Thank you very much.
On behalf of the five municipalities from the Upper Fraser Valley of British Columbia—the City of Chilliwack, the District of Hope, the District of Kent, the Fraser Valley Regional District, and the Village of Harrison Hot Springs—I wish to extend our appreciation to the committee for this invitation to participate in the discussions of the changes to the Canadian Environmental Assessment Act, the Fisheries Act, and the Species at Risk Act, as proposed in Bill C-38.
We commend the federal government for taking these initiations to simplify and expedite the approval process for major projects that have environmental implications. As communities that facilitate the corridor for major transmission lines, pipelines, both major railway lines, and the Trans-Canada Highway, we are well aware of the public hearings, etc., that major corporations—such as BC Hydro, Fortis, etc.—have to satisfy in order to expand their services to our communities and to the province of B.C. as a whole.
This is a stringent approval process; however, the efficiency of the present system could be improved. It is hoped that the changes proposed in Bill C-38 will achieve that objective. Time is money, and lengthy delays in the approval process for major projects can result in lost opportunities and can be harmful to the overall economy of our country.
However, of immediate concern to our communities in the Fraser Valley are the proposed changes to the Fisheries Act and the Species at Risk Act. The Fraser Valley is a flood plain known for the very high productivity of its soils for forage production—five or six harvests per season—and its specialty crops of fruits and vegetables.
Because of relatively high seasonal rainfalls and high water tables associated with the annual freshet from the Fraser River, it is essential for the productivity of these soils that they be drained effectively. This requires the annual maintenance of a network of engineered ditches that have been constructed to maintain the quality of these soils. The farmland and the surrounding forest and mountains are also drained by natural streams and sloughs that are legitimate fish habitat, and by the Fraser River itself, which of course is habitat for salmon and other species of fish such as the sturgeon.
The conflict between the farmers and the municipalities on the one hand, and the Fisheries Act and the Department of Fisheries and Oceans personnel on the other, is DFO's insistence that agricultural drainage ditches are fish habitat and therefore subject to the DFO directives based on the Fisheries Act. Therefore, obtaining approvals for annual drainage maintenance and routine culvert and bridge repair has become a major expense for the municipalities and a source of frustration for the farmers.
For the District of Kent, whose major industry is agriculture, 80% of the drainage costs are due to direct and indirect costs of getting approvals and permits from DFO. The proposed changes in the definition of fish habitat, as stated in Bill C-38, would limit fish habitat to streams, sloughs, and rivers, which are the habitat of the commercial fishery, and hopefully they will exclude agriculture drainage systems from being designated as fish habitat.
Similarly, if routine ditch maintenance is considered to result in the destruction of fish habitat, the municipalities whose ditches were involved must have provided compensation in the past, in the form of establishing new riparian areas that must be maintained in perpetuity. This requirement may be justified if natural streams are involved; however, it should not be required for ditches that are dry for a significant portion of the year. It is our interpretation that the proposed changes in Bill C-38 would eliminate the requirement of this form of compensation when drainage ditches are cleaned.
The Fraser Valley has a moderate climate, which has resulted in the identification of some waterways as home to species that are rare in Canada, such as the Salish sucker, Nooksack dace, and the Oregon spotted frog—which obviously belongs in Oregon.
That was not a problem for the municipalities until the Salish sucker and the Nooksack dace were declared endangered species by the federal Species at Risk Act, and the Oregon spotted frog was designated endangered by the British Columbia Ministry of Forests, Lands and Natural Resource Operations. These two species, the Oregon spotted frog and the Salish sucker, share the same habitat, except the Salish sucker prefers deep, shady, cool waterways, and the Oregon spotted frog prefers sunny, grassy ponds.
The frustration for municipal staff is that they may get a permit for drainage maintenance from the federal DFO, only to have it forestalled by the staff of the provincial ministry. This type of conflict does not appear to have been recognized in the proposed changes to the Species at Risk Act. For the species that occur in only a very limited area of one province, it is suggested that their designation as a species at risk should be left up to the province that they call home rather than up to the federal act.
In the past year, DFO staff have been very diligent at holding public hearings to discuss with farmers, industry, and municipal staff the implications of establishing a critical habitat for the Salish sucker in the Fraser Valley. The maps of these designated areas of critical habitat were provided in the draft of the proposed recovery strategy for the Salish sucker. The suggested restrictions on the use of agricultural land and the management and development of streamside urban properties, as occurs in the village of Harrison Hot Springs, are major restrictions on the value and the use of land.
Of greater concern, in spite of many requests from the public, DFO could not or would not provide a cost-benefit analysis for the establishment of this critical habitat nor would it commit to a population for the species deemed as suitable. In fact, the strategy states that it is likely that the species will remain at risk for the foreseeable future. There are changes to the Species at Risk Act, which are proposed in Bill C-38, that should eliminate some of this degree of uncertainty.
A number of issues have been identified in these very short introductory remarks. We look forward to further discussions related to the suggested changes in the legislation concerning both the Fisheries Act and the Species at Risk Act. Thank you.