Mr. Speaker, my question is for the Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Fisheries and Oceans.
On April 26, 1994 I asked the minister of fisheries a question regarding the failure to reach a successful conclusion during recent Pacific salmon treaty negotiations. This failure could result in serious consequences for the Canadian fishery industry.
Canadian fishing conservation measures have been undertaken for many years now. Unfortunately our American neighbours have not been as diligent in their past efforts to maintain a viable fishery stock. Presently they are being forced to close salmon runs due to the destruction of habitat and to place moratoria on fishing in the Strait of Juan de Fuca due to past fisheries mismanagement and the squandering of too many fish.
It is my understanding that negotiations have gone off track due to the intransigence of Alaskan negotiators and their refusal to co-operate in Canada's definition of fair and equitable goals. Surely the Americans must understand that if we have shared fish stocks and they have destroyed or drastically reduced the viability of the Oregon and Washington fish stocks in the Strait of Juan de Fuca, we as Canadians will want to work out a solution to this problem that will not penalize Canada for maintaining sound conservation measures in contrast to the lack of any of the same practices south of the border.
We already have a situation whereby last year we in effect subsidized the American fishery by the sum of approximately $65 million. This represents Canadian fish being caught by American fishermen. We are now being asked to close or seriously curtail our fishery in order to correct the poor management of the Canada-U.S. shared fisheries resource. This would mean a drastic reduction to our catch, tying up Canadian boats and putting Canadian fishermen out of work.
This situation I suggest is unacceptable for my province of British Columbia and for Canada as a whole. I ask the Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Fisheries and Oceans what further action we may take to get the negotiations back on track. If this is not possible, what further action may the Government of Canada take in its dealings in the Pacific salmon fisheries in order to prevent a full scale fish war?