Thank you to the committee for the opportunity to present.
In addition to the work I do with Watershed Watch, I'm a lawyer with Ecojustice Canada, which did a presentation earlier this week. I'm also an associate with the Polis water project at the University of Victoria.
Watershed Watch will be making a submission that contains a number of recommendations. I'd like to highlight three today.
The first recommendation we have is the restoration and modernization of section 35. Similar to many other witnesses, we recommend restoration of the pre-2012 prohibition against carrying on any work or undertaking that results in the harmful alteration, disruption, or destruction of fish habitat. The definition of “fish habitat”, strictly speaking, is sufficient to cover the areas of concern in the Fraser Valley. The small streams, side channels, and sloughs behind flood structures that once provided nursery habitat for millions of juvenile salmon still support smaller populations of salmon, and should be protected under this definition. However, DFO often fails to exercise oversight for these areas. We would ask the committee, in their consultations, to discuss with local DFO personnel to identify whether the definition of fish habitat is a limitation to their enforcement activities.
In the longer term, fish-friendly flood control practices must become the norm through legislation and/or policy. As such, section 35 authorizations for flood control works are a critical tool to protect fish habitat. These authorizations should be required for works such as flood control infrastructure, and the minister's discretion to grant authorizations should be guided by criteria that consider not only the need for flood control infrastructure but alternative designs and the value and extent of fish habitat that will be affected.
That leads to our second recommendation, which is ensuring that federal government funding doesn't harm habitat. As mentioned by Ms. Azeez, many of the maintenance and upgrade projects that will happen in the coming years will be supported by federal government funding through infrastructure grants. This process has already begun with the development of a multi-jurisdictional Lower Mainland flood management strategy. Federal government funding should not be going to projects that damage fish habitat when other alternatives and mitigation measures are available.
Part of the approval process for federal government grants for infrastructure should include screening for the impacts to fish habitat and consideration of alternative measures. One way to ensure this is done is to include flood and water control projects that receive federal funding on the list of projects that are subject to the Canadian Environmental Assessment Act. Other approaches may suffice, but it is essential that federal government spending doesn't damage the very resource it has an obligation to protect and is committed to protecting through instruments such as the wild salmon policy.
Our third recommendation is to protect flows as part of fish habitat. Earlier the committee heard from West Coast Environmental Law, who recommended including flows as part of that habitat definition. We would adopt that submission. In the interest of time I will skip over that, but we're happy to answer questions.
Since the 1970s, the understanding of the importance of flows to the overall health of fish and fish habitat has improved dramatically. Flows are now considered a master variable of streams and rivers, a condition that affects all other conditions for fish.
Currently section 20 of the Fisheries Act contains important powers to ensure the passage of fish and, importantly, to prevent harm to fish. In particular, we would recommend that paragraph 20(2)(f) add an explicit reference to preventing harm to fish so it would allow the minister to direct water flows in emergency situations. Section 20 contains a wide range of other powers that are available to the minister that seem to be rarely used. While the provisions of section 20 are generally sufficient, and could be used to great effect, changes to law or policy may be required to ensure that those provisions are actually used when needed.
I'll turn it back to Ms. Azeez for closing.