where they're going to cross? No one seems to know.
Our provincial government is being guaranteed a federal government loan for Muskrat Falls, by Stephen Harper, so that we can have this thing go ahead.
I have not been privy to any environmental impact study on how the power corridor will impact on the surrounding environment. We know that together with salmon spawning in those 586 rivers, along those rivers, where they come into where I live, they come into woodland caribou calving grounds.
I just want to read you a little quote from Chief Seattle. Chief Seattle says, “We do not inherit the world from our ancestors, but borrow it from our children”. We seem to see the world of the quick dollar and tend to leave our land in a malaise for the quick dollar.
Basically, what I'm trying to say is that when we go to Kentucky Fried Chicken or McDonald's, we don't make that justification that it's meat that was once a live animal. For some reason, we forget it.
When we go hunting seals, we don't kill whitecoats any more, by the way. We haven't done that for years. I wish someone would tell people we don't kill whitecoats. We've told them, but they still don't seem to believe us, for some reason.
The last thing I'm trying to say is that there's a new hydro development or some kind of a pipeline going through B.C. I have lots of degrees after my name. I wouldn't mind to tell people what's good for them in B.C., but I'm from Newfoundland. How can I tell someone from northern B.C. what he should do? I can't do it. I don't know it.
We must manage our renewable resources for our children and ensure that they have the same for their day. We must mitigate the damage to our environment so that we leave the least visible footprint for the future to see. It is the non-renewable resources that can give us wealth, but the renewable resources give us life. I think we should try to remember that as a benchmark for life. It's quite simple--nothing more, nothing less.
Thank you.