Fisheries Committee on April 20th, 2026

[The Chair, Liberal, Patrick Weiler]

I'm sorry. I'm afraid I have to jump in here.

Please give a very quick answer, Ms. Collier. Then we have to go to our next intervenor.

[Melissa Collier]

Absolutely. Who would want to invest that much money in licences and boats in an industry so incredibly uncertain that you have no idea what kinds of finances you will have to support your family with?

[The Chair, Liberal, Patrick Weiler]

Thank you very much, Mr. Gunn.

We're going to finish this first panel with Mr. Cormier for three minutes.

[Serge Cormier, Liberal, Acadie—Bathurst, NB]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

For my colleagues around the table, I know we talked a lot earlier about the ports in my region that aren't opened on time, but in other years, there have also been problems with ports in Nova Scotia and even in Prince Edward Island. Some years, in Quebec, ice in the gulf meant that, unfortunately, it was sometimes unsafe to go out to sea.

Mr. Desbois, we talked earlier about the Canadian Coast Guard's lack of planning and a lot of bureaucratic red tape. However, at the end of the day, if there isn't the equipment needed to clear ice from some parts of the harbours and channels to allow early fishing openings, it doesn't help.

I want to make sure I hear you correctly: What would your recommendations be for an early opening of the fishery?

[Daniel Desbois]

Our fishers think that if the Coast Guard set a date for icebreaking, it would help the situation a lot. That would help them plan, never mind the ice conditions in the gulf.

[Serge Cormier, Liberal, Acadie—Bathurst, NB]

The Coast Guard already has the dates. It knows that there are whale protection measures imposed by the DFO. People say that they have to go out fishing as soon as possible. The Coast Guard knows that seaports must be cleared of ice as soon as possible. However, if it doesn't have the tools to do so, that's a problem.

Wouldn't you agree that we should have our own tools so people can go out fishing earlier?

[Daniel Desbois]

Yes, I agree. However, it can't be said that they don't have tools either. This year, the Coast Guard came by on April 5 and 6. Last year, we were at sea on April 2. Why did it come by on April 6 this year? Of course, the conditions at sea were not the same, but having our own tools still requires planning. We also have to use the tools when the time comes.

[Serge Cormier, Liberal, Acadie—Bathurst, NB]

Some of those tools were used. The frog cleared ice from the ports of Shippagan and Caraquet. The big icebreakers cleared ice further offshore. The small icebreaker also went as far as it could go. As for the hovercraft, there is only one for a very large region. The small icebreakers that are used to go into the shallower channels are used more for the larger lakes.

Given all the measures we're putting in place to protect right whales and the pressure your industry is under, don't you think we should focus more on our region and acquire our own tools so that we don't have the same problems every year?

[Daniel Desbois]

Yes, we would definitely like to have our own tools. It remains to be seen whether it's possible to have our own tools, but in an ideal world, yes.

[Serge Cormier, Liberal, Acadie—Bathurst, NB]

That's great, Mr. Desbois. Thank you.

[The Chair, Liberal, Patrick Weiler]

Thank you, Mr. Cormier.

Colleagues, that brings us to the end of the first panel.

I want to thank our witnesses for joining us today and providing some really important testimony for our study that is surely going to help inform some recommendations to government.

With that, we're going to briefly suspend while we welcome our next panel.

[The Chair, Liberal, Patrick Weiler]

I call the meeting back to order.

I just want to make a few comments for the benefit of our new witnesses.

Please wait until I recognize you by name before speaking. For those participating by video conference, click on the microphone icon to activate your mic. Please mute yourself when you're not speaking.

For those on Zoom, at the bottom of your screen you can select the appropriate channel for interpretation: either floor, English or French. For those in the room, you can use the earpiece and select the desired channel.

All comments should be addressed through the chair.

With that, I'd like to welcome our new witnesses.

Appearing by video conference, we have Michael Griswold from the British Columbia Salmon Purse Seiners Association.

We have David Summers from the Serengeti Fishing Charters, and Warren Barker and Ivan Chu from the Vancouver Sport Fishing Guides Association.

We're going to start with opening statements from witnesses for five minutes or less, starting with Mr. Griswold.

