April 20, 2004 Fisheries Minister Fails To Heed Warnings OTTAWA- "John Fraser has warned the Minister of Fisheries that the Department of Fisheries is no longer up to the job of managing the salmon fishery," said John Cummins, M.P. (Delta-South Richmond). Fraser, in the Pacific Fisheries Resource Conservation Council's annual report to the Minister, sounded the alarm that DFO's budget and management reductions have led to "severe cutbacks in monitoring wild salmon stocks and their habitat." Further reductions, he said, in the annual surveys of spawning escapements could "fundamentally undermine the capacity to monitor salmon stocks and identify those in need of conservation measures." The effective management of the salmon resource, he cautioned, is "confounded and undermined by the downsizing of staff and budgets" by both DFO and the Government of British Columbia at the same time. He concluded that fisheries management and budget reductions by DFO and BC are putting Pacific salmon at risk and the prospect of even larger reductions in 2004 makes it likely that "effective management of Pacific salmon stocks will be further diminished." The dire warning from Fraser should have come as no surprise to the Minister of Fisheries. According to internal DFO documents, when Geoff Regan was sworn in as Minister of Fisheries in December, officials immediately advised him that budget cuts "threatened the long-term sustainability of DFO's services," noting "chronic financial pressures" and "budget shortfalls." The Minister was advised that in order to cope with the cuts the Department would not be "filling 15 per cent of the positions that become vacant over the next two years." The Minister was also warned the likely consequences of the massive cuts that the Government of British Columbia had undertaken to its fisheries department, noting, "resources have been reduced by 45%" and advised the cuts "will likely create funding pressures for DFO." The December briefings were not limited to problems on the West Coast, however. Regan was warned of "over-fishing and the increasing trend of non-compliance… by foreign fishing vessels outside Canadian waters." The Minister was further advised of the "use of small mesh gear, misreporting of catches and the use of non-impartial observers." "The non-compliance," officials concluded, "can be attributed in part to the current declining level of detection" and is the direct result of the Liberal government's failure to provide for adequate fisheries patrols. "The Minister failed to heed the warnings of his officials in December. Now John Fraser has again sounded the alarm warning that DFO can no longer be relied to upon to conserve and protect fish stocks. The problems are not limited to the west coast," concluded Cummins. Contact: John Cummins, M.P. |
