Thank you.
Good afternoon, Mr. Chair, and the esteemed members of the committee.
My name is Captain Josh Temple, and I am the executive director of the Coastal Restoration Society, a B.C. based non-profit dedicated to supporting wild Pacific salmon in the environment that they live in.
I'm honoured to join you today from the unceded and ancestral territories of the Tla-o-qui-aht First Nation in what is currently known as Tofino, British Columbia. I am the son of Arlene Rees and the late Ian Temple, brother to Lyndsay and Craig, father to Soleille and Kalum, and grandfather of Kali Temple. I am speaking my family and these lands into this meeting, as they ground me as a person, as a captain, and provide the framing for my understanding of the plight of Pacific salmon.
I have spent my life guided by the movements of fish, in my case a lifetime guided by the migrations of salmon. Born on the banks of the great Fraser River delta in the fishing community of Steveston, B.C. on Musqueam, Squamish and Tsleil-Waututh land, and raised on the western shores of Vancouver Island, I studied the habits of salmon and endeavoured to catch them.
I earned my captain's licence while still a teenager and began a lifetime of service as a captain, a commercial fisherman and tourism operator. I did not know at the time, but I had begun a career in pursuit of a fish that was destined for trouble. I find myself in my later years not so much focused on catching salmon, but on ensuring that the family and people I spoke of have salmon to catch in the future. After years of witnessing the relentless decline of salmon, I created the Coastal Restoration Society and dedicated myself to supporting salmon restoration.
This committee is well informed of the causes that have contributed to the demise of the once-prolific runs of salmon on our coast and is apprised of the troubling fact that there has been little change in the trajectory of the decline. I do not appear before you today to belabour the point of habitat loss, pollution, overfishing, pinniped predation, aquatic invasive species or the residual effects that coastal industries continue to leave behind. First nations, scientists and habitat experts have all testified before this committee and provided overwhelming evidence to support these facts.
Instead I appear before you today as a Canadian citizen, a fisherman cum environmentalist, to emphasize that these same people are already engaged in the fight to save salmon from extirpation and have been deeply engaged in this fight for generations. We have responded to the science of salmon decline with articulate and efficient solutions with legions of dedicated restoration teams, hatchery technicians, activists and the guidance of thousands of years of first nations ecosystem management knowledge. We have created federal and provincial funding initiatives to support restoration initiatives. With thousands of collective minds focused on solutions and countless recovery and restoration initiatives under way, it begs the question, why are the salmon not recovering?
The answer is clear: salmon recovery is inadequately funded. With each intake of the BCSRIF or coastal restoration fund, dozens of viable projects that would aid salmon recovery are left on the cutting room floor. Funding priorities shift from year to year, leaving critical projects to languish or die. One might think that the hundreds of millions of dollars that have been allocated to salmon recovery over the years would have succeeded in reversing the trend, but they obviously have not. The fact is that there are no bad projects, only underfunded ones.
Mr. Chair and the members of this committee, if we are to meaningfully accept responsibility for the recovery of salmon, then we must hold ourselves accountable to fund the projects that have been identified as solutions for salmon recovery. We must acknowledge that we are on the right path, that our science and solutions are sound, but we fail in our attempts because we are denied the opportunity to deliver in the scope and scale that this solution requires. Without emergency funding on a scale that we have not received before, it is my responsibility to tell you that we risk losing salmon in our lifetime forever.
I have spent my lifetime guided by the movements of salmon. As I get older I am all too aware that where I am now is where I may have to stay should these movements cease.
In closing, I ask that we recognize that all of us—first nations, scientists, fishermen, government and environmentalists—are working together to hold the line on salmon extinction. Please utilize the powers of this committee to encourage all levels of government to allocate emergency funding to stop the relentless decline of salmon and allow us to finally gain purchase in our pursuit and latitude in our movement. I deeply appreciate your time.
Thank you.