[Michael Griswold, British Columbia Salmon Purse Seiners Association]

I am a long-time fisherman. For 46 years, I've fished salmon, herring, dogfish, prawns and a few other things. I have been involved in co-management with the Department of Fisheries for many of those years—since 1982 to be exact. I was an industry adviser to the Canada-U.S. negotiations, which resulted in the Pacific Salmon Treaty. As a result of that, I was appointed to the Fraser River panel at its inception in 1985.

I was on the Fraser River panel for approximately 40 years, until 2025, when I found that, as a matter of conscience, I had to resign from that position. There were significant changes occurring within the department, which left a large component of the stakeholder community out of those decisions. It was a strategic resignation. It was meant to bring attention to what was happening in 2025. There was a very large, unanticipated run of sockeye salmon, and the department found no way to provide meaningful commercial access to that fish. In my history of co-management on the Fraser River panel, I found that it was a significant change. It was an alteration this industry could not withstand.

We, in this fishing industry—the B.C. Salmon Purse Seiners Association, trollers and gillnetters—rely on fish for our livelihoods. We have been sitting back for a while, without much opportunity, because there haven't been many fish. This year, in 2025, because of the unexpected abundance, we forgot how to manage the fisheries, and I thought the department needed a wake-up call.

We are embarking upon a new year, in 2026. It is what they call an Adams River dominant year, when there is expected to be a lot of fish. We have seen an opening with DFO and other communities that have a bearing on how fish are managed in British Columbia. They're willing to at least talk to us, which didn't happen last year. This is all well and fine. However, there is no formal agreement.

DFO and the government have entered into a relationship with a body of first nations groups on the salmon management plans, specifically sockeye and chinook in the Fraser River. It is a formal agreement. There's a memorandum of understanding. That provides first nations with priority in how escapement goals are set, which is the underlying foundation of how we manage fish.

We in the non-native community need some kinds of reassurances and guarantees that our needs and wants will also be taken into account. There will be a change of administration sometime in the future. Unless there is something in black and white, we do not have the protections they have given us this year but were absent last year. We're asking for our needs and wants to be considered. We are willing to work in a round table with other stakeholders, particularly first nations that have a very strong call on this resource. That call should not be taken to mean that it diminishes other stakeholders' resources, such as the commercial fishing community and the recreational fishing community.

I should note that this last year, in 2025, we ended up with a run of 19 million pink salmon. The total commercial catch of Fraser River pink salmon last year was 27,000 pieces. We ended up with a run of around 9.5 million sockeye, and the total commercial catch of that was around 150,000. This is abysmally low. We do not want to find ourselves in that circumstance again.

I'm willing to further expand on this, but I'll leave my comments at that.

[The Chair, Liberal, Patrick Weiler]

Thank you very much, Mr. Griswold.

Next, we're going to Mr. Summers.

[David Summers, Serengeti Fishing Charters]

Thank you very much, Mr. Chair and members of the committee, for inviting me here today. It's a pleasure to be back in Ottawa. I graduated from Carleton University what I like to think was just a short while ago.

My name is David Summers. I have owned and run our family business, Serengeti Fishing Charters, in Port Hardy on northern Vancouver Island for the past 20 years. We take guests from all over Canada and the U.S. fishing, primarily for chinook salmon and halibut, but also ling cod, rockfish and coho salmon. I have also recently become involved in various committees and working groups on the sport fishing advisory board.

To say that the purview of this study relates not only to my company but also to the entire sector would be an understatement. Unexpected and inconsistent closures truly would destroy our sector, my business and my ability to provide for my family.

While I have a deep love for the fishery, my primary motivation is supporting my family—my wife and our two daughters, Saige Grace, who is named after a fishing rod, and Kaia Saylor. As their names suggest, our connection to the ocean and fishing runs deep. It's not just a passion, but a meaningful part of who we are. Like so many families on the west coast, we do not live near the ocean; we live on it.

While on the east coast the commercial fishery has deep impacts on the social fabric of communities, on the west coast, it is in fact the recreational fishery, or the public fishery as I refer to it, that runs deep in our culture. The public fishery in British Columbia plays a significant social role by enhancing connections between people and nature. For many in our small, local communities, fishing is more than a pastime; it is a way of life that brings family and friends together. Activities like salmon fishing are deeply embedded in our coastal identity. The public fishery also allows many to get out into the wilderness and heighten their personal environmental responsibility, potentially creating more environmentally conscious-minded individuals going forward.

