Fisheries Committee on March 10th, 2020

[Bobby Morrissey, Liberal, Egmont, PE]

Because of the natural elements you're restricted from going any farther. Money wouldn't make.... No matter how much money would be thrown at it, you cannot move any faster than you're going now.

[Rebecca Reid]

That's correct.

Once the freshet arrives, everything will be under water and then the fish will arrive. After that we'll have to stop the rock work.

[Bobby Morrissey, Liberal, Egmont, PE]

A lot of your timelines are being driven by the natural environment you're working in, and I mean the natural environment that was created by the slide because the slide is a natural environment. Am I correct?

[Rebecca Reid]

It is a natural event. You're right.

[The Chair, Liberal, Ken McDonald]

Thank you, Mr. Morrissey.

Now we'll go to Mr. Johns, I believe, who's using up Madame Gill's time again.

You're going to owe her a big favour, Gord. I better remember this.

You have a total of five minutes, sir.

[Brad Vis, Conservative, Mission—Matsqui—Fraser Canyon, BC]

Thank you.

One thing that really concerns me is the B.C. salmon restoration fund, which you talked about. With the $13 million, when that gets out the door, you're at $68 million, which isn't even half of the $142 million earmarked for restoration. This is a crisis right now.

I know you've cited that capacity is a big issue and this is where my concern is about short-term funding instead of long-term funding, because clearly we need to build capacity. Would that not be correct in terms of being able to get money out the door when we have need to invest heavily in restoration right now?

[Rebecca Reid]

From a SRIF perspective, the SRIF was put into place before the rock slide, and we're not using it as a solution to the rock slide. Your point on restoration is well taken. We have a number of restoration activities under way. It's important for us to be strategic about what sites we select, and it takes time and capacity. It also takes DFO capacity to help support restoration activities.

[Brad Vis, Conservative, Mission—Matsqui—Fraser Canyon, BC]

Right. I guess my concern is that it is interconnected because we have the lowest return in recorded history, despite the Big Bar. Now we have the Big Bar and we've lost a ton of fish, at least 60,000 that we know of. Is that correct?

[Rebecca Reid]

No, it's way more than that.

[Brad Vis, Conservative, Mission—Matsqui—Fraser Canyon, BC]

It's way more than 60,000, so this would be the time that the department, for the long term, needs to build capacity, because it's going to take years to rebuild those stocks. Given that, and in terms of inflation, is it true that SEP is running at a shortfall of about $6 million a year right now because of the cost of inflation and that it hasn't had an increase in years?

[Rebecca Reid]

SEP hasn't had an increase, but it's not running at a deficit. We balance our budget, if that's what you're asking.

[Brad Vis, Conservative, Mission—Matsqui—Fraser Canyon, BC]

Yes, I know, so it is a deficit that it's operating at if you look year over year.

We're talking about the people who are being affected by it. We're hearing that a lot of the recreation, sport and commercial fishers want to mark all hatchery fish. What's the roadblock on doing that? Clearly, they're doing the hard work of making sure those fish come back. They're not even asking for more fish to be enhanced. They're talking about marking all the fish and being able to retain the hatchery fish at sea. Can you speak to that?

[Rebecca Reid]

It will be hard to be concise, but I'll say two things about marking. One is that mass marking affects our stock assessment work. As we mark more fish, we lose information about stocks. The second thing is that unless you do the marking in a particular way, you end up killing wild fish. That's not to say you can't do it, but you need to be careful. You need to have a plan. You can't rush into it. You need to be very deliberate and thoughtful about how you move into a mass marking or a mark-selective fishery regime.

[Brad Vis, Conservative, Mission—Matsqui—Fraser Canyon, BC]

They're doing that, obviously, in Oregon and Washington. We're catching some of that fish. Why is it that we're not tying in with what they're doing?

[Rebecca Reid]

We have looked at what Washington is doing. It has a very different situation down there. Our priority here is wild fish, so in order to protect wild fish, we need to make sure they are able to return to their streams. Having huge marked fishing opportunities means you're picking up wild fish and marked fish at the same time, and there is an impact on those wild fish. That's not to say you can't do it, but you need to be thoughtful about it.

[Brad Vis, Conservative, Mission—Matsqui—Fraser Canyon, BC]

They're already doing it right now. They're catching fish and releasing. In terms of conservation, we see this as a pathway forward. We can have a longer debate about this, and I hope there's room at some point, because the communities want the department to come to the communities and have this conversation. It's of utmost importance, and we're hearing it from everyone up and down the coast.

[Rebecca Reid]

We are having that conversation, and that's part of some of the chinook meetings that we are leading right now.

[Brad Vis, Conservative, Mission—Matsqui—Fraser Canyon, BC]

What's happening with the relief package that UFAWU and Unifor called for? They asked for moorage relief, their salmon licence fees from last season to be returned, loans up to $10,000 and EI relief. They haven't seen a thing. This is a problem. We see oil workers getting help when times are tough. When there's a flood in eastern Canada or a forest fire in Alberta, there's relief, but we're not seeing relief for these fishers. Is there a plan?

[Rebecca Reid]

I'm not able to answer that question.

[Brad Vis, Conservative, Mission—Matsqui—Fraser Canyon, BC]

Okay, that's probably what they're feeling right now from everybody, so I'm urging the department to seriously step up to the plate. People are losing their homes.

On the salmon stamp fee, the NDP doesn't typically support increases in user fees except in this situation, since they would go to restoration. Is that being revisited and looked at?

[Rebecca Reid]

Certainly the Pacific Salmon Foundation has recommended an increase in the fee, and we are looking at that.

[Brad Vis, Conservative, Mission—Matsqui—Fraser Canyon, BC]

We support that. Thank you.

[The Chair, Liberal, Ken McDonald]

All of your five minutes is up. I think we have time to go to another round if it's the will of the committee, and probably leave five or 10 minutes at the end to do a small bit of committee business.

Now we go to the Conservative Party.

Mr. Arnold, go ahead for five minutes or less, please.

[Mel Arnold, Conservative, North Okanagan—Shuswap, BC]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

I'll get right to brass tacks here. How often does DFO conduct monitoring flights on the Fraser?

[Rebecca Reid]

Do you mean monitoring for fishing?