Fisheries Committee on June 10th, 2026

[Mel Arnold, Conservative, Kamloops—Shuswap—Central Rockies, BC]

No immediate commitments...?

[Justice Gruben]

No.

[Mel Arnold, Conservative, Kamloops—Shuswap—Central Rockies, BC]

Okay. Thank you.

In looking at the government's “Canada's National Strategy to Ensure the Future of Atlantic Salmon, 2024-2036”, I picked up on a line that said “it will not be possible to invest everywhere”. To me, that sounds like a government giving up on salmon.

I come from B.C., from the interior, and there were no salmon in the B.C. portion of the Okanagan system for over 50 years. Work with the first nations there, the Okanagan Nation Alliance, across the Canada-U.S. border, established a hatchery there, and now there are salmon returning on their own all the way up into Okanagan Lake, hundreds of kilometres up the river, where there hadn't been salmon for 50 years.

How important is it to the salmon population and to your nation that this genetic stock remain viable in some way, so when other factors are impacting the population, that stock can be there to rebuild what was there?

[Justice Gruben]

I'm going to allow Elder Patrick Polchies to answer that.

[Patrick Polchies, Councillor, Billijk (Kingsclear First Nation)]

Thank you for the question.

To be concise, it's extremely important. A big part of the work at the Mactaquac Biodiversity Facility is identifying the genetic strains of fish that would be well upstream of us.

As an example.... Thank you to Mr. White and to the Quebec federation for answering questions about the demise of salmon, or the possibility of that, in their areas.

In our case, if you add in three hydroelectric facilities on the river on top of all the issues they've talked about, it makes it extremely important. It adds weight to it. For me, it defies logic that the most endangered salmon have not seen any attention. In fact, the only attention they saw was the government's shutting down the biodiversity facility. It doesn't really make sense to me, but that's where I am.

Thank you.

[Mel Arnold, Conservative, Kamloops—Shuswap—Central Rockies, BC]

Thank you.

It sounds similar to a situation that we have in British Columbia right now. We have volunteer organizations that run a hatchery in the upper Fraser River. They have been working with habitat biologists and habitat restoration people within the Department of Fisheries and Oceans for years. They have maintained a facility that has continued the viability of a specific type of salmon: S52, or stream-type chinook salmon. DFO just announced the cuts to those habitat biologists in that area. They now have to travel hundreds of kilometres from Kamloops into that area.

Does this sound like a troubling trend to you that salmon—wild salmon—in some of these most endangered areas are being put at risk by the decisions?

[The Chair, Liberal, Hedy Fry]

You have one minute.

[Patrick Polchies]

Yes, it certainly does.

It's interesting that it's that broad, and that even on the west coast you're encountering that sort of thing. I can't overstate the importance to the Wolastoqiyik and the Wolastoqey people that salmon have had for the 11,000 years that we've been on the river. They're a mainstay of our economy.

It's not just that. We were talking earlier about everybody in the Maritimes. Our families grew up on salmon—all of us. For everybody who's in the eastern part of Canada, your history goes back to productive and healthy salmon populations. It seems to me that DFO is not applying enough interest in maintaining salmon populations everywhere.

Thank you.

[The Chair, Liberal, Hedy Fry]

Thank you.

I'll now go to Mr. Connors for five minutes.

[Paul Connors, Liberal, Avalon, NL]

Thank you. I'm going to share my time with Mr. Cormier.

Mr. White, we talked about the predation of salmon. You mentioned striped bass.

Is there any other predation in Newfoundland and Labrador that you would consider?

[Paul White]

Thank you, Mr. Connors, for the question.

Ken McDonald, your former colleague—he was the MP before you—was a great advocate for the guardians and wild salmon in Newfoundland.

There are other predators—seals, definitely. In Newfoundland and Labrador, we also have the shads, the cormorants and the seabirds. They eat a lot of the young—the babies. I've seen them up in the rivers, taking the parr back and forth. They can't get enough.

They're big ones, for certain.

[Paul Connors, Liberal, Avalon, NL]

In your opening remarks, you mentioned a multipronged approach.

What do you think are the top three things that should be done?

[Paul White]

I can speak to Newfoundland and Labrador.

For salmon, first of all, it's CPE for conservation, protection and what's called enhancement; I added the E to what DFO says. If we're going to do enhancement, we have to protect what we have first. We don't want to wipe that out and then have to rebuild. That would be the fishery guardians, fishery officers and local angling community. We can retain the salmon. I would say keep that. Do not get rid of the tag, because having more anglers on the river prevents the poaching and netting in rural Newfoundland, for example.

Then look at getting fish tanks and hatch-and-release programs into schools. Teach the young people all about wild salmon conservation. They are the future. It's their future, their project and their habitat.

Can you repeat the question for me? You asked for three priorities.

[Paul Connors, Liberal, Avalon, NL]

You said we need a multipronged approach. What would your three solutions be, or any solutions?

[Paul White]

There you go.

The other thing is leadership. I know the government is working like that, but have more anglers, guardians and young people sitting around these tables because, at the end of the day, it falls on leadership. I know the politicians do the best they can with what they have, but sometimes—in my opinion—the bureaucracy gets in the way and stifles stuff. The decision-makers sometimes rely on that versus getting answers from everybody invested in wild salmon.

[Paul Connors, Liberal, Avalon, NL]

Thanks very much.

I'm going to pass it to Serge.

[The Chair, Liberal, Hedy Fry]

You have two minutes, Serge.

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

Thank you very much.

Chief, I'll go back to you, if you don't mind.

