Fisheries Committee on March 10th, 2020

[Rebecca Reid]

We had some people come up to look at the site—not during the blasting period, if that's what you mean, but in advance. When they were evaluating what to do, we had people on site.

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

We're now beyond the time when it's basically feasible or safe to be working in that area. What are your plans, then, for ongoing monitoring and measuring? Are there other works that will be taking place even though the blasting and clearing can't take place?

[Rebecca Reid]

Do you mean monitoring for fish or monitoring for slides?

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

I mean working on the slide, working on getting rid of the obstruction or mitigating its impact. If we're not down there trying to remove the obstruction, because of the freshet and then the movement of fish, what other work will be going on in the meantime? Will there be eyes and ears on that site throughout the entire coming season?

[Rebecca Reid]

Absolutely. To be clear, we still are there. We are blasting every day right now. Now that the road's in place, the company is working furiously to remove as much of the rock as it can. They will be there until the freshet chases them away. After that, there will still be people in place because we'll be installing our contingency measures, and we will be on site throughout the summer.

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

You mentioned that the incident command function has basically been disbanded now. Is that no longer needed?

[Rebecca Reid]

Yes. After the summer period, we moved to the project management approach. As we move into the summer period, we're going to need a process to do those operational activities as well. Whether it looks like it did last year hasn't been determined yet, but there's no question that we're going to need on-site people managing the project.

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

Have you in fact—

I'm sorry, have I finished?

[The Chair, Liberal, Ken McDonald]

Mr. Hardie, your time is up.

I'm going to go out on a limb here and assume, Mr. Johns, that you're going to use Madame Gill's time again as well?

[Marilène Gill, Bloc, Manicouagan, QC]

I'm going to give my time to Mr. Vis since this concerns his riding.

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

Thank you very much, Ms. Gill.

Thank you for letting me sit on this committee, Chair McDonald.

I'm thankful for a lot of the questions asked by all sides so far. I think it's been a very productive discussion, from what I've heard.

Back in December, I was briefed that the blasting would take place in advance of the freshet, as we've heard today, but there was no indication that blasting would continue into subsequent years. What I've heard today is that blasting will continue next year. Is that an indication that the initial scenarios put forward to the public, and advised by the technical team, haven't reached their desired objectives this spring?

[Rebecca Reid]

As the water has dropped, we've had the opportunity to learn more about the situation of the slide. We are learning as we are going. The new information has led us to believe that there won't be enough blasting done before the freshet to clear the obstruction.

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

Okay.

I think you've done a great job of answering questions today, but I do have to ask you this. I'm going to Lillooet next week in my constituency and will go and speak with the first nations. If you were to go and stand before those first nations, would you say that you've done everything in your power as a public official, that you've worked your hardest, to ensure the protection of salmon populations on the upper Fraser and keeping them for future generations?

[Rebecca Reid]

I did stand before them last week, and I did say those things, yes. Thank you.

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

I'm really glad to hear that. Thank you.

Those are really the only questions I have.

[The Chair, Liberal, Ken McDonald]

Are you going to take the remaining time, Mr. Arnold? You have 40 seconds.

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

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I think I can fit this in.

Very quickly, are you able to do sufficient stock assessments on the stocks affected by the Big Bar slide and on other declining salmon stocks in British Columbia? Are you able to do sufficient and effective stock assessments to know how many salmon we have returning and how many we don't have returning?

[Rebecca Reid]

I think we have a strong stock assessment program, yes. You can always do more, but I believe that we do have a good program.

[The Chair, Liberal, Ken McDonald]

Thank you, Mr. Arnold.

Mr. Johns, you have two and a half minutes.

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

I want to reiterate what Mr. Fast said. Thank you so much for your testimony and for your work. It's a long two hours here.

We want to avoid what happened last year, obviously, which was the worst return in recorded history. Maybe you can assume that the current project will work and that fish passage at Big Bar is restored. What is the next biggest priority your department is working on to ensure that Fraser salmon flourish in the future?

[Rebecca Reid]

There's no question that there are concerns about Fraser returns, regardless of the slide. We do need to put management measures in place to ensure the protection of those stocks. That would be my biggest priority.

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

Maybe you can talk about three to five things that you're working on to make the salmon fishery flourish again on the west coast. What's it going to take? What resources do you need?

[Rebecca Reid]

We need to have the proper management tools and management measures. We need to have good science. We need to have the co-operation of our stakeholders and our indigenous groups to work collaboratively. We need restoration activities. We need to work with the Province of B.C. That's five things.

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

That's pretty quick. Good job.

When we look at our partners to the south and to the north—Alaska, Washington and Oregon—in terms of what they invest in their fisheries compared with ours, do you do that analysis? What does it look like in terms of what we're doing here? To me, it looks like there is clearly a massive shortfall coming from Canada in terms of our partnership here in the Pacific northwest.

[Rebecca Reid]

A conversation about money would take more time. The context is different down in the south, though, if you look at what goes on down there versus here. Their investment in hatcheries is significantly different from ours, for different reasons. What goes on in Alaska is that they have very good science programs up there. We do work effectively with our U.S. colleagues and collaboratively on the science. I think that's important. I don't know what else to say.