Mr. Speaker, I regret to say it now appears that a war between Canada and the United States over Pacific coast salmon stocks is inevitable unless immediate action is taken.
Negotiations have been made impossible. While Canada has a clear position regarding the renewal of the Pacific salmon treaty, the United States seems to have an Alaska position, a Washington State position, an Oregon position, a California position, a commercial fishery position, a native fishery position, a sports fishery position. In other words, Americans simply do not have their act together.
While negotiators blame each other for the impasse and the federal and provincial ministers hurl threats at their American counterparts, the reality is the Pacific coast salmon stocks are now at risk.
Planned retaliation by both Canadian and United States fishing fleets means disastrous overfishing of the salmon stocks and the possible repeat of what has happened with the east coast fishery.
We cannot sit back and watch this fishery disaster unfold. It is time our Prime Minister called on the President of the United States to intervene in this crisis if a full scale salmon war is to be averted.