Fisheries Committee on April 18th, 2024

[The Chair, Liberal, Ken McDonald]

Okay, we'll go back to the witnesses.

Actually, we have to go to our next panel of witnesses now, because we've gone almost an hour. If you recall, it's 45 minutes, 45 minutes and 30 minutes of business. We've had business up to this point.

I want to say thank you to Mr. Gotch and Mr. Shoemaker for providing their knowledge to the committee today as we start this study.

Hopefully we'll see you again sometime in the future.

We'll suspend for a few moments to change the panels.

[The Chair, Liberal, Ken McDonald]

We're back.

I'd like to welcome, from the Yukon Fish and Game Association, Mr. Bryce Bekar, president, for his opening statement.

You have five minutes or less, sir.

[Bryce Bekar, President, Yukon Fish and Game Association]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Hello. My name is Bryce Bekar. I'm the president of the Yukon Fish and Game Association, the YFGA. It's a not-for-profit organization founded in 1945. I'm also the co-chair of the Carcross Tagish Renewable Resources Council, founded under the umbrella final agreements, and the affiliate director for the Canadian Wildlife Federation.

I've been an avid outdoorsman for as long as I can remember and have spent countless hours in the wilderness. As a child, I was taught by my parents and grandparents about the importance of respecting wildlife and the wild places they live in.

Since 1945, the YFGA has been an integral part of conservation-related items in partnership with so many stakeholders in their work. The Government of Canada, the Government of Yukon and first nations are only a few.

Successful reintroduction of wildlife into the Yukon would not have been possible without the help of the YFGA. Elk and bison have become a staple for many Yukon families. The stocked lakes program has removed pressure from overfished lakes. Also, the YFGA was part of the initial inception of the requirement for a fishing licence that was originally two dollars.

Unfortunately, salmon are facing great challenges and an uncertain future in many parts of the world. The Yukon is not the only place, we have heard, where challenges and changes to the rivers and the streams have resulted in declining fish stocks. B.C. has had its fair share of issues, as have our friends out east in Newfoundland. This is clearly a problem from coast to coast.

In all these cases, we can look at what might have happened to get us to the current situation and can work on a plan to make things better going forward together.

We have heard testimony of what the Yukon River was like in the past, and it is clear that the Yukon River chinook salmon is the salmon species in the most danger in the territory. A continuation on the current path will possibly lead to an extinction-level circumstance in the upper Yukon River.

Long-term population trends show that there are highs and lows, but annually they continue to trend downward according to the records we've seen. The recent moratorium placed on the Yukon River chinook salmon fishery on April 1 is a good start.

While other watersheds, like the Alsek, show more promise in maintaining a sustainable chinook population than the Yukon River does currently, there are many years documented that show the runs are cyclic there as well. The salmon are an intricate part of the bigger picture, which has also been noted to the committee by many people. The nutrients placed back into the water system are beneficial to so many plants and animals along the shorelines.

It is our responsibility to do what we can to ensure safe passage for the salmon travelling to and returning from the ocean. Man-made structures have been designed to an old standard that could possibly use a facelift.

The studies have shown that many of the tagged chinook salmon came to the ladder and turned around. Those same studies have shown that once the fish pass the viewing chamber, they have a very high success rate to keep going upstream. This also does not mean they will spawn, as females were found, from some carcass studies, to have most, if not all, of their eggs left. While all this information is great, we are still not able to come to a conclusion as to why they turn around or do not place their eggs.

We would like to see the Government of Canada and the Government of Yukon work with all Yukoners to do what we can to help these fish make their journey and, where necessary and possible, to increase the number of fish returning to spawn.

The YFGA has been advocating for wildlife since its inception, with a holistic approach to wild places. We would like to work with all organizations to learn more about the current situation and to help inform and motivate Yukoners on the importance of salmon in the ecosystem. Our youth will not care about the salmon if they do not know of their importance to the ecosystem. The Yukon Fish and Game Association will continue to be at the forefront of conservation, walking the walk, like we have for almost 80 years.

