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.
9:35 a.m.
Conservative
Blaine Calkins Conservative Red Deer—Lacombe, AB
Is there any type of mobile or temporary hatchery capability?
9:35 a.m.
Regional Director General, Pacific Region, Department of Fisheries and Oceans
We have some strategic enhancement sites. For example, we took some of the fish to Cultus Lake last year and held them there. There's some capacity there, but not a lot. That's why we're looking across all our hatchery facilities to see what space is available.
9:35 a.m.
Conservative
Blaine Calkins Conservative Red Deer—Lacombe, AB
When you say “all our hatchery facilities”, are you talking about those that are currently owned or managed by DFO or assisted by DFO, or even those that are private sector?
9:35 a.m.
Regional Director General, Pacific Region, Department of Fisheries and Oceans
We're looking at DFO's facilities.
9:35 a.m.
Conservative
Blaine Calkins Conservative Red Deer—Lacombe, AB
Does DFO have the capacity at its facilities to do the job?
9:35 a.m.
Regional Director General, Pacific Region, Department of Fisheries and Oceans
I believe that we're going to have to make some decisions around production to make space for those fish.
9:35 a.m.
Conservative
Blaine Calkins Conservative Red Deer—Lacombe, AB
I believe Capilano was supposed to undergo renovations. Is that going to proceed now? Are any of the renovations for all the various hatcheries that I visited over the last couple of years put on hold now indefinitely until this is dealt with?
9:35 a.m.
Regional Director General, Pacific Region, Department of Fisheries and Oceans
Nothing's been put on hold.
9:35 a.m.
Conservative
Blaine Calkins Conservative Red Deer—Lacombe, AB
I see the other options you have there, including another attempt at capture and transport. Given the fact that it's been proven to be relatively ineffective, why would that still be in your list of things to try to do?
9:35 a.m.
Regional Director General, Pacific Region, Department of Fisheries and Oceans
We're proposing a series of measures—a kind of cascading series. The first thing we want to do is allow for natural fish passage. Because we think that will be unsuccessful at high water, the next thing we want to do is create a natural fishway by placing rocks and those types of things to allow the fish to swim themselves with some assistance. The next strategy we're considering is some kind of a fish pump, which is like placing a structure on a platform and literally moving the fish across the slide through tubes. Our last option would be truck and transport. As you said, it's the least preferable option.
We are stepping through our contingencies and hoping each one will be enough, but if it's not or if it's unsuccessful we have another strategy in place.
9:35 a.m.
Conservative
Blaine Calkins Conservative Red Deer—Lacombe, AB
What would be a reasonable timeline to build a fish ladder? It seems to me that would not be something we would be able to do in this construction cycle.
9:35 a.m.
Regional Director General, Pacific Region, Department of Fisheries and Oceans
We do intend to create a fish ladder. We've looked at various designs and rather than using an engineered one, we're going to try to create one out of the rock. We're creating a bed and placing boulders to create a natural fishway structure. That's the plan for right now.
9:35 a.m.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Ken McDonald
Thank you, Mr. Calkins, your time has gone over.
We'll now go to the Liberal side.
Mr. Morrissey, you have five minutes or less, please.
March 10th, 2020 / 9:35 a.m.
Liberal
9:35 a.m.
Liberal
9:35 a.m.
Conservative
Brad Vis Conservative Mission—Matsqui—Fraser Canyon, BC
Thank you, Mr. Morrissey, and thank you, Mr. Chair.
As I recall, our runs tend to vary in size according to four-year cycles. What are we predicting for this year's run? What's staring at us in terms of getting something in place to preserve these stocks?
9:35 a.m.
Regional Director, Fisheries Management, Department of Fisheries and Oceans
I don't have the predictor for what this year's.... I'm assuming you're talking about Fraser sockeye in particular.
9:35 a.m.
Conservative
9:35 a.m.
Regional Director, Fisheries Management, Department of Fisheries and Oceans
Okay, I can speak to the other species particularly.
We don't expect a very high return on Fraser chinook for the interior Fraser populations because it's in the same low productivity zone. It is similar to interior Fraser coho. The p50 or 50% mark we're expecting for Fraser sockeye is around 900,000 fish. Pinks would be a low-run year. We don't expect a lot of pinks this coming year.
It's certainly not expected to be a big year for fisheries. There may be some sockeye TAC available.
9:35 a.m.
Conservative
Brad Vis Conservative Mission—Matsqui—Fraser Canyon, BC
A lot of people are going to be interested, then, in openings, based on the low runs that were expected anyway.
On this issue, can you send a signal right now to the sports fishers, the commercial fishers, about the expected openings this year?
9:35 a.m.
Regional Director, Fisheries Management, Department of Fisheries and Oceans
We're having significant conversations with recreational, commercial and of course indigenous governments around the openings, in planning for the upcoming fishing season.
Part of the challenge is trying to assess the actions that were taken in 2019 in terms of how those fishery closures that we put in place in 2019—which were more significant than we have had in the past—resulted in the protections that we planned for, for the stocks returning.
As we receive that information through coded wire tagging and DNA results we are adjusting and consulting on potential fishery plans for this year, which may include similar levels of closures for recreational sectors or different ways of doing things for recreational and commercial sectors. But we need to have some of that information and we also need to have the value of the consultative process around the fishing plans.
9:40 a.m.
Conservative
Brad Vis Conservative Mission—Matsqui—Fraser Canyon, BC
Is it possible that this incident and its impact on the runs largely negated the benefits of the closures that were put in place earlier in the year?
9:40 a.m.
Regional Director, Fisheries Management, Department of Fisheries and Oceans
It depends on which section of the runs you're talking about.
We saw a significant run of what we call Thompson 41 chinook return to the river. That population ended up being a significant source of food, social and ceremonial fish for the Fraser first nations. It also provides some opportunities for other fisheries as well. It becomes a very complex picture because we're dealing with multiple species and multiple stocks. In some cases the actions taken certainly supported the priority of FSC harvests over commercial and recreational.
9:40 a.m.
Conservative
Brad Vis Conservative Mission—Matsqui—Fraser Canyon, BC
Talk a little about the work with the first nations people in the area. First of all, have they been engaged in the actual work taking place: road building, rock blasting, etc.?
9:40 a.m.
Regional Director General, Pacific Region, Department of Fisheries and Oceans
Yes, they have. The company called Splitrock is a first nations company that does all the monitoring going on right now. In addition, Kiewit has subcontracted with local first nations to undertake some of the work that's going on.
