Despite the announcement of millions worth of funding initiatives by the federal fisheries minister in Victoria last week, Sea to Sky Corridor salmon conservationists say they will not see the resurrection of their programs.
Local conservationists were outraged when it was revealed at the end of May that the Fisheries and Oceans Canada (DFO) Resource Restoration Unit is being eliminated, along with two other salmon enhancement programs, including the education and technical support contracts and the production of steelhead and cutthroat trout at salmon enhancement program hatcheries.
Included in the cuts is a program that almost every student in B.C. has taken for the past 40 years, the Stream to Sea Program.
Squamish council passed a motion at its meeting Tuesday night to send letters to the federal government urging the reversal of the cuts.
Reductions were made “to better align with DFO’s core mandate in terms of regulatory responsibilities,” a federal government spokesperson said.
On May 31, Minister of Fisheries, Oceans and the Canadian Coast Guard Dominic LeBlanc announced $75 million, part of the $1.5-billion Oceans Protection Plan originally announced in 2016, will go toward a coastal restoration fund distributed over five years.
The fisheries minister also announced a new Abandoned Boats Program, a $6.85 million funding initiative communities like Squamish can apply for to help deal with assessment, removal and disposal of abandoned vessels.
The new announcements don’t take the sting out of the cuts for corridor conservationists.
“We, right now, as of today, may lose all of our [DFO] staff, period,” said Edith Tobe, executive director of the Squamish River Watershed Society, on Friday.
“Our projects have come to a resounding halt… and that is just me. There are eight or nine other groups in our region… It puts in jeopardy all of our future for wild salmon. Wild salmon are at risk right now.” ”
Whistler’s award-winning fish conservationist, Dave Brown, told The Chief it seems those in the federal fisheries ministry in charge of ocean protection aren’t aware of what is happening with freshwater conservation. He called the cuts to local programs a sign of the ministry’s “incompetence.”
“You are creating habitat in the ocean, and yet you are taking away the DFO’s Resource Restoration Unit, which was critical for fresh water habitat restoration.”
If salmon don’t have healthy fresh water habitat to rear and spawn in, there aren’t going to be any in the ocean, Brown added.
DFO biologists that were working with Sea to Sky conservation groups are going to no longer be able to do that work and, after July 31, an effort will be made to find them another position within the department, according to Brown.
Matthew Foy, a retired DFO biologist, penned a passionate letter to the fisheries minister outlining why the cuts should be reversed. First and foremost, the programs worked, he said.
“Over one million additional wild salmon now return to spawn each year, of all five salmon species and additional benefits to both cutthroat and steelhead trout, due to restoration efforts undertaken by this unique partnership that Salmonid Enhancement Program, created when it began this journey with the salmon community some 40 years ago,” he wrote, adding the people of B.C. saw that the programs worked and value wild salmon.
“Programs, such as those now threatened with the SEP cuts, cannot be replaced in a year, five years or ten years. They are simply irreplaceable. Our children and grandchildren deserve better from us,” said Foy.
When contacted by The Chief about the original cuts, Sea to Sky MP Pamela Goldsmith-Jones said she was shocked by the cuts and added, “We will fix this.”
Goldsmith-Jones, who became parliamentary secretary to the Minister of International Trade Francois-Philippe Champagne in January, said there would be solutions to the local cutbacks within 48 hours.
Contacted by The Chief five days later and asked to explain when the programing would be resurrected, Goldsmith-Jones’ office directed The Chief to the Minister of Fisheries May 31 announcements.
“Ms. Goldsmith-Jones will be working with Minister LeBlanc to ensure a smooth transition in the weeks ahead,” read the email from Goldsmith-Jones’ assistant.
