Good afternoon, gentlemen.
Everyone is concerned to see that the Atlantic salmon really is below the conservation threshold in most of the rivers in eastern Canada. Last March, Mr. LeBlanc made statements in an interview with the newspaper Acadie Nouvelle. He talked about conservation levels that are well below what we are hoping for. Losing that resource would have a major economic impact. Just now, Mr. LeBlanc talked about an impact of more than $20 million for fishing camps alone.
I heard a comment earlier that personally upset me greatly. Charles Cusson said that Canada’s wild Atlantic salmon conservation policy has never had appropriate funding and has not been enforced.
Mr. Bird rightly said that he wanted a Canadian action plan to be established. As our chair said, we do not have a lot of time to go over this issue. So I am going to share with you the most significant problems that have consistently been raised in the preceding testimony. I would like to know how you would establish a priority for these difficulties, in order to come up with a Canadian action plan that will perhaps allow us to save the Atlantic salmon.
We are constantly being told that, in order to have the data we need to be able to work on each of the salmon rivers, we must more than double the research efforts of Fisheries and Oceans Canada.
What are your impressions on that?
Then, there is a lack of any real control on invasive species. We know about ballast water in the gulf, but there are also recreational American boats that go through customs without being checked. We have been told a number of times that this can bring in invasive species.
Does that difficulty exist in the east, in New Brunswick?
Today, Mr. Cusson brought up another important point, namely the lack of effort on the part of Canadian diplomacy to make it possible for France, because of Saint-Pierre and Miquelon, to become a member of the North Atlantic Salmon Conservation Organization.
Those are all major problems. In the Canadian action plan that we say we want, do all those problems have to be solved? Alternatively, which, in your view, should be solved as a priority and using which resources?
Perhaps we could start with Mr. LeBlanc and then move to Mr. Bird.