On July 3, I wrote to you to raise my concerns that DFO's failures to finalize contracts for stock assessments caused the cancellation of valuable sockeye stock assessments on the Fraser.
On October 8, three months later, you wrote back, stating, “Pacific salmon stock assessment...projects were reassigned with the implementation of more cost-efficient stock assessment methods”. However, the next day, your deputy minister told this committee that DFO did, in fact, fail to have stock assessment contracts signed on time, and she said:
It had to do with the hiring processes, but we did fix the problem.
Minister, what was the true reason that salmon stock assessments in B.C. were cancelled this year?