Fisheries committee  Thank you, Kristi. As you know, DFO's primary mandate is to manage Canada's fisheries and to protect our waters. Consistent with that mandate, the protection, conservation and restoration of wild Pacific salmon is a key priority. Pacific salmon are under threat, and the challenges facing them are numerous and multi-faceted.

Fisheries committee  Thank you very much, Mr. Chair. Good afternoon, committee members. Yes, I'm Rebecca Reid. I'm the regional director general for DFO Pacific region. My colleagues and I greatly appreciate the opportunity to appear before the committee on behalf of Fisheries and Oceans Canada.

Fisheries committee  With regard to the 192 proposals, is it a question of how much money we spent?

Fisheries committee  I think it was around $340-odd million. It was very significant.

Fisheries committee  Sure. There have been 192 expressions of interest, and we've funded about $70 million so far. There are a number of projects that will directly benefit these stocks in the Fraser River, and there's another round, a new round, going to be planned to come up relatively soon.

Fisheries committee  As I just started to say, we have funded a number of activities such as habitat restoration studies, boots-on-the-ground work, that are directly benefiting the stock. An example is the north Pacific survey that just came back. They went out to the ocean to look at what's going on out on the high seas.

Fisheries committee  The species that are affected spawn above the Big Bar site. There are some chinook stocks, particularly, and sockeye, for the most part. However, the impact across the coast is fundamental because of the importance of those stocks, from an ecosystem perspective. Southern resident killer whales feed on them.

Fisheries committee  Yes. First of all, as the minister said, about 60,000 fish were helicoptered over the site, and 220,000 migrated through the slide. For the most part, we lost, at the early stages, almost the entire stock. For the early Stuart ones, it was about 99%, and for the early chinook, it was about 89%.

Fisheries committee  We have been working with the contractor for the Whooshh system, and the contractor has provided us with assurance that the system will work. Variable sizes of tubes are used for the body of the fish, and the tubes we have are appropriate for the types of fish sizes we have, so we have full confidence that it will work.

Fisheries committee  I think that was a really great answer. We do the tagging studies, and we have sonar to measure the fish as they pass through the site. We look at the spawning grounds as well to see how many fish have made it to the spawning grounds. Similarly, in the spring, we look to see how many of the fry have emerged and how many smolts have come down.

Fisheries committee  We do have a plan in place to do that work. As I said, it has started, but it is going to take some time. Even if all systems are go, some significant infrastructure investment is needed. It's those types of things. It is not an immediate plan by any means. We're starting on it immediately, but the results will take a couple of years.

Fisheries committee  Yes, that's right.

Fisheries committee  We've been working with the Freshwater Fisheries Society and Go Fish BC in Vanderhoof, as well as the Spruce City Wildlife Association and the Quesnel River Research Centre. They're all being utilized. We're working actively with them to make sure that there is room for the fish to support the enhancement activities.

Fisheries committee  I will have to look up the numbers for you. I could get back to you with specific numbers.

Fisheries committee  There is a feasibility study under way right now to look at the existing infrastructure that's available above the Big Bar site from a hatchery perspective and what it would cost to invest in those facilities to support the enhancement activities. There definitely is some work that has already started to respond to that exact question, and—