We believe that the seven-year moratorium will provide an opportunity to study and to implement modern techniques to deal with the current problem. Habitat restoration and the correction of fish passage issues could be a few of the items that the YFGA could effectively partner on.

I would like to thank you for giving the Yukon Fish and Game Association and me a chance to speak to you on this very important matter that resonates with most Yukoners. I also look forward to the day when we can all look back and say that we did that, that we did everything we could to help bring a struggling population back from possible extinction.

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

[The Chair, Liberal, Ken McDonald]

Thank you.

We'll now go to our round of questions.

I'll first go to Mr. Arnold for six minutes or less, please.

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

Thank you, Mr. Chair

Thank you, Mr. Bekar, for appearing today.

That's an impressive history of the Yukon Fish and Game Association with the rehab and restoration projects.

Can you tell us how important fish and wildlife harvest is to all Yukoners? I'll give you some time to elaborate on that a little more.

[Bryce Bekar]

Many Yukoners rely on the harvest from the land for their main staples for the table. I moved here about 20 years ago, and I very quickly became involved with the Yukon Fish and Game Association. Many people, like me, rely on hunting and fishing as their main sources of food with the cost of living in the Yukon.

What we've seen more recently is there has been a shift to more store-bought food, including salmon, without the ability to fish salmon. In my time in the Yukon, I don't remember when we could fish for salmon on the Yukon River. I've heard stories that they had them when I first got here, but unfortunately, I was unable to take part in that.

Again, many Yukoners, like me, don't have the ability to go back to the same historical fish levels so that we could go down and catch them. We saw demonstrations by the Canadian Wildlife Federation at its AGM last year in Whitehorse. We have also had the same types of presentations from the DFO at the Fish and Game Association. The fish that were in those presentations were larger than I could have imagined during my time.

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

Can you tell me how important it is for you and members like you to be able to put something back into the resource, so it's there for future use?

[Bryce Bekar]

As I mentioned before, I was taught by my family that being part of taking from the land comes with a requirement to give back to the land. In the time we have spent in partnership with groups like Yukon Energy and the salmon fry release, up until recently we were putting 10,000 fish back into the Wolf Lake campground creek. We have recently started putting about 2,500 into that same creek and have moved 7,500 of those to a different location where they are more likely to make the return.

This event gives us the ability to get children and families out to see the importance of fish. They get to release tiny little fish back into the river that will hopefully eventually make it to the ocean. We can't even put into words how beneficial an event it is. Like I mentioned earlier, if the kids don't know how important the salmon are, I don't think they are going to have respect for the salmon tomorrow.

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

Based on your knowledge, or on the organization's history, has it become easier to participate in habitat restoration and habitat projects over the years, or has it become more difficult for organizations like the one to which you belong to participate in those fish and wildlife projects?

[Bryce Bekar]

The Fish and Game Association hasn't been involved in as many of the projects. We do have our annual fry release at Wolf Creek, as I mentioned. In the past, we had programs like Friends of McIntyre Creek, where we would go and clean up the creek. That will be coming back. Since 2020, we have had some real difficulties in the way that we operate. We are really looking at bringing back things like that.

It has gone both ways. It has been easier and more difficult in both instances. While working with the federal government in my recent history, I don't remember being invited to participate in these. Through our partnership with the Canadian Wildlife Federation, we do have the benefit of working with some very specialized people, like Mr. Lapointe, who was part of the study up here that worked with the first nations to look at how the fish move through the ladder and up the Yukon River.

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

Would you be able to get back to the committee, after consulting with your membership or with some of the previous executives, to let us know whether there have been changes in the members' ability to participate in conservation projects over the years?

[Bryce Bekar]

I can definitely do that. I will meet with our past executive director, who is a retiree from DFO, and our current executive director, who unfortunately couldn't be here today.

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

Thank you.

I only have about 45 seconds left. Is there anything further you would like to add that I haven't asked about?

[Bryce Bekar]

I would add that the Fish and Game Association has the ability to work with all user groups in the Yukon. We would love to be a part of the restoration of the salmon so we can all look back and say that we did our best to try and bring these salmon back. Hopefully, it will be a good news story in the end.

