Thank you, Chair.
We'd like to thank you for the invitation to appear today. We understand that the purpose of the study is to examine the impacts of flood protection infrastructure on fish stocks in the Pacific region. This is an important topic. I want to provide you with the perspective of the Fraser Valley Angling Guides Association membership, who were on the ground and on the water during the catastrophic flood events that took place in our region in November of last year.
The Fraser Valley Angling Guides Association is an organization of professionally licensed guides. In our 23 years, we have been involved in educational programs, funded projects through the Habitat Conservation Trust Foundation and collected valuable data on the sturgeon fishery, for which we donate in kind over $800,000 a year annually. This in-kind data is used to help the government for fisheries management and, of course, our livelihoods depend on a healthy aquatic system to run our sustainable tourism-based businesses.
While there is no doubt that flood protection infrastructure has an impact on fish habitat, when that flood protection infrastructure fails, as parts of it did last November, the impacts on fish habitat are even greater.
Our members not only provided critical first responder capabilities for the people impacted in the flood zone, but we also provided critical transportation services to those whose road access was cut off for days and sometimes weeks at a time. We partnered with big organizations like Telus to deliver food and medical supplies to indigenous communities along the Fraser River. We responded to individual requests for transport for emergency medical appointments that could not wait until the roads were open.
We also found an important role in rescuing stranded salmon and sturgeon that were found on the wrong side of dikes that had blown out and from pump stations that were not fish friendly. Partnering with GlobalMedic, we helped to deliver flood relief kits and undertook a comprehensive waterway mapping project using state-of-the-art drone technology, which helped us determine where stranded fish could be and how to better respond to the next flood should it occur. Some of our rescues that gained national and international attention were transporting trapped families out of Hope; countless animal rescues on the Sumas flats; and bringing people to those critical dialysis and cancer treatments.
We are still tabulating the data, but the early indications are that we're into several hundred thousands of dollars in costs to our members. This is expected to grow in the spring for debris collection and sturgeon rescues in the Sumas slough. Despite our organization being highlighted in the media consistently for over a month, we did not have anyone from the federal government reach out to see what we needed or how they could be of assistance.
Our association members played a vital role that nobody else could in those early days of the flood. We were on the ground within hours of the dikes breaching and the rivers topping over their banks. We have repeatedly asked the provincial and federal levels of government to assist in offsetting the significant costs that were incurred by our members in playing this critical role, but to date, the buck has been passed again and again.
Unfortunately, Fisheries and Oceans have told us to talk to the provincial emergency management program. The emergency management program has told us that we can only be reimbursed if we are registered contractors. We are fishing guides who answered the call of our community. We're not professional grant-writers who have the time or the expertise to wade through government red tape.
We are asking you to recommend to the government that they work with DFO officials to formalize a memorandum of understanding with organizations like ours to ensure we are adequately insured, trained, authorized and compensated for future habitat and fish protection activities that we undertake.
The floods have been a humbling experience. We witnessed the loss of life, the decimation of livelihoods, the destruction of property and the devastating impact on the community, but we also saw the paralysis of our response mechanisms, which left our members and others as the de facto first responders because of our skills and equipment. Our system, the system that you, as elected officials, oversee, failed the people of British Columbia. I am testifying before you today to ensure it doesn't happen again.
Thank you.