OTTAWA--"Fisheries and Oceans admit there never was a formal agreement between the department and the Sport Fishing Institute," said John Cummins, M.P. (Delta-South Richmond).

Oak Bay Marine Group, a company owned by friends of the Minister of Fisheries was charged under the Fisheries Act in 1996 with refusing to provide critical information on the chinook salmon catch at their lodges.

The Minister admits that the charges were dropped in 1997 days after he went fishing with the company's vice president.

The Minister had said in the past that the charges were dropped because the department had an agreement to get the data through a third party, the Sport Fishing Institute.

His Department now says no formal agreement ever existed. Mr. Anderson was unable to explain this contradiction to Parliament when challenged to do so by Cummins.

"Management of stocks at risk of extinction can't be left to a wink and a nod between powerful friends," said Cummins.

In an effort to protect their bottom-line, the Minister's friends refused to provide the department with vital catch numbers essential to the management of the chinook fishery in 1995. Such actions undermined conservation efforts at a time when stocks were at risk.