Thank you, Mr. Chair.
I want to thank all of the witnesses for the important work you're doing on behalf of wild salmon.
We obviously had the lowest return in the Fraser River, the world's largest salmon-bearing river—I can hear you laughing, Mr. Chair, by the way—in recorded history a year and a half, or almost two years, ago. That was followed by what is now the lowest return in recorded history for wild Pacific salmon in the Fraser.
The government hasn't made any significant changes to the investment outside of Big Bar. They didn't have a budget last year. They didn't table one because of COVID. In the fall economic statement, they didn't address this critical emergency. We've been asking for the minister to declare a wild salmon emergency, because that's exactly what it is.
Mr. Riddell, can you talk about how important 2021 budget will be to addressing the wild salmon emergency? You talked about what could happen next year, the next five years and the next 10 years if we don't address this emergency immediately.