Mr. Speaker, essentially my remarks today will be on the fisheries component of the Nisga'a treaty. Fisheries issues have been of some concern to Canadians from coast to coast in the last little while, and for good reason. On the east coast with the Marshall decision the supreme court has acknowledged or put in place a process similar to what is government policy on the west coast with separate native commercial fisheries.
The substance of my address today will be to point out, by quoting from documents I received under access to information, that back in 1987 the Department of Fisheries and Oceans was arguing against the policy the government has put into place in the Nisga'a treaty with a separate native commercial fishery. The department was effectively arguing against the same policy the Supreme Court of Canada imposed on the east coast with the Marshall decision.
The first document I would like to bring to the attention of the House is a March 6, 1987 letter sent by Mr. Laurie Gordon, who at the time was assistant district supervisor in district 8 in Prince Rupert, to Mr. Paul Sprout, who was assistant area manager in the north coast division of Canada's Pacific coast.
Before I refer to the letter, the point I must make is that back in the mid-eighties the treaty negotiators had proposed a fisheries component for the Nisga'a treaty that was under negotiation at that time. It was similar to the treaty we ended up with just a couple of years ago. It is the treaty we are arguing before the House. This proposal was made by the treaty negotiators at that time and the department was effectively speaking out against it.
These are some of the reasons the Department of Fisheries and Oceans was opposed to the Nisga'a treaty back in 1987. It said that if it proceeded there would be no area 3 fishery for non-Nisga'a in poor areas and only moderate fisheries in good years. The letter goes on to state:
We are concerned that this will be an incentive to have fish caught in the Nisga'a fishery recorded as having been caught in the all citizen's fishery.
There was concern about the transfer of fish from a separate native commercial fishery to the all-Canadian commercial fishery. In talking specifically about sockeye it stated:
In some years of low returns there would be no all citizens fishery for sockeye...Depending on migration routes and timing we would therefore likely have to adjust our fisheries, particularly Area 4 and the outside of Area 3, to allow more sockeye into 3Z.
That is the zone the Nisga'a would be fishing in. It continued:
In most years the first few weeks fishing, mid-June to mid-July, would have to be Nisga'a only. There would thus likely mean no commercial net fisheries in the north coast prior to the second week of July.
That is the impact the treaty will have on the commercial fishery in the future if it is passed by the House. That is what the Department of Fisheries and Oceans was saying in 1987. In all likelihood that is what the Department of Fisheries and Oceans concluded in the secret report in which it talked about replicating the Nisga'a treaty coastwide. With regard to pink salmon Mr. Gordon's letter continued:
We have no quantitative method of determining Nass pink strength in season and therefore it would be very difficult to accurately adjust the allocation in season. The Nass run will be masked by large numbers of Alaskan and area 4 pinks.
Even post season we cannot estimate total Nass pink runs without making dubious assumptions about the portion of catch which was of LCA, land claim area, origin.
We have a huge problem making estimates or guestimates of the fish returning to the Nass River, even post season.
With regard to coho it states:
We know very little about stock strength of Nass coho, and have absolutely no way of determining it in or post season.
Coho are in serious decline and could probably be considered an endangered species in some areas of the north coast. It is interesting when Mr. Gordon talked about Chinook salmon. Let me read his letter and be very clear about it:
All sport fishing for chinooks including catch and release would be stopped.
This was the view of Laurie Gordon back in 1987, that is if we went through with the treaty now before us. If that is the case there will be many lodge owners on the north coast of British Columbia who will be very upset.
The other letter I want to quote from is from Pat Chamut, director general of the Pacific region back in 1987. He is now an assistant deputy minister. His letter was to A. Lefebvre-Anglin, assistant deputy minister, Pacific and freshwater fisheries. The date of the letter is March 16, 1987. Essentially Mr. Chamut repeated the concerns expressed in the previous letter. He wrote:
The formulas to determine species mix are unmanageable...In order to ensure the sockeye fishery proposed, in most years the first few weeks of fishing, mid-June to mid-July, would have to be Nisga'a only.
He went on to write:
This would likely mean no commercial net fisheries in the north coast prior to the second week of July.
He referred to the difficulty with properly managing fish if we proceeded with the treaty. It is horrendous that the man who is now assistant deputy minister of fisheries and promoting this treaty would have changed his tune since 1987. As I said earlier we are talking about essentially the same agreement being in place as the one that was discussed in 1987. Mr. Chamut's letter started off by stating:
The following comments are in response to the Chief Federal Negotiator's letters of February 13 and March 5, which respectfully outline the Nisga'a proposal on species mix and the Chief Negotiator's intentions with regard to a new federal offer in this area.
It specifically concerns the treaty and bodes ill for the future.
The next letter was from Marion Lefebvre, chief claims negotiator, native affairs division. It was to Mr. Fred Walchli, chief interim negotiator, Nisga'a claim, comprehensive claims. In that letter she made the following case:
The formulas to determine species mix are unmanageable...In order to ensure the sockeye fishery proposed, in most years the first few weeks of fishing, mid-June to mid-July, would have to be Nisga'a only. This would likely mean no commercial net fisheries in the north coast prior to the second week of July.
I cannot emphasize that enough. If the treaty goes through there will be no commercial net fisheries on the north coast prior to the second week of July. That is the time of the most effective fishing on the north coast. It is those first couple of weeks in July that make it all pay. That is when the fish are caught.
On June 25, 1987 a letter from Michelle James, acting chief, fisheries negotiator, was addressed to Mr. Fred Walchli. Ms. James assured him that the department's advice on this matter was that he should not pursue the notion of using area 2Z catch as the basis for determining the Nisga'a fishery. She wrote that this was most important and that it would be impossible to replicate the treaty coastwide. That was the intention of the government.
The evidence is there in the access to information documents, that if the treaty goes ahead there will be no commercial fishing on the north coast prior to the middle of July, which will put serious restrictions, if not eliminate, the sport fishing for chinook on the north coast.
Those are facts that were stated by the Department of Fisheries and Oceans back in 1987 when the proposal before the government was similar to the current fisheries component of the Nisga'a treaty.