Mr. Speaker, on September 25 native commercial fishermen from Campbell River, B.C. were refused a meeting with the Minister of Fisheries and Oceans.
A statement from the native fishermen says in part: “Pilot sales of salmon under the Aboriginal Fisheries Strategy must stop. Pilot sales are unenforceable and unmanageable. Harvests of salmon on the Fraser River from which pilot sales occur are completely out of control”.
Native fishermen claim that pilot sales are an extremely serious threat to all the salmon resources in B.C. and do not provide effective control over fishing. They noted that aboriginal and non-aboriginal people alike are suffering.
Native fishermen demanded that the minister put a stop to the pilot sales program. They stated that not only does the pilot sales program threaten the management of the salmon resource, but it is also crippling the businesses and families who cannot access available harvests.
Native fishermen are angry and incensed that the ministry keeps telling them that this misguided program will continue.