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

Thank you very much.

[The Chair, Liberal, Ken McDonald]

Thank you, Mr. Arnold.

We'll now go to Mr. Hanley for six minutes or less, please.

[Brendan Hanley, Liberal, Yukon, YT]

Thank you very much, Mr. Chair.

It's very good to see you, Bryce, on the screen. Thanks for appearing today.

First of all, I want to thank you for all the work that you and your colleagues do as an association. As Mr. Arnold said, there's a long and rich history to your organization, and you've done some great work.

I want to start with this because I didn't get a chance to ask about it in the previous panel. It may or may not be your area of expertise, but you mentioned the size of the salmon, historically, in previous decades. We now know that one of the factors is not just the number, but the size and, therefore, the spawning and survival potential of the fish.

Can you comment on how important that decline in size is as a contribution to the decline of the salmon?

[Bryce Bekar]

As you mentioned, Mr. Hanley, it's not my area of expertise, but I have spent 16 years with the Yukon Fish and Game Association, first in a board member role and then as vice-president and president.

From working with the Yukon Salmon Sub-Committee and some of our other partners directly with salmon, it's my understanding that the largest fish, historically, were the ones that made it up the river. I believe the committee has heard that from some of the past witnesses.

The nets that were used, which were quite large, were reduced over time to try to let the bigger ones go by. On the 3,200-kilometre stretch, it was always historically known that the biggest fish made it.

With them having the most energy by the time they got to the end, more of these biggest fish had the ability to spawn than they do today, as I understand it and as we heard in a study that was done from 2017 to 2020. I can't remember the names of the authors right now. I'm sorry. They noted that some of the fish made it to the ladder and turned around. They may have spawned right by the dam or they may not have. Other carcass studies showed that some of the fish looked like they did not spawn at all, while others looked like they only spawned a bit and didn't finish spawning.

[Brendan Hanley, Liberal, Yukon, YT]

Thank you.

You mentioned that the Yukon River Panel's new seven-year agreement is a good start. What else would you like to see, as an association?

Now that we have the starting point, what else should be there, whether it's within the panel agreement in terms of restoration, or there are other things not considered within this agreement that we should be addressing?

[Bryce Bekar]

Mr. Chair, in the Yukon Fish and Game Association's history, we have always been out front as much as we can be in education. In the time that we can't fish today, we would still like to look at tomorrow.

On the education side of that, the Fish and Game Association plays a vital role in that it can continue to educate and work with all of the partners across the entire country to improve, whether it's rounding up volunteers to do physical work or getting educational pieces like chinook salmon life cycles to work into the schools and into general conversations with members or the public.

I think the Fish and Game Association would really like to be part of the solution and not sit on the sidelines on this very important issue.

[Brendan Hanley, Liberal, Yukon, YT]

Thank you.

You mentioned the fish ladder. This may be something we can come back to, recognizing that the dam is very far upstream. In fact, it is not that far from the headwaters in the Teslin area.

What do you perceive to be ways that we can mitigate the salmon passage in both directions at the dam?

[Bryce Bekar]

Mr. Chair, again, it's not my area of expertise, but we have partners we can rely on to gather some of this information.

We understand, from some of the recent reports that have been put in for the new water licence, that the fish coming to the ocean are just as important as the fish returning from the ocean. Personally, I can't speak to the numbers that are making it through there, but they're equally important either way.

Seeing the fish make it to the ocean...they already have a lot of obstacles, as we've heard, with climate change, predation, dams and passage issues. The bidirectional travelling of these fish, whether it's when they're going down as fry or coming back as adult spawning fish, is quite important.

Again, we'd like to help in any way we can.

[Brendan Hanley, Liberal, Yukon, YT]

I have 15 seconds left, right?

[The Chair, Liberal, Ken McDonald]

You have 12.

[Brendan Hanley, Liberal, Yukon, YT]

Could you talk briefly about the location, apart from Wolf Creek, where you're doing some of the new hatchery work?

Perhaps you could submit that in writing. I think the chair is strongly hinting at that.