Fisheries committee  It's complicated as we've said. This is going to be my concluding comment here. I want to thank you for listening to what we had to share about the salmon. I hope you can do some good work to create the changes that are necessary. To the question, whether it's the Skeena, the Fr

Fisheries committee  One of the issues is the fettering of the minister's authority. Every time we develop a plan and move forward, we always get pushed back in that regard. You don't have any decision-making authority. There needs to be power-sharing with the local communities living in those region

Fisheries committee  I think we need to come up with a plan, as your colleague said. Honourable Mr. Hardie spoke about a “master plan”. I think that's the idea. That needs to be put together, and then there need to be adequate resources to do the work, simply at a high level. I also think—not to be

Fisheries committee  I believe that things are out of balance and there are too many seals. You can see it when they go to feed on the herring and the salmon in the river systems. There's a massive amount of seals and sea lions, and I believe there does need to be a culling program, but it has to be

Fisheries committee  I don't believe we do. I believe it's getting better. I'm not sure if you're familiar with Dick Beamish, who used to be the head of the Pacific Biological Station in Nanaimo. He's an Order of Canada recipient scientist and it was his passion to go out. He raised money to go out,

Fisheries committee  Sorry, you're going to have to ask that first question again.

Fisheries committee  No, they're not. The reason why they're not is that a lot of times the money gets used up in administrative processes. Honestly, there's not enough money in the treasury to do what we need to do. There is absolutely not. However, through a collaborative approach, working with f

Fisheries committee  I think the intention is good, the mandate letters and commitment to reconciliation, but sometimes.... The government is big and it's a challenge, but the intention is good. Everybody's experience is different. We've been fairly aggressive as a nation to advance a reconciliation

Fisheries committee  They're both kind of leading questions. How could I say no? We do need to collaborate—the province and the feds and first nations—in a respectful, tripartite manner. It goes back to that issue of respect. Absolutely, salmon are in crisis. There are no ifs, ands or buts. This di

Fisheries committee  I think that Tawney has the right idea with what they're doing at West Coast Aquatic. The Delgamuukw decision said that we are all here to stay. We need to work together. We need to set the arena so that we can put our interests forward. This isn't unprecedented. We have been i

Fisheries committee  We have a doctrine of priority. Conservation comes first. We are going to have to do everything in our power to save wild salmon. That's number one. Number two is with food, social and ceremonial. I get coho from our hatchery and smoke them and they are great fish. It's the sam

Fisheries committee  We have an oral history. That's how our knowledge has been transferred intergenerationally for 700 generations for the Heiltsuk people. We are at risk of losing our language, but our young people are stepping up and they're taking responsibility to learn the language. As I said

Fisheries committee  The weirs are ingenious in their simplicity. As we know if we're coast dwellers, the tide rises and falls every six hours. As the tide rises, those rock weirs catch the salmon. They come in and they get stuck in there and our people used to go and get them. We had a very sophis

Fisheries committee  I don't have any authority to speak for all first nations, first of all. I can speak for myself and I am a leader of my nation. I think we have had a salmon hatchery for well over 30 years. All of the other systems are basically barren. We would get a little bit of recruitment

Fisheries committee  I absolutely agree that the minister has to put into effect a verbal commitment. It's a challenge, because the status quo has been a heavy industrial driver, and it has been to our detriment. You brought up the issue of herring, which is a main keystone species, a forage fish,