Madam Speaker, if fish were trees, the government sat idly by while one-quarter of the Fraser River basin was clear cut this summer.
In July and August approximately two million sockeye disappeared from the Fraser River between Mission and the upriver spawning grounds. This disaster will cost the British Columbia economy between $170 million and $500 million in 2008. Why? Because there will be no fishery in 2008, the next year in the cycle. There will be no commercial fishery, no sport fishery and no food, social and ceremonial fishery for natives. It will be 2020 before things return to normal.
What has been the government's response? It has put a Liberal friend in charge of the normal regular post-season review, and hopes the issue will go away.
What the industry and the people of British Columbia want is a judicial inquiry into the management of the fishery this past summer.