Thank you for that question.
As I've stated a few times today, in my time in this ministry, I have no time for and I have no intention of continuing to just say that the federal government is the only responsible party, but they are the senior level of government and they do have that responsibility. It is easy for the Yukon government to say “we will defer” and “we will not do anything”, but I think I've provided some insight as to what we are doing.
We are working with Yukon first nations to address some of the concerns, including improving fish passage across Yukon hydroelectric projects; building relationships to discuss the feasibility of conservation hatcheries, which you've heard about from me over the course of my testimony here; protecting areas of cultural importance in our fish habitat management program; and working with all our partners to develop a Yukon River salmon rebuilding plan.
As I said, I have no interest in just having the simple answer that that Department of Fisheries and Ocean and the federal government are the only parties that can come up with reasonable solutions.
Just to repeat myself, I believe it has been incredibly important to open those lines of dialogue with the great state of Alaska with in-person meetings and maintaining those lines of communication, because that's probably how the biggest headway has been made in the last number of years.
I accept some of the criticism, but absolutely want to move forward and occupy more of the space for all Yukon first nation governments and for all Yukoners.