Evidence of meeting #4 for Fisheries and Oceans in the 43rd Parliament, 1st session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was work.
A recording is available from Parliament.
Regional Director General, Pacific Region, Department of Fisheries and Oceans
We have to count the fish, the babies coming out.
Regional Director, Fisheries Management, Department of Fisheries and Oceans
Yes, but these were the number of fish that were on the grounds. How successful they were in the spawning is yet to be seen.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Ken McDonald
Sorry, Mr. Fast, you're over your time, actually. I just wanted to let the answer happen.
We'll now go to back to the Liberal side, to Mr. Hardie, for five minutes or fewer, please, when you're ready.
Liberal
Ken Hardie Liberal Fleetwood—Port Kells, BC
Thank you.
I'll just look to my colleagues to make sure they don't have any questions to wrap things up.
You mentioned the timing of the blasting to get rid of the rocks. I think you called it the Toe...or what was it?
Regional Director General, Pacific Region, Department of Fisheries and Oceans
It's the East Toe, yes.
Liberal
Regional Director General, Pacific Region, Department of Fisheries and Oceans
Yes, we did.
Liberal
Regional Director General, Pacific Region, Department of Fisheries and Oceans
There were no fish there. We didn't blast when there were fish.
Regional Director General, Pacific Region, Department of Fisheries and Oceans
No bodies, no fish.
Liberal
Ken Hardie Liberal Fleetwood—Port Kells, BC
Okay. Looking ahead to the next blasting season, if we want to call it that, what will the timing be?
Regional Director General, Pacific Region, Department of Fisheries and Oceans
It will be at low water conditions, with no fish around.
Liberal
Regional Director General, Pacific Region, Department of Fisheries and Oceans
It would be the winter.
Regional Director General, Pacific Region, Department of Fisheries and Oceans
It'll be whenever the water is lowest. I can't say exactly, but it would presumably be around the same time period.
Liberal
Ken Hardie Liberal Fleetwood—Port Kells, BC
Basically, how much more blasting will need to be done? I know you've estimated maybe two more years' worth of work, but obviously the number of discharges that take place will depend on how difficult it is to prepare a particular boulder or whatever. How many more times will you actually have to blast, and then what happens after you blow something up?
Regional Director General, Pacific Region, Department of Fisheries and Oceans
Those are excellent questions. The contractor that's in there right now, Kiewit, has the engineers and the experts who will know the success of the blasting. I did say before that my experience in the past has been that it takes up to three years, or sometimes even more, to remove an obstruction. I don't know in this particular case what it will take. We're hopeful that, not this month but perhaps in the next blasting period, we'll be successful. But Kiewit's going to have to assess that.
Liberal
Ken Hardie Liberal Fleetwood—Port Kells, BC
We hope they'll be in a for a subsequent hearing.
What was the role the Canadian and U.S. military played in all of this?
Regional Director General, Pacific Region, Department of Fisheries and Oceans
In our efforts to reach out for advice, we did reach out to the U.S. Army Corps. They did offer us some advice, but in the end we took a different route.
Regional Director General, Pacific Region, Department of Fisheries and Oceans
They offered us some advice, but they weren't in a position to do the work for us. They provided us their opinion, but we proceeded along the contracting line to get Kiewit in place.
Liberal
Ken Hardie Liberal Fleetwood—Port Kells, BC
Were there any military people on site during the course of the work?
