FOPO Committee Report

BLOC QUÉBÉCOIS SUPPLEMENTARY REPORT

THE IMPORTANCE OF APPLYING QUEBEC’S CONSERVATION PRACTICES TO PACIFIC SALMON

INTRODUCTION

The Bloc Québécois wishes to thank all Fisheries and Oceans Committee members, in addition to the Library of Parliament employees, the clerks and the interpreters for their work in this study. The Bloc also thanks all witnesses, who truly care about Pacific salmon conservation, for their essential and insightful contributions and for giving the Committee concrete solutions to work from.

The purpose of this supplementary report is to highlight comments made by Myriam Bergeron, Director General of the Fédération Québécoise pour le saumon Atlantique (FQSA), which were not included in the Committee’s report. The Bloc Québécois has no intention to intervene in issues that do not involve Quebec. However, given that the FQSA’s insights may help with the state of the Pacific salmon, they must not be ignored.

Like British Columbia, Quebec has recently experienced a salmon crisis. When Ms. Bergeron appeared, she presented a number of innovative alternatives adopted by Quebec for better Atlantic salmon management and conservation.

RIVER-BY-RIVER MANAGEMENT: A MODEL TO EMULATE

Ms. Bergeron discussed the thoroughness of Quebec’s internationally recognized model for Atlantic salmon management.^[1]

This model, which is commonly referred to as “river by river,” is effective because of the fundamental contribution of community stakeholders who are closely involved in salmon management.

In its brief to the Committee, the FQSA provided the following recommendation:

The FQSA recommends that the Government of Canada use the Atlantic salmon “river by river” management model for the management and recovery of Pacific salmon populations. Implementing this model with regional organizations and First Nations leverages local knowledge and tailors salmon resource management to each river. This type of management policy presents the necessary asymmetry to promote actions suited to each river’s unique challenges and the biological reality of the wildlife species.^[2]

RECOMMENDATION OF THE BLOC QUÉBÉCOIS

The Bloc Québécois would like to personally submit this recommendation to the Committee.

Recommendation 1

That the government study the “river-by-river” management model to assess whether it can be applied to Pacific salmon populations in British Columbia in order to ensure better management and sustainable conservation.