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.