I asked all of you, at the beginning, about some of the causes of the decline of Atlantic salmon. I think it's a difficult question, but we need to ask because we need to do a report after this and put what we heard in that report.

I'm not at all questioning the treaty or indigenous fishing rights you have, but a lot of stakeholders in the recreational fisheries say that the nets set by first nations in some rivers are the reason we see a decline in, or a low return of, Atlantic salmon.

How do you respond to the concerns of people who target this as one of the many causes we just talked about, such as predation and climate change? It's out there. Some people are saying this.

[Justice Gruben]

Our people have fished since time immemorial and sustained these distinct species across different rivers and watersheds for generations, and none of them went extinct.

I'll allow Patrick, our elder, to expand. He worked in fisheries for decades.

[Patrick Polchies]

I will just say that it's always the case that we get looked at a little harshly for doing what we've done since time immemorial.

It is important to remember that, on my river, once commerce hit the shores—lumber, logging and all the fishing activities—we were put off the water completely. Our river was choked with logs. You couldn't fish, and the fish probably couldn't move either. It was huge business for many years, and it's well documented. To come back at us and say, “Maybe you're taking too much”, or something along those lines, isn't really fair. Commerce has done us in. Commercial fishing fleets make us look silly. We get on the river and maybe take 10 salmon. They have huge nets taking fish out at sea.

[The Chair, Liberal, Hedy Fry]

I'm sorry. I'm going to have to ask you to wrap up. Thank you very much.

[Voices]

Thank you, Madam Chair.

[The Chair, Liberal, Hedy Fry]

We've now finished this hour of witnesses, and I'm going to thank the witnesses who came.

I learned a heck of a lot from listening to you, so thank you for your expertise and your ideas. When you have a problem, it's always good to hear from the people on the ground about what the solutions could be. Thank you very much.

Now I want to suspend in order to move to the next panel.

[The Chair, Liberal, Hedy Fry]

I call the meeting to order.

Welcome to the new witnesses. I'm just going to do a bit of housekeeping.

At the bottom of your screen, if you are here virtually, there will be a little icon that looks like a globe. You can press on that to listen to the interpretation.

All comments should be addressed through the chair.

I want to remind you that you're going to be asked questions in English or French. Please put on your earpieces so that you can get the interpretation if you need it.

I also want to say that I will give you a shout-out when you have a minute left or 30 seconds left.

Now, witnesses, you are going to have five minutes for each group, not for each person. You have made a decision about who is going to do that. As I said, I'll give you a shout-out.

I want to thank you for coming.

We have Monsieur Pierre D'Amours, biologist and salmon fishing guide.

From the Atlantic Salmon Federation, we have Nathan Wilbur, president, and Neville Crabbe, vice-president of communications and special projects.

From the Miramichi Salmon Association, we have William Dalton, president, and Mark Hambrook, president emeritus. They're appearing via video conference.

We shall begin, and I will start with Mr. D'Amours for five minutes, please.

[Pierre D'Amours, Biologist and Salmon Fishing Guide, As an Individual]

Madam Chair, I'd like to start with a gift for the people from the various government parties. I have salmon here that I have carved. These are little salmon that I give to fishers these days. When I fish, I catch a salmon, and I give away a salmon.

In the past, when fishers caught their salmon, they were proud. They would go home with their salmon and show it to their parents. They would eat it over the holidays. It was a moment of great joy. Right now, though, we're dying out. There are no more salmon. It's over. When I have a young fisher catching their first salmon, it's very sad, because they have nothing to bring home. It used to be a rite of passage, and that rite of passage no longer exists.

For that reason, I carve out little salmon and, when a good opportunity presents itself, I give them away. I want the person catching their first salmon to have a keepsake, because that salmon is very important for their emotional side and their cultural side. We're losing the salmon culture, because there are no more salmon to catch. There are fewer and fewer of them.

I have come here today to tell you that we're dying out. The Restigouche River represents 500 jobs and $15 million. We can't afford to lose that. If we lose that, we lose everything.

What's interesting is that the river is good: good for us, the people of the Gaspésie, the people of the Restigouche River, but also good for you.

In my life as a guide, I have guided many people who were politicians, people like you. I have seen that, when you reached the Restigouche River, you were very tense because of your hectic lives. You were even a bit exhausted from all that hustle and bustle. I would see you reaching the river and, already, after one day on the water, I could see that the river was healing you. The river made you feel better. We could sense the tension in your shoulders decreasing. At a certain point, something fantastic would happen: You would touch a salmon, catch a salmon.

Why do people come from all over the world to fish for salmon? I'll explain a fantastic phenomenon: A fishing line is an electrical wire. When you catch a salmon, it's as if you're attached to the wilderness, to perfection.

It's because the salmon you catch is the best of the best. It's the little salmon that managed to escape from the minks, the mergansers and the natural predators in the river. It's the little salmon that made it out to sea, that escaped from the seals and all kinds of predators that wanted to eat it. It went to Greenland and came back. It was hunted again by fishers from Greenland, fishers from Newfoundland, other fishers out for herring or other species, and it came back. That means that when you catch a salmon, you're catching the best of the best, the one that managed to make it through.

You have your salmon, and it's incredible: Through the salmon, it flows into you; you have been through a fight, so the river heals you, calms you, and the salmon gives you incredible energy, energy that's like medicine. If we lose the salmon, then it's as if we're losing something incredibly magical that enables us to have beautiful lives.

I came here to tell you that, as Canadians, if we lose the salmon, we lose one of the most important things for our mental health and our joy of being alive on this earth.