Further to the social importance to the coast, the public fishery is an economic driver of B.C.'s blue or ocean economy. Our sector's salmon fishery has an economic impact similar to the snow crab fishery on the east coast. The public fishery as a whole contributes the second most of any fishery to Canada's GDP, behind only the lobster fishery. Our fishery brings the most money into the economy with the least environmental impact and the fewest actual fish harvested. Historically, our sector has harvested only 7.02% of salmon on B.C.'s coasts and only 15% of halibut, yet we contribute more to the economy than all commercial fisheries, aquaculture and fish processing combined.

My company alone has four full-time employees and six part-time employees. It spends nearly three-quarters of a million dollars annually at other Vancouver Island businesses. Port Hardy has 13 charter operators doing this, plus literally hundreds of people bring their own boats with their families to the area. This is only Port Hardy, never mind other coastal communities with significantly more public fisheries activity, like Port Renfrew, Bamfield, Gold River and Port Alberni. I could name dozens more.

It is not only the charter operators that benefit from this, but also local restaurants and hotels, fish processors, mechanic shops, tackle stores, marinas, fuel docks, grocery stores and the list keeps going. All could not survive without this industry in our town, as it has become an economic driver while our other resource industries—forestry, mining and aquaculture—continue to struggle.

What is the biggest economic threat to these coastal towns and their public fisheries economies? It is closures that are not based on data or science and come with very little notice. Whether it's closures due to killer whales or restrictions on Fraser River stocks of concern, over the last 10 years, DFO has created policy after policy that hurt the public fishery. Now we are in the middle of a salmon allocation policy review that truly could ruin our public salmon fishery on the coast of B.C. and all the economic and social benefits that accompany it.

Families and guests plan their trips over a year in advance. It is vital that we have stability in our fishery. Proposed changes to the allocation policy will result in uncertainty on openings, closures and even our already minimal harvest limits.

My family is my world, as many of you can relate to. Without a consistent and reliable fishery, I could not provide for them. The same could be said for thousands more families across the coast. Any early closures or closures not based on data or science would take away my ability to ensure that my family and many others on the coast are economically secure.

I thank you for your time, and I look forward to any questions you might have.

[The Chair, Liberal, Patrick Weiler]

Thank you very much, Mr. Summers.

We are going to conclude with opening remarks from Mr. Barker for five minutes or less.

[Warren Barker, Vancouver Sports Fishing Guides Association]

Thank you, Mr. Chair and members.

I'll be sharing my comments along with Ivan Chu, who's also a part of the Vancouver Sport Fishing Guides Association. My name is Warren Barker. I'm the president of the Vancouver Sport Fishing Guides Association. I have 20 years of guiding experience and I'm a second-generation fishing guide. We represent the Vancouver Sport Fishing Guides Association's about 25 charter boats.

The importance of recreational fishing, salmon fishing, coho and chinook are integral to B.C.'s cultural, economic and tourism identity. These species support a globally recognized recreational fishery that attracts visitors from all over Canada and internationally. British Columbia is widely regarded as a premier salmon fishing destination, contributing significantly to tourism revenues.

There are impacts to delayed regulation decisions. Approximately 80% of our customers participating in fishing charters in the greater Vancouver area travel from outside British Columbia. Delays in announcing fishing regulations limit visitors' ability to travel and book accommodations, increase costs due to last-minute bookings and reduce overall tourism activity.

For charter operators, uncertainty prevents effective business planning and advance bookings. Peak tourism demands occur in July and August, which often coincide with chinook retention closures, further reducing our ability to produce revenue.

There are regional inequities in fisheries access. Current management measures create significant disparities between regions. Chinook fisheries in the Vancouver area, Strait of Georgia, Burrard Inlet and Howe Sound are closed from April 1 to August 31, while fisheries on the eastern side of the strait, i.e., Nanaimo and up near Gibsons, open July 15. These differences place metro Vancouver-based operators at a competitive disadvantage because they need to travel across the strait and are constrained by weather conditions, rising fuel costs and customer affordability.

