After drawing withering criticism from conservationists across B.C., the federal government has backed away from a series of proposed cuts that activists say would’ve crippled salmon restoration programs in the province.
MP Terry Beech, parliamentary secretary to the minister of fisheries and oceans, announced Thursday that the government will reverse cuts to the salmonid enhancement program.
“I am happy to tell you that these programs are going to stay in place, and in fact, they will be buttressed by a new $75-million coastal restoration fund,” said Beech during a meeting of the Standing Committee on Fisheries and Oceans. This prompted questions as to why the cuts were made in the first place, drawing fire even from fellow Liberals.
“The process for this decision-making was remarkably tone-deaf,” said MP Ken Hardie, a Liberal member of the committee.
“While I understand, you know, there might have been some speculation around, you have to understand there’s a treasury board process – but then there’s also a consultation process,” replied Beech. “The same way you hear from your constituents, I hear from constituents and we’ve taken all this information.”
The reversals would’ve included the Stream to Sea program, which is a local education initiative that many B.C. students pass through. Local salmon conservationists were elated by the news.
“I couldn’t be happier to see these programs reinstated,” said Edith Tobe of the Squamish River Watershed Society.
When the cuts were announced weeks ago, the society feared that it would lose all of its Fisheries and Oceans staff, who have been instrumental in the organization’s salmon restoration programs.
Since 2001, the salmonid enhancement program helped the society receive $4.8 million in funding and generate $10 million in project value throughout the Squamish watershed and Howe Sound, Tobe said.
Given that the salmonid program made such a difference in Squamish, the combined effect of those cuts provincewide would’ve been huge, she said.
“It was basically like taking the leg out of the body,” Tobe added. “We were limping around in the absence of having federal fisheries at the table.” A local award-winning fish conservationist also shared in Tobe’s relief at the news. “That was absolutely fantastic news to get,” said Dave Brown. “It shows the government is listening.”
“It’s sometimes hard to bridge the gap between Ottawa and B.C., but this time the community and our MP did a good job at that,” he added.
Brown said the cuts, if implemented, would’ve been devastating to work done on the waters in side channels, where much restoration efforts have been directed. This work is especially crucial, he said, because river flooding patterns have been disrupting the gravel areas where salmon reproduce.
Making sure side channels – which aren’t so affected by the flooding – are a good environment for salmon to spawn has helped maintain annual salmon numbers, Brown said.
“Without this particular group – the resource restoration unit specifically – a lot of these projects would come to a grinding halt,” he said, referring to the assistance that would’ve been lost, had the cutbacks gone through.
He also lauded the move to preserve the Sea to Stream school program, which he says helps ensure a new generation of British Columbians will take care of the salmon.
Many new Canadians also rely on the program to learn about salmon, he added. In addition to drawing the ire of conservationists, the proposed cutbacks were also met by pushback from local MP Pamela Goldsmith-Jones, who at the time expressed shock and dismay regarding the cuts.
At the time, she vowed to resolve the issue. “(Fisheries Minister Dominic LeBlanc) knows this is about the worst thing you can do to our community,” she said in an interview after the reversals were announced. She said immediately after learning about the cuts, she started badgering the minister about the issue.
“It’s impossible to defend and it’s impossible to understand,” she said of the proposed clawbacks. However, she said such cuts will not be an issue in the future, pointing to the additional $75 million promised by her Liberal colleagues.
Included in the cuts was the elimination of the Fisheries and Oceans Resource Restoration Unit, alongside other salmon enhancement programs, such as the education and technical support contracts and the production of steelhead and cutthroat trout at salmon enhancement program hatcheries. \
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