Mr. Speaker, today the Standing Committee on Fisheries and Oceans tabled its report on the 2004 Fraser River sockeye disaster.
The committee rejected the minister's contention that high water temperatures alone in the Fraser River accounted for the missing fish. The committee suggested that illegal fishing, mismanagement of the aboriginal fisheries and a lack of commitment to enforcement were the key causes of the disaster.
In a separate supplementary report, I recommended a plan that would prevent a repeat of the 2004 disaster by first, prohibiting the use of destructive set nets in the Fraser Canyon; second, by ending the illegal sale of food, social and ceremonial fish; and third, by creating a new fisheries enforcement branch free of political interference, an enforcement branch with a police agency designation and more than double the current number of fisheries officers on the lower Fraser.
The Department of Fisheries failed miserably to protect Fraser sockeye in 2004. These recommendations will protect the Fraser fishery from another disaster.