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Business of Supply November 24th, 2020
Madam Chair, our government is committed to an area-based management approach to aquaculture, and these particular farms may not be the best fit for the location or for their adjacency to first nations communities. That is why we are finalizing formal consultations with the local communities and each first nation on the Discovery Islands as to whether those licences will be renewed. I will say that the first nations communities there recognized how important it was, but also told us—
Business of Supply November 24th, 2020
Madam Chair, we will continue to work with our partners to make sure we have a coordinated approach to the restoration of the wild Pacific salmon. This is extremely important to us as a government. We are continuing the important work that is at Big Bar to restore the national fish passage there. We continue to work with first nations, with industry and with stakeholders to support the recovery of wild salmon.
There is no one easy solution to this. We are taking—
Business of Supply November 24th, 2020
Madam Chair, the member opposite and I are actually on the same page. We know there is a lot that needs to be done when it comes to restoring wild Pacific salmon. We are working with communities. We will work with the province and with indigenous people on a coordinated plan. That is what we are doing.
We have had significant investments in the B.C. SRIF program. We support the salmon enhancement program. We are working with stakeholder groups to find out what the best path forward is. Those are all initiatives that we have undertaken as a government. We are committed to—
Business of Supply November 24th, 2020
Madam Chair, wild Pacific salmon are a priority for our government. We are working diligently on a number of different measures to address the steep declines in the Pacific salmon population. That includes everything from habitat restoration to working with indigenous communities, commercial harvesters and recreational fishers.
We are not stopping. We are going to continue to work to make sure that we address this ongoing concern.
Business of Supply November 24th, 2020
Madam Chair, we are continuing to work with our partners to make sure that we are addressing the concern of wild Pacific salmon. We know there is a lot to be done. We will continue that work. We will not rest until we make sure that the Pacific salmon grow and come back to where they should be.
Business of Supply November 24th, 2020
Madam Chair, I agree with my colleague across the way. We need to do everything possible in order to address the crisis that wild Pacific salmon are in right now. That is why we made significant investments through the B.C. SRIF program. It is why we have pulled out all the stops when it comes to Big Bar. It is why we continue to work with indigenous communities, with the B.C. government, with stakeholders and with industry to find the best path forward.
There is no one easy solution to this. We are working to make sure that we are hearing from everybody and doing everything we can to protect the fish.
Business of Supply November 24th, 2020
Madam Chair, the protection of wild Pacific salmon is a priority for the government. We sympathize with communities that have been impacted by the salmon harvesting. We know there is a lot to do. We have been investing in habitat restoration. We have invested in Big Bar.
We are making sure that we are working with community groups, with indigenous communities and with the B.C. government to do everything we possibly can to protect the wild Pacific salmon. However, it is not enough to just protect them. We need to make sure that we are doing everything we can to grow those fish as well. We want to see them come back to an abundance. We are going to continue to do that.
Business of Supply November 24th, 2020
Madam Chair, we are continuing to work on a west coast licensing review through Fisheries and Oceans Canada. We have contracted a comparative analysis of Atlantic and Pacific commercial fishing policies and regulations, and are initiating a review of the existing foreign ownership.
There is a lot of work to be done here, but that work is ongoing and we are committed to making sure that we address these concerns.
Business of Supply November 24th, 2020
Madam Chair, with regard to the fisheries committee that actually did the study on the west coast fishery, we are making sure that we are working with British Columbia to identify the priority fisheries management and licencing concerns. This is ongoing work. We are doing it—
Business of Supply November 24th, 2020
Madam Chair, the program was extended a number of times to make sure that we caught as many people as we could during the height of the pandemic and to make sure that people were able to apply.