Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Minister.
I gave you these questions that I'm going to ask ahead of the committee meeting, so I'll begin. The south coast recreational salmon fishery is dying due to an exceedingly severe chinook salmon management regime. Chinook non-retention regulations have been imposed across almost 100% of the Salish Sea, in inside and approach waters, during the four peak fishing months for the past three years.
As the Minister of Fisheries, you have a mandate to sustain fisheries where reasonable. Data-supported and precautionary opportunities exist. Public salmon fisheries are the most economically important fisheries in B.C. Chinook salmon are the fundamental driver for these fisheries.
During the 2021-22 integrated fishery management plans consultation process, DFO withheld concerns over certain salmon stocks in Howe Sound and the Salish Sea from the sport fishing advisory board. As a result, the modest SFAB proposals that would have provided much-needed socio-economic relief for southern B.C. in 2021, as well as alignment with the blue economy, were not supported and not approved due to undisclosed concerns. These previously undisclosed new concerns were finally made known to the sport fishery advisory board post facto.
Through very recent meetings with your staff, proposals have been put forward that address those new concerns in Howe Sound, Pacific fisheries management area 28, and southeast Vancouver Island PFMAs 17, 18 and 19, as I previously asked you. These amended proposals, which were already ranked as low risk, provide even more protection for local and Fraser River stocks of concern.
Minister Murray, when I previously asked you here at the standing committee if you were committed to working with the recreational fishery, you said yes. My question is this: Will you recommend that these modest conservation-based proposals be implemented for April 1, 2022?