Fisheries Committee on June 6th, 2006

[The Chair, Conservative, Gerald Keddy]

I appreciate that, Mr. Sprout, but the scientific assessment seems to have some holes in it, and it's been pointed out by all the members of the committee that it certainly appears, upon the surface, to be quite problematic.

I appreciate what you're saying about the timeframe, and it is only a personal assessment here, but I've certainly removed a few thousand yards of gravel in the past--not from riverbanks, but it can be done--and quite frankly, I still have difficulty. If the long-term purpose of this is to actually remove enough gravel to deepen the channel somehow and increase flood protection, and if you could remove the risk from the pink salmon totally by that narrow window of time, by simply doing it every second year instead of every year, on a continual basis, with no mitigation at all, no environmental damage whatsoever to the salmon resource, then perhaps that would be better than not allowing any extraction at all, if that's where this ends up.

[Paul Sprout]

Could I provide a bit more background on this?

[The Chair, Conservative, Gerald Keddy]

Very quickly, please.

[Paul Sprout]

First of all, we know from the experience we had in 2006 that we have to learn from it. I want to make that point. I don't want to lose sight of that, but I would like to respond to the last point you raised, when you have a moment.

[The Chair, Conservative, Gerald Keddy]

All right, go ahead.

[Paul Sprout]

The Fraser River has five species of Pacific salmon that spawn in it, and a number of non-salmon species. Those fish are present in the river, migrating downstream, after March 15. So even if you were to only remove gravel every other year, you would still have a problem of other salmon species being present. It's not just pink salmon. It's a very complex system.

All of these were taken into consideration when the science was done by scientists and others leading up to this framework I spoke of. What we need to do now is to take from this committee and from the community what it is that we can learn from the experience of 2006 that recognizes that the Fraser River is a complex environment. It's not one species we're dealing with; it's many species. We have strong interests to remove gravel and at the same time to preserve salmon. So what we need to do is to learn from this. It may well be that the answer is that you don't remove it at certain sites in even years, as you've suggested, but that at other sites it's fine.

It may end up being more complicated, but in the end I think that's what we have to learn from this, and that's what we intend to do.

[The Chair, Conservative, Gerald Keddy]

Thank you, Mr. Sprout, and thank you to our witnesses.

I'm going to allow Mr. Cummins a 30-second final question.

[John Cummins, Conservative, Delta—Richmond East, BC]

What area in British Columbia has a surplus of fishery officers that would allow for the temporary transfer of those officers to the Fraser River?

[Paul Sprout]

I do not believe that we have a surplus of fishery officers in B.C. We will transfer officers to the Fraser because that's considered the highest priority. That will mean that we will not have the kind of level in the areas where they're coming from that we would like to have. We are going to be working with the officers in the area that is judged to be the highest priority.

[The Chair, Conservative, Gerald Keddy]

Thank you.

[Paul Sprout]

Thank you. I appreciate the committee allowing me the opportunity to speak.

[The Chair, Conservative, Gerald Keddy]

I appreciate the three witnesses appearing today. It was a very informative discussion.

I have a notice of motion here from Mr. Matthews.

[Bill Matthews, Liberal, Random—Burin—St. George's, NL]

Mr. Chairman, I would like to follow up on last week's conversation about food, social, and ceremonial fish on the Fraser River and the significant amounts of fish in cold storage. I said last week that I thought the committee should make some recommendations about that, so I have proposed a motion for the committee's consideration.

[The Chair, Conservative, Gerald Keddy]

I would ask the clerk to read the motion. I understand there is going to be some discussion.

It is simply a notice of motion; it's not the motion.

[The Clerk of the Committee, Mr. James M. Latimer]

Mr. Matthews has given notice of a motion that reads as follows:

That this committee report to the House recommending that the Minister of Fisheries and Oceans prohibit further harvesting of salmon by the Cheam Band for food, social, and ceremonial purposes until the band members consume the salmon currently held in cold storage.

That is the notice of motion.

[The Chair, Conservative, Gerald Keddy]

Thank you.

We will suspend for a minute or two minutes, just long enough to shut down everything, and then we'll go in camera.

[Proceedings continue in camera]