Since 2019, the businesses in the Vancouver area have experienced, in certain times of the year, a 65% decline as a result of chinook closures.

[Ivan Chu, Vancouver Sports Fishing Guides Association]

Hi. My name is Ivan Chu. I am the vice-president of the Vancouver Sport Fishing Guides Association.

My background in fishing started when I was a young boy growing up in Steveston, a community commercial fishing village. My job back then as a teenager was working in the fish cannery. It was such a good living that my brother and I at 15 and 16 years old were making more money per hour than my father who was working for Canadian Pacific Air Lines. We worked there every summer in the fish cannery. I also went fishing with my friends, whose dads were Japanese fishermen. We learned how to fish. I grew up fishing. I became a police officer, and I maintained my fishing. I became a fishing guide on the weekends and on my days off to support my family of three, because my wife chose to stay at home to raise kids while I did my job. I also had a small boat that I could take people fishing in.

I'll get into scientific evidence and missed opportunities of DFO-funded test fisheries. For the last two years, 2024 and 2025, we've had test fisheries in the months of April and May in Howe Sound. They go out and intentionally catch fish from which to take DNA samples. Of all the fish caught, 90% of the legal-size chinook salmon were of hatchery origin. They were clipped, meaning that the adipose fin was missing, so they came most likely from an American hatchery or some test hatcheries that were clipping chinooks, because we were not clipping chinooks at a 100% rate; local hatcheries were only clipping anywhere from 10% to 15%. The fish that were caught were in the 90-percentile range of hatchery origin.

What is significant is that there is a mark-selective fishery 17 miles away from us and beyond, where they're allowed to fish in April and May in the Southern Gulf Islands, around Victoria and further up the coast, for hatchery chinook salmon. We are not allowed to. That is a big economic hardship on our local operators and for our tourism. Potential clients would rather jump on a ferry and go fish with somebody across, and we tell them to. We tell clients, “If you want to keep fish, go across and fish the Southern Gulf Islands. Go to Victoria, spend your money there and you will be able to retain a salmon”.

[The Chair, Liberal, Patrick Weiler]

I'm sorry, Mr. Chu, but we are at time. Could you conclude? There will be some time for questions afterwards.

[Ivan Chu]

Mr. Summers and other witnesses have already talked about the 1.38 billion dollars' worth of revenue being generated by the recreational fishing industry. There are 9,100 jobs. Five per cent of British Columbia's tourism dollars come directly from people coming to British Columbia to go fishing.

The other point we want to make concerns the southern whale restrictions on us. Right now, the north arm area is closed during the prime summertime return. It has been since 2019. We're not allowed to fish there. It's forcing us to go farther towards the south arm and middle arm. Now there is a proposed closure. They're looking at closing the south arm area, meaning that everybody who fishes in metro Vancouver will go to one small area to fish. We're really affected by what's coming, and—

[The Chair, Liberal, Patrick Weiler]

I'm sorry. I'm going to have to jump in. We're quite a bit over time.

We're going into the first round of questioning with Mr. Gunn.

[Aaron Gunn, Conservative, North Island—Powell River, BC]

Thank you, Chair.

Mr. Summers, off the coast of Vancouver Island, DFO is actively considering additional fishing closures and restrictions on top of those already in place, whether it's for the notional goal of protecting killer whales or weak stock management on the Fraser.

Do you believe these proposed closures are based on abundance, science and evidence or on ideology?

[David Summers]

I would say that it depends on where you are.

The additional ones they're looking at—at least from what I've seen at the main sport fishing advisory board meeting—would be based more on ideology, in the sense that they're listening to only one stakeholder, not all stakeholders involved.

[Aaron Gunn, Conservative, North Island—Powell River, BC]

Why do you think they're pushing ahead with these decisions and not taking into account the views of all stakeholders?

[David Summers]

Since 2015, essentially, the fisheries have become—on the west coast anyway, especially the public fishery—a pawn in the reconciliation game, if you will. We give up a lot of what...more restrictions for one user group. In certain places, the FSC fisheries have priority over us, which is absolutely fair, as do commercial indigenous fisheries.

I wish DFO would listen more to all stakeholders because this affects livelihoods and everyone on the coast's ability to go out and fish.