No, no.
We know that these species are protected by the Species at Risk Act, and we know that it's the government's—well, it was supposed to be the government's—mandate to ensure that these species have safe and easy migration into their critical habitats.
On the Avon River, the habitat alone is being disintegrated with every tide that comes in and goes out. It does put pressure on the numbers, of course, of the recovery of these species. We don't think for one minute that this is a reason that we should turn our back on this species. We have a government department, the inner Bay of Fundy recovery team, and I'd like to stress the word “recovery”. We believe that this is the direction that really has to be focused on for our wild Atlantic salmon.
If we don't take a look at it now, if we don't do something now, we are going to lose every salmon that's within the Minas Basin in the Bay of Fundy. There were 50 wild Atlantic salmon counted in the Shubenacadie River, which is the river that runs through part of the Minas Basin as well. We've had 20 counted in the Avon River. These numbers mean something to us.
We believe it's paramount that, while these industries are working along the watershed, there has to be something they can do to be friendly, to maybe offer another opportunity for these salmon to have a chance to recover. Even if one salmon gets past some of these barriers that are being put in place, like the tidal project, or the Alton Gas brine dumping, or the building of the extension of the 101 Highway, this is critical. If one salmon can get into this habitat and spawn, and has the opportunity to reproduce, that's vital to us.
That's where we stand on our project. We don't want to turn our back on our salmon. We know that environment and climate change are all critical to the life of the Atlantic salmon in this watershed.